The crew and I had a great time capturing the Amendola family on this shoot. As you’ll see there was a lot of energy in this young family! We photographed them in some beautiful locations in the Alachua County area and the weather was absolutely perfect! Its good to get in a fun shoot like this before that North Central Florida Heat waves begin.
Don’t let the heat discourage you from getting a shoot in though. Early evening mini-sessions turn out great.
This shoot was particularly exciting because I’ve had this idea for a couple of years: an all women run private airport.
This concept was a “departure” from the ordinary shoots I’ve seen where subjects are shot as passenger roles. We included this concept as well, but as the secondary part. Each model posed in both roles – passenger and airport staff. The passengers portrayed were varied as would be on a plane, from the busy female executive, pregnant mother, and so on.
All Woman run Airport Series
For the styling, I wanted a uniform look without the uniform. I knew that I wanted the look of a blazer, but I needed particular styles of blazers and more unifying factors. To help complete the look, I brainstormed with the help of my two stylist friends, Lea Guediri and Jen Bass. They came up with the idea of tying the blazers in with the scarf, a single braid and a bold lip.
Shooting University Air Center wouldn’t have been successful without the work of many other talented individuals. Shooting this concept of an all women run private airport wouldn’t have been successful without the work of many other talented individuals. Chiquita Campbell of Triple C Beauty executed the makeup for the shoot. NYC-based Simon Snogles helped photograph with me, and Tom Snogles brought the idea together with the relationship with the airport. Joe Mota also assisted and shot behind the scenes.
We are so pleased with the results of this shoot and hope everyone enjoys the photos as much as we do.
This is a true #fbf or Flashback Friday. I was shooting with a 35mm back then. This photo is circa 1998. While visiting some friends in New York, we took many great strides in having an impromptu photo session. We arrived at a street party in a park in the Bronx. The young woman who immediately caught my eye was spinning music. I wasn’t accustomed to seeing a female DJ. And seeing one spin out in the open in a park. But we were in the Bronx; the birthplace of hip hop. It was a fun time. Sometimes it pays to just carry your camera around and like a tourist. I like being able to hop out of a car with my camera in hand and capturing one of those fleeting moments in time. I wish i could recall what she was mixing. I just know that I was excited to grab a shot. I’d taken no other like it up to that point in my young exploration of photography up to that point.
I had the great privilege of photographing this lovely couple for their engagement photos. This took place on a private estate at the tail end of the holiday season. During an engagement photo session, my goal is to communicate the romance between the lovers. I immediately aim to break the ice and will often give the couple some time to walk the premises and talk amongst each other and to share some quiet and tender moments.
I always look forward to the engagement photo sessions like these.
This was a cover shoot I did for Gainesville Today Magazine. Cover shoots are really stylized portraits when you really consider it. The issue came about as it was the beginning of gala season in Gainesville. So, there was a lot of fantastic black tie and charity-driven events. This issue was to serve as a guide to the Gala Season! I was the photo editor and chief photographer for the magazine at the time of this shoot and I often got a chance to go to these events and take a lot of portraits of people. The creative director and I came up with the concept to have a male model represent this issue for this season. We always aimed to make the magazine the fashion magazine in Gainesville. Every cover was fashion-driven. A lot of thought and planning went into these stylized portrait shoots(Cover Shoots). From the theme of the magazine that month, to the model, to the clothing, the makeup,the setting and design. We used to have great creative collisions within the creative team, and sometimes we’d add unique elements. We were able to have our model suited by The Mens Wearhouse. of Course that promotion was good for them as well as they would have many guys in town renting tuxes from them for all of these gala events.
There was cool added element to this shoot, as I brought in my friends at Gainesville Lighting. They were able to add another dimension to our lighting set up for it. I knew I wanted to have a night time or a party/festive feel to this particular shoot. They were able to add a little blue and red that i used as gels for this portrait.
The one way to get people to pick up the magazine is to have dynamic images. Dynamic images intrigue people. If people are intrigued then there’s a good chance they’ll stop to take a look and even pick the magazine up and take it with them.
From Cover shoots, to stylized portraits, I can help to conceptualize a dynamic shoot that’ll produce dynamic images.
This project started as a dream, as many of my projects do.
In this particular dream, I was having cocktails and shooting the breeze with Santa and Mrs. Claus. We were all at a resort, poolside, while they gave me the rundown on what their holiday is really like. They said they love what they do, but they really like vacationing, too.
As silly as it sounds, I decided to make my dream a photo shoot reality. I know people named Tony and Penny who play Mr. and Mrs. Claus in real life. They were so gracious and willing to help me transform my dream into photos.
“In order to share our message with locals, we knew we would have to get creative, and Philip listened to our needs while bringing his own expertise to our project. It was a pleasure working with Philip to create an engaging and effective commercial for my business that captured the atmosphere of the studio beyond what could be contained in a picture or on a page. Because Barre Forte brings new fitness formats to Gainesville and features a different environment than many Barre studios, we asked Philip to highlight all of the unique aspects of what we offer in a short, 30-second commercial.
I explained to Philip that our studio was welcoming and inviting to all fitness levels and that it is a place where people can come to have FUN while getting a great workout. The workouts combine moments of intensity and focus as well as graceful beauty and even play. Philip was able to represent each of these in the commercials he made for Barre Forte, which allows us, in turn, to perfectly share our message with potential clients!”
