I didn't post any blogs for all of December and January because we were literally shooting everyday (including many weekends) for most of those two months. The biggest job we were working on was Choice Hotels with Arnold Worldwide out of DC which in the end was 23 days long not including all the pre and post production . It was one of the best assignments I have ever had the pleasure to work on. The Agency and Client were a dream to work with as was my crew and while we worked our butts off we also had a ton of fun. So here are some shots of the production along with a few of the finished images.

Mike was overjoyed at being down in San Antonio, Texas at a Quality Inn

It was, as Crystal put it "all about the bedding" so here was a finished version

Then we shot some with models sleeping (you can see the ad on my website in the advertising section) and afterward they looked so comfortable I decided to join them...

at which point everyone else wanted in:
( from left to right: Me, Crystal from Choice, Julia and Bryce from Arnold and Mike my assistant)

The lobby shot set up in the Quality

Setting up for the breakfast shot in the Quality, here Mike and Raymond, my assistants as my stand ins while the models get ready:

"are you getting an idea of Mike's personality yet"?

The final breakfast shot using our professional, talented and very funny models Dee Dawson and Phil Laws who kept the whole crew cracking up the entire time we were shooting

Jenna and Mike working very hard...

Shooting in Winnie, TX at the Comfort Inn

Mike and the Senior Art Director Chris Sheldon (who should be a creative director in case anyone he works for is reading this and then while you're at it Julia should be promoted as well) having a moment while waiting for our models to arrive:

after which they decided to check in

and a couple of the finished versions:

So here we are in Texas, where it is supposed to be warm and we need to do a pool shot with one of our families and the entire week we were there it never got much above 45 degrees and even snowed one day. On the day we scheduled to shoot the pool it was 40 degrees and overcast. The talent however, was magnificent and was totally game to give it a go.

Here's what it looked like in real life: look at all the crew in winter coats and hats.

But it needed to look warm, so I used every light I own. These were on the front of the hotel only all the others were on the pool itself.

Here was what the finished version looked like, with no retouching:

These talented models were so great to work with: Nellie Gonzales, Christopher Garcia, Sophie Maneth (who even made the crew cookies one day) and Travis Barnett. They worked so well together you would have really thought they were an actual family. Christopher and Travis even jumped in at the end! And that Sophie was the cutest, most talented young girl you could ever imagine. I really believe she is going to be famous one day.

The whole crew, minus all our models and our hair and Make up stylist, in Winnie on the last day:

Then it was back up to Boston to my studio for the food shoot part:

Catrine Kelty my food stylist hard at work:

One of the finished shots

Then it was on to Tennessee and South Carolina, where once again it was freezing cold and grey. I needed to light my bedroom set up in Tennessee from outside because "it was all about the bedding", but the room we had to shoot was located on the second floor. So we had to rig a makeshift 2 story light stand to get it up to the height I needed...and it was raining. Mike earned his salary that day:

after that everyone was jumping like Mike:

So when the shoot was finally over (in south Carolina) and ended with the pool shot we all decided to jump like Mike, or rather Crystal made the suggestion and everyone else jumped on it... literally

Then it was back to Boston two weeks later for the final shots at the Clarion in Hull. Which was the perfect ending to a great shoot!

and Crystal I hope you don't mind but we stocked up on pens along the way. The hotels don't mind that do they?

This will be the last post I do on Cambodia. It will round out what my experience was like by showing you various street scenes we cam across. The first and foremost thing that struck me about Phnom Penh was the complete chaos and non stop action. There are no traffic lights or policeman or even stop signs. Everyone just goes, wherever and whenever they want to, including the elephant taking a stroll down the middle of the street. The Motos (scooters) carry everything and everyone and drive down streets on the opposite side against traffic. No one wears helmets, everyone is shouting and talking , the whine of engines and voices of street vendors is constant. The city simply never stops.... and we loved every minute of it!

Jeff on the first night, couldn't resist trying the food at this street vendor outside the Central Market.

On one walk we stopped for some fried bananas

Riding in the Tuk Tuk was always interesting

In this image I am not looking behind us, I am shooting in front of us as we cross the road

They carry everything on these motos. We constantly saw families of 5 with little kids all on the same bike as well as all these items below

Check out this load of limes

Jeff and my mom

Riding side saddle was really common for the girls, as well as eating lunch while doing it.

The old fashioned way of getting around

Birds for sale, we bought two and let them go. We still aren't sure if they are there for tourists to do that or for locals to buy and eat

These snails were all over the street on big wooden hand drawn wagons. We never tried them. Though Jeff later said he wished he had.

