This years event at Colgin was of course catered by Thomas Keller of French Laundry as usual and again an amazing menu! It’s always fun to watch him and the crew in the kitchen.  The entertainment started with the bartenders!  Don’t believe me, well take a look at them!  From Cirque USA, they really had people entertained including Ryan Seacrest.

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I love photographing men.  They are much more simple than us women with our complicated hair, make-up and insecurities.  When doing head shots with men you can make them look stronger by using more contrasting shadows, harsher and busier environments, strong forward on stances even work well.  Have lots of options done.  Also think about interests you may have.  Recently I had one guy who is in the military so we played that up (not the one in the photos-he just has the look!).   The gent with 8 pack abs was going directly for certain shows currently running so that’s why the Roman costume.  It doesn’t hurt to try something in particular so that casting agents really see what they will get!   Here are some shots I’ve done just recently.  Lots of laughs to be sure and I didn’t include some of the outtakes but maybe one day in the future I will.

So I had an absolutely great time shooting with Tara Novick last month.  He’s just finished a new CD and was looking for some images to use with it.  We started the first day at 5.30am.  Yea, I know, two creatives up at dawn is just easier to stay up all night.  But we did it.  No one was out and it was a beautiful park in Studio City.  The sun was barely coming up and the mist was fabulous.  It was just a great morning and we got just amazing shots.  It was a definite collaboration and brainstorming ideas as they happened.  The next session was at Jones.   Such a fitting place for the music and the vision I got from listening to the music.  Jones is so cool and old school and who knew we could call in a favor and get it!  It was fabulous working with Tara and I can’t wait till the record hits.  You can see him though playing with John Corbett Band too.

Went with a friend last night and it was just a good time.  I was expecting Chris Cornell and got Ozzy but I have to say oddly he is quite the adorable rocker.  The fire hose of soap suds made me laugh the hardest I have in probably 5 years!  But a great time to be sure.  Great crowd and only wish I’d taken more pics of the spectators. Some of the best experiences in life are those most unexpected.

So it’s been a 2 year hiatus for John Corbett from here but they came back and sounded amazing.  I could only hit Red Devil but they wen’t to Folsom and Petaluma too.  Tara Novick is going to release his own CD soon too so be sure to check it!!

Love, love, love live music.  So when Robin of Loop!Station invited me to see her new band I couldn’t resist. I mean the Boom Boom Room is only mere minutes from my house and I knew the show would be great.  This woman is an entertainer through and through and hot too!  Catch them if you can so so worth it!!

I had the total honor last week of photographing the San Jose Ballet that was featuring a performance with Loop!Station a really great local band.  I first met them and photographed them probably a couple of years ago now (you can find their music on my website actually!) and they were amazing.  It was a whirlwind of different  performances that apparently the dancers actually designed themselves.  It was so hard to narrow down the hundreds of photos but I am including some of my most fave!!

Am I age obsessed? It’s highly likely. I don’t really think so but if you asked me and I really thought about it I guess I would have to admit that I am a little age obsessed. Now, what do I mean by age obsessed? I mean holding on to my youth through beauty regimens, time at the gym and holding on to notions and memories from the past. I am definitely guilty of all these things. If it comes in a tube, bottle or jar and an esthetician can do it, I’ve done it. I spend time running on the treadmill because my doctor says I have high blood pressure but honestly it’s because I want to stay a size six. However, with age comes wisdom and damn am I thankful for that.

This photo was taken of the lead singer for Erasure. They played recently in San Francisco and they sold out five nights at the Independent. Erasure? Really? Yes, Erasure. The Independent holds only about 300 people but they sold out and sold out quickly. I listened to Erasure when I was young. I’m proud to be a product of the 80′s, we had the best genre of music. It was the cusp of Punk and the beginning of New Wave and Alternative and songs spoke to your emotions which were likely to be about anger, not surfing, ala the Beach Boys. I couldn’t afford to see my favorite groups back then. First of all, I would have had to go to Detroit because no one played in the town where I’m from originally. Second of all, I was working three part time jobs to put myself through school, and back then minimum wage was $3.50. I make a little more now and I am clearly making up for lost time. In one week I saw Peter Murphy, Erasure and Lenny Kravitz. What is on my iPod? Well, everything from Al Green, Johnny Cash and Tom Jones to Audioslave, Coldplay and Flipsyde.

When I saw Erasure that night, of course I reminisced about the old days. I was astonished to see the men of my youth as middle-aged men singing the songs of 20 years ago. Seeing the wrinkles and the balding head makes you remember just how old you are. A real shocker though was when I saw the Sex Pistols. Talk about middle aged paunch but there they were, the Sex Pistols. I even got back stage on that one. Not what you think it is cracked up to be I assure you. The greatest thing about that show however was the two high school kids I met while standing in line waiting to get in. They had taken the train in from the suburbs and were dressed to the punk hilt. It was fabulous. Behind me were even more and mixed among them were people older than me who were balding or in need of covering up the gray roots. It made me feel young. I really, really like that. I didn’t get much of a childhood at all so this may be my way of living out my youth. I don’t care however because I’m having a lot of fun and I know this keeps me young at heart and I would rather laugh until it hurts than cry until I die.

Most people will guess that my age is somewhere between 25 and 28.  I love, love, love that. What I am most happy about though is that I’m not actually living in the past. It may not seem that way, but the last thing I want to do is to live in the past. It was not pleasant and the good memories are really few and far between. What I do is enjoy the past with a wider heart and a wiser mind. I’m not stuck in the past. I lectured at a high school photography school once and a week later saw three of the kids at a concert that included a lot of the current bands like The Killers. I was buying beer and they were making a poster. They thought I was totally cool and the best part of it was, I felt cool and I wasn’t even trying. If I were trying, I’d be living in the past.

It’s funny but in high school I so wanted to be accepted and a part of the cool crowd. I never fit in with anyone really. My friends were from the “outside” and many of them are still my friends to this day. Also, the friends that I have today are the greatest and most eclectic group of people. I adore them all and don’t need to prove a damn thing to any of them. My twenty-year high school reunion is coming up in two months and I know that I will be the cool crowd and after, I will walk away and not look back. Yes, I am youth obsessed and wouldn’t change it for a million dollars.