August 2008: Baltimore Magazine

August was the Best of Baltimore edition of Baltimore Magazine. Whenever it comes to "Best of's", it can be pretty hit or miss, but I thought 2008 was a particularly good one!

First up is Tammie Monaco, owner of Beck 'n Call Services:



Beck 'n Call Services provides servers, bartenders, and other services for parties or events. Tammie is the former director of catering at The Brass Elephant, here in Bmore. We shot it in my kitchen, which was great - while we were setting up, she took it upon herself to unclog the food disposal in my sink! Haha, I didn't even know she was doing it, I looked up and she was like "oh, this was stuck in your food disposal, it should work ok now", holding up a mangled fork. Thanks again, Tammie!!

Next is Susannah Siger, owner of Ma Petite Shoe:



This was the full page opener for the "Indulge" section of the Best of's. Ma Petite Shoe won the Best of Award for "Estrogen Heaven". The store, located on 36th street in Hampden, sells designer shoes and high quality, hard to find European chocolates. They were later featured in American Airlines Magazine and used a different shot from our shoot for B-mag.

The winner for Best Restaurant for First Dates:



was Tapas Teatro. Which was a tricky shoot. To say the least. I had contacted the manager to set a schedule and discuss what we needed, and thought we were pretty clear on the details, specifically that I would need two young staffers who could be available to pose as "first-daters". Don't get me wrong, I could have found two people I could have brought to pose, but I thought it would be fun to have a couple people who worked there be part of it. Long story short, when I showed up for the shoot, the place was pretty swamped and the manager had either forgotten about our discussion or was too busy to care (I assume both). Fortunately, two friends of mine happened to show up just as I was about to leave and plan a re-shoot and were nice enough to let me photograph them throughout their entire dinner. The restaurant was too crowded to set up any lights, even though I had brought my small light kit, so I had to shoot at a relatively higher ISO than I'm comfortable with, but I wasn't too disappointed with the results. If things worked out the way we had planned, I think we could have had a better shot, but with this kind of work they rarely do and you've got to be able to improvise.

And outside of the Best of features:



An Upfront Metro piece that showcases Mike Rudden, who is a partner in the California based company "MotoArt" that makes furniture and art with components from old fighter jets and commercial planes. Him and his wife Lilly also own a salon in Ellicott City called "Lilly MaRitza Salon and Gallery", which is furnished and designed using pieces from MotoArt. One of my favorite pieces in the salon is in the shot to the right - it's a fish tank made from an MK-84 aqua bomb. MotoArt caters to some pretty heavyweight clients including Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Red Bull, and Boeing Company, and even made the desk that the judges sit at on the show "American Idol".

For the Arts Dept. piece:



featuring the performance group Fluid Movement, a community based volunteer dance and performance group. They put on different shows and events throughout the year, and in August they put on "Mother Goosed: The Nurseryland Campaign Tales". The show was actually a water ballet being put on at Patterson and Riverside parks, and as you can see featured the performers decked out in all kinds of crazy outfits. The shoot was pretty easy - they were just finishing up with a rehearsal, and being performers they were natural at posing for the camera. It was pretty broad daylight, but a couple of small lights with umbrella's helped make them pop just a bit from the background, which is the pool at Riverside Park.