Breakfast on our last day at a place on the corner near the Kandal Market

As I mentioned, my mother went over to Cambodia to teach English to children and did so through an organization called the Cambodian Living Arts. I got to spend some time in her classrooms with these kids and it was quite an experience. These children are so warm and genuine not to mention eager to learn! They are also extremely happy children which given some of their living conditions the average American might find very surprising. They have such a different attitude about life over there than we do and while they aspire to more, just as we do, they are so much more accepting and gracious about what they have. It was a very moving experience and one that truly makes you appreciate what you have in life.

My mom is now putting two of her students through the University over there and helping one of them, Kuwick, with his family's living situation which may become very dicey, very soon.

As for me I plan to donate my images of Cambodia for a fundraiser that she is giving in Florida. In addition, should anyone be interested in purchasing any of my imagery from Cambodia I will be donating all of the proceeds to Cambodian Living Arts as well.

Here are some images of the children at school, dancing the traditional Khmer dance and some of the living conditions over there.

This girl was so excited about getting the answers right!
and she usually did..

Here they are practicing the traditional Khmer dance in an apartment where Kuwick lives.

This is the apartment complex where Kuwick lives with his family.
There are developers who have bought it and it may be torn down in the near future.

There were a number of small wooden buildings directly behind it which were demolished not long ago by the same developer. The occupants were sent out of the city to another building with no running water, sewage or windows and no way to get back into the city for work.

There are people not even as lucky as that, however, that live at "the dump" A huge garbage dump where many actually live and try to survive off what is thrown out. The living conditions are exactly what you would expect but dangerous as well. A little girl was killed scavenging behind a garbage truck while we were there when the bin it was carrying fell off and landed on her.

We bought lots of fruit and took it out there for them and you can see the chaos of trying to get some fruit for themselves and their families. It wasnt mean or greedy chaos, just pure survival.

We were actually only on the edge of this dump and it was hard to believe anyone could be here scavenging all day let alone setting up make shift housing in the middle of all the toxic smoke and garbage.

For more on these conditions check out this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=kristof%20Cambodia&st=cse

We tried handing the food out at first but as the group of kids grew it became impossible and the box was dropped and a frenzy commenced.

This girl was in such a rush that she jumped off her bike and her friend who was on the back was dumped right on the ground

I will have one more blog about Cambodia to post and then will be getting back to blogging about all the assignment work we have been doing. In the meantime, if you have found any of these images to be something you might want to own, or want to see more. Please contact me. The fees are reasonable and the cause a very important one.

I loved Siem Reap and the Temples of Cambodia. Brought me back to when I was in Egypt at the pyramids and Mexico at Chichen Itza. The history and richness of the architecture as well as the detail and effort that went into building these magnificent structures has always fascinated and amazed me. I love trying to picture what they must have been like when they were first built.

These particular Temples took about 37 years to build and were built by first putting all the blocks of stone in place and then carving out the details. When you look at some of the walls of these places and the stories the carvings tell... well, it's just..like, you know... ahhh just see for yourself:

Whlie Angkor Wat is the biggest and most well known of all the temples in Cambodia it was not my favorite. don't get me wrong I still loved it but I really liked the intamacy of some of the other smaller more intricate temples.

These are of one of the gates leading into Ankgor Thom

This is within Angkor Thom and is the Temple Bayon, one of my favorites

This is Ta Prohm, which was really cool. The trees here have grown up from the jungle and taken root all over the temple. Absolutely amazing that they could find dirt and water and survive. In many places they have completely uprooted the temple itself. Very mystical place. Many of you may know it from the film "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" which was filmed here

Doesnt this look like the tree is holding the stone with its "left arm and wrapping "the fingers of it's right hand" around the wall?

With the exception of two days in Siem Reap seeing the temples I spent the entire trip in Phnom Penh. Other than the markets and the restaurants there were two major sites I wanted to see. The first was the Royal Palace, the second was the Prison S21 where the Khmer Rouge did most of their dirty work in the city. Two very different places...

all the detail here is amazing!

The model in front here is a miniature of The Temple Angkor Wat

The contrast of S21 Prison to the Palace is something else. While in Cambodia I read a book called "First They Killed My Father" which was an incredibly gripping tale of one child survivor's ordeal through the Khmer's reign of terror. This visit to the prison only made it that much more vivid and moving for me.

They took over a school in the center of the city and turned it into their main prison where they tortured and killed over 20,000 people. The rest were sent out to the killing fields.

a torture room

The holding cells they built. Only room to stand up and sit down

They photographed every prisoner and the images are on display

Many of the prisoners were tagged by sticking the pins through their necks

A view from outside today