Welcomed home.

Vacation is over.  Or is it?  It’s hard to do real work when play work (ie: flipping through shelter magazines) is sitting on my desk staring at me begging to be read.  Buried between bills (real work), invitations (purely play), checks (work rewarded!), and catalogs (bit o’ work, bit o’ play- but mostly unrequested wasted paper) were magazines!  It was great to be welcomed home by one of my shots from Diffa‘s Dining By Design on the cover of BizBash.  Click on the cover image below & it will take you to issuu where you can flip through the entire magazine.  (The actual story starts on page 101)  When I arrive home from a long vacation a few years from now, it will be no surprise if all my magazine subscriptions will be read via issuu and the pile of mail will be – non existent.

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Life is like a box…

…of crayola’s! The island of Burano ( 45 minutes off of Venice) is the most colorful place I’ve ever been. I wonder if all the bright colors make people happier. It’s got to do something interesting to the psyche to live in a place where every structure isn’t a neutral earth tone.

iPhone snap in Burano.

We are crumbs

Rome is humbling. We are all merely crumbs. I remember having a similar experience 9 years ago at the Grand Canyon- it’s a wonderful feeling.

iPhone snap at the (perfect) Pantheon.

Buon giorno Roma!

When in Rome… sleep until 9am & then start your day! Tomorrow we will rise early. Maybe.

iPhone snap from the stairwell of our hotel

Gaudi

Today was devoted to Gaudi… And apparently we were not the only tourists who had the idea to devote their Wednesday to him! The sites were crowded & Jeremy patiently waited along with me to get both camera shots & iPhone snapshots without other tourists taking photos in them. Here are the iPhone snapshots.

Barceloneta

iPhone pics around Barceloneta- a neat little area.

Barcelona birdseye view!

The birdseye view from our hotel in Barcelona.

Away we go.

On my last drive to pick up my sister at JFK, I shot a few photos along the stop & go of the traffic lights on Atlantic Ave.   Tonight, I will drive once again along the same route, but this time I will not return until mid June.  Gilblog! may take a different turn over the next 5 weeks as we will be exploring the excitement of Barcelona, the charm of Italy, the food of France, and the canals of Amsterdam.  What was at one point a two week honeymoon turned into a five week adventure & tonight we depart from JFK.

dhny

I met one of my very first clients, Darci Hether, through craigslist a few years ago and we have been working together ever since.  A few months ago, we even came across a blogger who compared us to pb&j.  Mmmm- I’ll take that (the compliment or the sandwich) anyday.

In Darci’s modern spaces there is life and there is warmth.  She makes modern live-able.  On our last shoot we were having such an in-depth conversation about blogging that we forgot to turn the water on for the pot shot and had to shoot it again!  Ops!  …It was worth it- Darci decided to start a blog the day after our shoot!  Check it out: http://darcihether.tumblr.com/

Red.

Though this space is not located in Montclair- the designer, Rachael Grochowski of RHG A+D, is based out of Montclair.  These communal spaces at a large residential complex in NJ were both fun & challenging to shoot.  Red is a powerful color.  So often public communal spaces are muted shades of tan, grey, or green.  Rachael’s red is bold!  I’ve shot five of Rachael’s projects & there’s often a touch of red somewhere and it works beautifully.  Even her logo is red!

Montclair? Maybe.

I’ve spent a lot of time shooting in New Jersey these past few weeks.  A handful of shoots have been in Montclair, a town that kind of feels like an extension of New York City (they even have a Red Mango!).  Everyone I’ve met that lives there, both my clients & my clients clients, formerly lived in NYC & never thought they would end up in Jersey.  Four years ago I vowed I would never leave Manhattan, and 6 months later we moved to Brooklyn.  Earlier this year, I recall vowing that as long as I’m on the east coast, I will live in Brooklyn.  I’ve recently stopped vowing because you never know what the future holds.  Maybe, just maybe, Montclair could be in our cards…but you didn’t hear that from me.

Architecture & Interior Design by Stacy Millman of SKM Design.  SKM Website coming soon!

