White-ish shoot

Today in the new studio. I have a meeting tomorrow for a commercial job and today
the art buyer wrote in an email to Michael, our studio manager, "have Jim
bring a still life portfolio and if he has "white" pics that would be great. I do have
"white" images in my books but I thought I would pull together a few more today.
So at 3pm I called Michael and asked him to get some props together.
He did a great job and in such a short time. We collected the props and ran
up to 37th street and in the space of maybe 1 1/2 hours or so did a bunch of pics.
Here are my favorites. Now I just have to process them hires
and then print out tomorrow for my 5:30pm meeting.

And ironically I am in this great new daylight studio and today I ended up setting
up the strobe to shoot these pics. The light was gone by the time I was ready
to begin...

Sunday at the flea

Today was a busy one at the flea markets. You could sense that the dealers were feeling
relief over the nice weather. Nothing like a sunny sunday early spring day to bring out the
crowds looking for that elusive thing-a-ma-jig. I found a few myself today. Then to the studio
to do a few quick pics.

A great stool. Absolutely perfect for the new studio since I needed one for picture-taking. It is very solid and the seat is sorta big and also could double as a little extra surface if needed. A few asiatic bowls. One I was told was from Japan...then a Japanese friend later looked at it and said "it is chinese". The funny thing is the man who told me it was from Japan was Chinese. A Dansk coffee cup and saucer. Nice mother-of-pearl knives. Linen-covered book. Weird little denim-ish blue vase. Teeny-tiny blue ceramic bowl with handle. Brass box. The list goes on and on. Shot a little sherbet
with a few blueberries just to for fun.

Saturday Flea Market stroll...

Quick run to the 25th Street Flea Market. Found two things. One is a woodblock color print by a Japanese artist named Benji Asada--dating I believe from the 1940s since I read he turned to painting after WWII. I can't believe I found something so subtle and beautiful. When I was looking at it I thought "why didn't anyone else buy this print?"

And another 20th century find...this time from 1969. Linen silk-screened fabric by someone named B.H. Rittenhoff. I did a search for info and found none. I might just have to shoot my new turquoise glasses on this piece of linen.

More flea market / antique store finds

Here are some of the new finds from the last 6 days. A mix of things from the 25th street flea market and then a few little gems I found today while out in New Jersey visiting my mother.

I bought a few things last sunday from a man named Bob at the 25th street flea market and after talking a bit found out he had a store in Bogota, NJ. Well, I grew up right next to Bogota and was curious to see his place. His store, 30 West, had a few interesting pieces but nothing that seemed like a good match for the prop house. But on the block were other stores and I found a Blenko amber-colored glass vase and
super colorful turquoise drinking glasses along with a soft powder blue sherbet glass. Ran back to the new studio and took a few quick shots. Hope to do a test with some of them maybe this weekend.

New bucket and citrus test

In the new studio today and wanted to shoot a little food test.
The problem was that I did not have a food stylist so we decided
on something very easy for us to pull-off.

Some clementines and citrus and a little heavy cream (whipped),
cinnamon and sweetened coconut flakes.

Everything was shot with daylight at the new studio except for the
closeup of the cut citrus. I had to put up the strobes because the
light went down.

I really wanted to bake something but instead we decided to
head out to the flea market on 25th street and 6th avenue.
Found a few nice things. Will put them up tomorrow probably.

Brass pot from Flea Market

The Hell's Kitchen Flea Market (on 39th Street between 9th and 10th avenues) sometimes offers up little treasures. But not often. Like combing the beach for sea glass. Takes lots of time but when you find something beautiful you feel doubly rewarded. Today I found this beautiful old brass pot. The patina is amazing to me. It looks like someone spent a week crafting the oxidized green speckles and patches on the surface. The guy who sold it to me said "you can polish that thing right up". I am sure it would still be beautiful polished but that patina could never be created again.

Almost showtime

Spring is literally just a few weeks away--12 days to be precise. About now I get itchy to see something growing outside but I have to be patient. To help me with my flora withdrawals I took some pics in the studio. The tulips were crazy pretty. Joe Maer did the styling. Every once in a while he
unleashes his secret weapon....a hidden floral arranger!

Test at the new studio

We bit the bullet and are about to open another studio. Super excited about this place. The light is tremendous and has a completely different quality than the light at Good Light Studio. Today was the first time I shot in the new place--got the keys just last monday. Took some props from the prop house and put them on one of the nice and new and not expensive Ikea tables. The cloudy and crazy-windy-rainy weather made for some nice northern-ish light.

Looking forward to working in this space. Will post some pics of the studio once I
have a chance to take them this week.