Japanese Kitchen

This week's Alibi assignment took me to the venerable Japanese Kitchen, an Albuquerque landmark for well over 20 years. Images include chef Masa, owner Keiko, Tempura, the Baja Roll and the Roasted Green Chile Roll.

Popular Plates

I am in the midst of a series of shoots for the magazine Popular Plates. They are putting out an issue about spicy foods and brought in the Fiery Food Show founder Dave DeWitt to generate the content. I've been working with Emily DeWitt-Cisneros to provide images for over 60 recipes. We've been shooting in close quarters as she cooks and plates, so I've used strobes and natural light in various combinations. I have hundreds of images but the ones below caught my eye for some reason. Hopefully you'll see a copy around before summer turns to fall!

Benedictine Abbey of Christ in the Desert

This was a great assignment from Sony Entertainment. Our goal was to capture the monks in their breath-taking environment and generate images for an upcoming album cover and associated collateral. Sony had the creative team flown in from NYC to meet me and a video crew was on-hand for sound/motion coverage.

The weather was classic New Mexico: alternating snow, wind and blaring sunshine. I used every piece of gear I brought, including sandbags, every lens in my bag, ND filters, speedlights, and modifiers of every size & shape. At the end of the day though, it was about letting the images make themselves as I followed the monks through their day of prayer, meals, contemplation, meetings, and relaxation. While I wasn't there to photograph the landscape, I couldn't help but indulge myself at dawn and throughout the evening. Thanks to Sony for the opportunity, and to the monks themselves for putting up with me all day long.