This is a great time of year because practically everyone’s anticipating a fun break from work or just returned from one.  For me, Spring Break marked the arrival of two long awaited events: getting my youngest daughter on the ski slopes and launching the new version of my website.

I love snow skiing and try to hit the slopes as often as I can.  Of course it’s more fun if I can get the kids to join me.  I’ve struck out several times with my youngest because she’s apparently got a healthier sense of danger than the rest of us.  Last week Zoey finally threw caution to the wind and slid down a big icy mountain at high speed.  She totally loved it!  Although it’s clear from her face in this picture, she kept a little caution in reserve.

As for myself, I’m trying out a whole new website.  So the jury is out, I’d love to have you weigh in on the verdict.  – Michael

The 23rd of January marked the beginning of the longest and most important holiday in the Chinese calendar, the New Year. In the spirit of this tradition, our family gathers and reunites with other families in our area who also adopted children from an orphanage in Shanghai. This year is exceptionally special because my daughter, Zoey and several of her “cousins” of the same age celebrate the sign of their birth year, the Dragon (see image below). The Year of the Dragon only occurs every 12th year and is thought to be the luckiest year in the Chinese Zodiac. Since the last Year of the Dragon brought Zoey into my life, I can hardly imagine the wonderfully lucky things 2012 will bring.

It seems that the Dragon wasted no time, striking with several multi-image campaigns for Botox that required large castings and custom built sets. I also shot Kathy Ireland for the cover of Forbes Magazine. The former super model is now quite the business mogul. Every photographer wants to shoot a super model, but I live to shoot the super model with a fabulous story to tell (see below).

Lastly, I’d like to brag about my oldest son, Dakota. He’s been putting his video game prowess to good use, adding some cash to his college fund. A few months ago, I threw him a challenge: convert my best-selling book, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait to an eBook. Look on your iPad, Kindle or Nook and you’ll see that he did it!

If the eBook interests you, consider attending my Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait workshop in Hawaii next month. It’ll be a chance to put all of the business aside and reconnect with the art of photography.  -  Michael

Zoey, in red, celebrates the New Year

Kathy’s cover

I did it!  My Vespa experience in Paris was so great that I had to have one of my own.  Now I’m tooling around LA on my new vintage-style Vespa and my cool Ruby Helmet.  My kids used to request their goodbye hug a few blocks from school, now they’re holding on as tight as they can all the way to the front door for everyone to see.  I love that and, BONUS, it only costs me $3.89 a week for gas!

My friends from Hasselblad poked some friendly fun at my Vespa over dinner the other night so my crew and I decided show them how undeniably cool it really is. I’m sure you’ll agree…

Speaking of stylish ways to get around…  I shot some great stuff for Porsche recently.  These great shots were totally worth the hour we spent wading in the freezing cold water waiting for just the right shot.  This shot of the Cayenne S splashing through the stream in Sedona, AZ will be out in Porsche’s speed centric newsletter shortly.

I’m also proud to report that I was one of 11 photographers in a show on Capitol Hill called Recording Our History: Faces Behind the Camera. The show featured my shot of Johnny Cash, always a favorite of mine.  I’ve always been a fan and I’m still tickled thinking of how he introduced himself by extending his warm hand and saying “Hi Michael.  I’m Johnny Cash.” (just as he did on his weekly TV show)

On a parting note, I hope that you’ll wander over to my new “raves” page. I’d love to have a rave from you as well.

Take Care,

Michael

I had a little fun recently while working with commentator Andrew Breitbart on a concept for his new book, Righteous Indignation.  In the following images, we humorously illustrated his concept, the decline of the liberal media and speak to his ideology.  – Michael

This environmental portrait of a mechanics was shot relatively simply. I used one extra small chimera soft-box with a 30 º grid as a main a strobe, while blending and mixing the natural light in the environment.  - Michael

An editor friend of mine, Rob Hill (he also happens to be one of the writers of my Naked Ambition book) has a new job at one of the rare “growth” opportunities in the print world. He is editor-in-chief of the new magazine THC Expose. Rob was the editor of FHM Magazine and of Hollywood Life (formerly Movieline Magazine). In his new role, he has created a magazine that is stunning and smart, not only for it’s genre, but for any genre. So much so that the New York Times, Details Magazine and Playboy are all writing about the magazine.

As a continuation of our collaboration, he asked me to shoot Wilhelmina rising star and model April H. for an upcoming fashion spread. The theme of which was natural fabrics by socially conscious designers. That gave me and my favorite stylist Miriam Sternoff lots of freedom to create a sexy and dramatic 10 to 12 page fashion spread for the magazine.

Rob came up with the concept of writing racy text on April’s body. A good way to get his headlines in I guess! It worked well. To me it was like the old Bikini magazine, where the subtitle on the cover was very clearly what the magazine was about, “Action, Film, Cars and Rock N. Roll!”  For the lettering, we enlisted the help of body painter Marky Andrews and for hair and makeup I used the amazing Helen Jeffers.

As part of the “swip” (the tear sheets pulled) to get the emotion and feeling right for the shoot, I brought along a book of work by the iconoclastic Bob Richardson. Many of you already know this but Bob was a very successful fashion photographer in the 60s who strove to bring the street photography esthetic to fashion imagery. He fought bouts of schizophrenia, eventually living on the streets in Los Angeles, losing not only his stature in the industry, but literally all his images. It was when his son Terry Richardson, (yes that Terry Richardson), honored his Dad’s accomplishments by helping him reproduce his tear sheets from the height of his career, that the world remembered what an important influence he was to the fashion world. We all remember Guy Bourdin, but to me Bob Richardson was just as powerful.

As we all sat and enjoyed the images in the Richardson book, we realized that we wanted to pay homage to the cover . You should buy his book and celebrate the work yourself. I hope you like my shoot below.  -Michael

When I walked into David Crosby’s house in the country he was extremely down to earth and shouting at a Lakers game on TV. Crosby,  was explaining how he had grown up in LA and never been to Lakers game, so I had the great pleasure in taking him to first a few weeks after the shoot.