What a week, after Berlin and Hamburg, we drove a few hours down to Dusseldorf then high-tailed it to Amsterdam as the Calumet/California Sunbounce tour continued on through Europe. Out of the nine photography magazines Calumet advertised in, so far I’ve collected three, Photographie, fotoMagazine and the latest, PROFIFOTO, which leaves me one German and five BeNeLux area magazines to find as we continued our travels and the tour begins to wind down. (I’ll be posting photos soon!)

I’m not real worried as yesterday I met the head of Calumet Europe marketing, “Wim,” and he promised he’d get me copies of any magazines I couldn’t find. Yesterday I also picked up a poster from the Calumet store in Antwerp, Belgium, again, Calumet has done some incredible advertising to help promote the workshop series and my name in Europe and I’m very thankful as this was not something I expected–I’m guessing that 18 total full-page ads (2 pages per magazine) costs the company somewhere between $90,000 on up plus with the additional costs of their own in-store posters, fliers, web promotions and even the lunches, chairs, sound system, studio rentals, etc., Calumet seriously went out of their way to may this tour a great success, and so far it’s been fantastic! [Read more...]

Wow, what an experience, Glamourcon in Chicago rocked! This is the only event sanctioned by Playboy of this type, so I was honored that Bob, the owner of Glamourcon, invited me to do my lectures and a workshop along with other greats, like Mystique Magazine’s Mark Daughn. It was great to finally meet Mark, funny, he lives less than hour up the road from me, but we both seem to be on the road more than home.

Speaking of home, I’m finally here, well for at least two days before I head of to Europe for some photography. But back to Glamourcon, afterall, Bob, Keith, Mark and all the others that worked so hard there, made me feel at home. A special thanks to Playboy Playmate Holley Dorrough for sharing a table with me and being one of my models along with Tess and Playboy Special Editions model Kellie Maines. They all three drew a bunch of attention at the show–especially Tess, as she’s a new model in the industry. We’re all looking forward in doing this again in Los Angeles in October. [Read more...]

Wow, what a workshop! We just arrived after finishing our 9th consecutively sold-out International Glamour, Beauty and the Nude Workshop in the Virgin Islands and not only am I exhausted, but I think we wore everyone out too—including the video and sound crew that captured the priceless moments.

Whether it was this month’s Kellie M. from the Women of Playboy’s current Hot Housewives issue running down the beach as the film crew rolled their cameras alongside the still cameras from the attendees, or the priceless shots of the bride in her white dress falling into the infinity pool, this was one of the best Virgin Islands workshop of all time. [Read more...]

Well the 1-day workshop is over, what a great group of people–one team, one great effort! We kept everything small on purpose as we did this one at home, normally my workshops have at least five models, but it worked even with replacing a model at the last minute that failed to show. That’s why a list of great team members, like models, assistants and stylists are important–you never know when Murphy will hit.

Claudia, Lola and Devon were wonderful models along with Wendy for make-up too! I’ve worked with many, many make-up artists over the years, and very few are as wonderful and professional as Wendy. Elise, Kelly, Travis and Stephanie are others I’ll tip my hat for too–few cut the mustard! I expect my make-up artists to be professionals, not act professional. If I want an actor I’ll go to the local drama club. Many MUA’s, as they are known in this business, often have a false-sense about their role and often forget that while an MUA can make a model look good, great post-production can make an MUA look better. [Read more...]

Well I’m a bit behind, meant to write in this blog while in the VI, but got side tracked and I hope we’ll be able to do better on our next VI trip in August. While all workshops are fun, educational and awesome, especially when in the Virgin Islands, this trip I had to put out a few fires, sort to speak. Nothing major and we’ll leave it at that because that’s the professional thing to do.

We had some great photographers, models and assistants, they all did what they were supposed to do and then some! While we always strive to improve, when you combine seven models, seven photographers, and six assistants along with myself and the rest of the crew, how can you go wrong? We even had our own cook, Lisa, Playboy Playmate Holley Dorrough’s mom who joined us for the hot sun, sweat and the occassional mosquito bite. The pool was always refreshing, I think everyone but one person got in the pool the entire trip–yeah, I got in there myself. [Read more...]