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

I have been quite busy shooting lately.  In times when I’m swamped I find I have lots to blog about, but feel as though I have no time to post!  After a full day of processing images from last weeks 5 day shoot of the Mansion In May, all I can think about is my bed …and yet I’m making every excuse not to go to bed.  In honor of my bedtime procrastination ritual, I thought I’d post images with beds in them from a recent shoot with an upcoming furniture designer, Isabella Wolfe.  I’m pretty pooped.  (Is that a good excuse to go to bed?)

A Straight Shooter.

Finding the best angle to capture a room can sometimes be the biggest challenge when shooting Interiors.  Moving the camera the slightest degree can make such a big difference. While shooting for Ali Schwarz Design this past Autumn, we found that shooting these three spectacular rooms straight on was the best option.  We tried different angles (because something in my head said that shooting straight on is boring)- but when the design and the view is as amazing as it was in these three spaces, being a straight shooter ain’t such a bad thing!

Interior Design by Ali Schwarz.  Prop Styling by Rebecca Omweg.  (Look out for more photos of spaces designed by Ali Schwarz, we’ve got a big shoot coming up next week!)

The Bag(less) Lady.

A few years ago when I left the film industry, I remember thinking “finally I won’t feel like a bag lady carrying a ton of stuff with me everywhere I go.”  Clearly, at that point, I didn’t know that I would end up being an Interior Photographer.  For most of my shoots I show up bright and early in the morning with an assistant, a handtruck, & about 7 bags of assorted gear.  Last year I started shooting for BizBash, an event industry trade publication.  I am sent out to document the decor, the space, & the unique design elements of the event.  What I love about shooting these jobs is that I have about 45 minutes to capture the essence of the transformed event space- and it’s just me, my camera, and one little flash.  I don’t even bring a purse with me!

Orchid Dinner, Madarin Oriental – NYC

Men at the Mall.

This summer I found myself begrudgingly at The Short Hills Mall in New Jersey.  While longing to leave (as I am not a fan of shopping, nonetheless at the mall!), I spotted these men.  Why were they at the mall?  Something tells me they have female counterparts shopping while they sit as if they are in the waiting room of a doctor’s office waiting for someone to come tell them the diagnosis.  My men at the mall diagnosis:

Husband: Bored & Poor. Wife: Who cares!  She’s got a whole new wardrobe!

Brooklyn Home Company

Though I am sometimes haunted by the pressures of social networking, it has actually gotten me a few jobs. An old friend (who I haven’t seen in almost 10 years!) and I are twitter buddies. Tweet heads? Twitteries? Twitsters? Is there a name for a person you are connected to via Twitter? Thanks to @nicnewcomb, I have been shooting for Brooklyn Home Company. They flip brownstones. They are designers. They are artists. They are fun. They are extremely talented. …and most of the shoots are within 5 minutes of my house. Sounds like the perfect client to me. Maybe I can get them to redo my apartment and then I won’t have to leave home for the next shoot!

(click here for a link to the slideshow!)

The Year In Pictures!

The year may be coming to an end, but it marks the beginning of many new things around here.  A new desk!  A new camera!  A new portfolio!  A new blog!  Same ol’ photographer!  I introduce to you… (the new and improved) gilblog! What better way to end 2009 than with a recap of the year in pictures… with a hint of holiday spirit.

(click here to see full size slideshow!)

Nature’s palette.

A lot of art is man made.  A lot of art is not.

Manhattan on a sunny Sunday

Areas of Manhattan most New Yorkers try to avoid: Times Square, 34th Street, Canal Street, and South Street Seaport.  I ventured all the way into Manhattan this weekend to check out the New Amsterdam Market at the old Fulton Fish Market location.  In order to get there, I had to walk by The South Street Seaport.  I haven’t been there in years.  Though very commericalized and filled with tourists, it’s actually quite pretty.  My friend, Sarah, had read about Bowne & Co. Stationers – so being that we were in the area, we stopped by.  If you ever find yourself down near the seaport and need to find a hideaway from the mob of  “I ‘heart’ NYC”  T-shirts, enter this little oasis… you’ll feel good.  I didn’t get the name of the man pictured below, but it seems as though he is there all the time and he could’ve been there back when the business started in the mid 1700’s.  He is reason alone to visit.  He’ll make you smile.

Rain.

I like the rain.