We are really excited to share some of the work we photographed for Feld Entertainment in August and September of 2011. We were approached by Feld’s in-house creative team to photograph the imagery for their latest production, “Disney On Ice presents Treasure Trove.” The images are currently being used in the show’s souvenir program book. We put together a dream team to help us tackle eight days of shooting on two coasts. Our good friends and colleagues Bob Croslin, Cy Cyr, Matt May, Rummel Wagner, and Scott Cook were all kind enough to help us plan, light, shoot, and edit over 48,000 images. We’ve included some tearsheets here showing how the work was used in the program guide, as well as some behind the scenes pictures from the ice, during our production shoots.

Each winter, professional golfers from all over the world descend on Central Florida for warm temps and greens that are, well, green. Like the baseball players that follow them in the spring, they can prepare for the upcoming season without worrying about the weather. Hailing from the Netherlands, 24-year-old Christel Boeljon came to town in January to work on her game before heading to Australia for the start of the Ladies European Tour in February. Whatever she did while in Orlando, it worked out in Australia. She came from three strokes back to win her second professional tournament on the LET. We were commissioned by Golfers Magazine in the Netherlands to photograph a series of images for them to use with their upcoming cover story on Christel. She couldn’t have been more sweet and accommodating to work with. We spent an afternoon at the Faldo Golf Institute photographing portraits, swing sequences, and lit action shots of Christel. Our good buddy Scott Cook came along to assist and we had absolutely perfect weather. Our favorite image didn’t make the cut in the magazine, but it was really fun to shoot. Eric was on his stomach in the sand trap while Christel lofted shots right over his head. We are really excited to see how Christel does this year while playing on two professional tours in events held all over the world. We wish her the best!

The annual PGA Merchandise Show brings most of the golf industry to Orlando each January. This year, we spent two days documenting teenage LPGA rookie Lexi Thompson for a Golf World profile by Tim Rosaforte. Lexi won the Navistar LPGA Classic in September to become the youngest LPGA winner ever, at 16. She has endorsement deals with Red Bull, Rolex and Cobra-Puma. We met Lexi and her entourage at the PGA Show’s Demo Day, where club manufacturers are on hand showing off their newest goods. Lexi spent the day doing interviews, signing autographs, playing Baggo, and hitting 300 yard drives on the TrackMan analyzer. The next day brought us to the show floor at the Orange County Convention Center. Cobra-Puma’s “booth” had a second story bar with a DJ and a slide. Lexi was a model in the Cobra-Puma fashion show that afternoon, complete with VIP after party. It’s not really what most people have in mind when you ask them to picture the PGA Merchandise Show, but it certainly made for a great assignment. The images ran in the February 20 issue of Golf World with a 6 page story and in a slideshow on golfdigest.com.

Laura and Mike’s Pebble Beach wedding was effortless and graceful thanks to the careful planning done by everyone involved. The couple chose to wed at the home church of the bride, the Church in the Forest. With it’s lattice, huge exposed wood beams, and giant forest view windows, it was easy to see why. We were thrilled when we found Laura had submitted the photos to our favorite wedding blog, Style Me Pretty, and they decided to feature the wedding. We have posted some of our favorite images from this exquisite event here on our  blog. Follow this link to see the entry in full and read the bride, Laura’s, description of her planning process. It was a pleasure working with event planner Amy Byrd for the first time. The Monterey Peninsula Country Club provided a fantastic backdrop for the reception. We really enjoyed getting to know this warm couple and their wonderful families. Congratulations to all!

We love getting calls from designer William Bainbridge Steele. He always has something beautiful up his sleeve. This call was particularly interesting. He needed us to play along in a ruse for a surprise birthday party he was coordinating. The birthday girl, Jan, thought it would be nice to have a portrait of her children and grandchildren who were flying to Vero Beach to spend the weekend with her. William referred  us to Jan, who we spoke to about travelling to Vero Beach to make some family portraits. What Jan didn’t know is that her husband had hired William to orchestrate an event filled weekend, with guests flying in from all over and a 10-piece band from Atlanta, GA handling the entertainment. Jan was overwhelmed by the amazing party William put together, and true to our prior discussions with Jan, we made these portraits of their beautiful family the following day. Luscious Verde did a great job taking prints of the above image and quickly turning around exquisite Christmas cards in time for the holidays.

Jaimie and Dennis are tying the knot in the Florida Keys this Spring and we are really excited to document their event. The couple also commissioned us to photograph an engagement announcement for them. Dennis had the great idea to incorporate an antique wooden boat for our shoot. He contacted a local antique boat club and two people offered the use of their boats. Despite a windy, overcast day, Captain Jack met us with a friendly smile at the dock of Lake Dora and took us for a cruise on his vintage GarWood. The overcast day lent itself to some beautiful images of this adorable couple with classic style.

We were in the middle of a week long shoot in California when Golf Digest asked us to photograph a travel piece on Bermuda written by Ron Kaspriske. Though we’d been on the road for a while and needed to prepare for other shoots in the works, who can say no to Bermuda? We made moves on travel and found ourselves in one of the most beautiful spots on earth.

The most important pre-arrival reservation for a trip to Bermuda is a driver. Tourists are only allowed to rent mopeds, they drive on the left, and the national drink, the Dark ‘N’ Stormy, is delicious. So, we reached out to Ernie McCreight, who turned us on to Irving Raynor, who is a hospitality professor at the local college and a cab driver. He assured us that “The left side is the right side and the right side is suicide.” Mr. Raynor not only kept us on the left, but knew what time of day to hit the spots on our list and made the job of covering a diverse island in just two days much easier.

We were based at the Fairmont Southampton on the south shore of the island which is central to the courses we needed to photograph. The Port Royal Golf Course was closed while we were there as they prepared the property for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. We managed to get a beautiful morning of light before crews moved in to erect TV towers and miles of rope for the annual event. The highlights of this Robert Trent Jones design include the iconic 16th hole and the remnants of a British fort on the back nine.

It may be a toss up with the turquoise water, but pink is the color of Bermuda. The sand of the beaches, Warwick Long Bay in particular, has tiny reddish particles from the coral reefs. The long exposures we made brought out the pink even more.

The natural beauty of Bermuda isn’t all that is there. We were impressed with St. Peter’s church, built in 1609, with its beautiful wood beams. We were also taken with the Bermudians themselves, warm with a British edge and those awesome shorts. Why hasn’t that formal wear taken off everywhere with warm temps?

For Sarah and Kyle’s Vintage French Circus themed Engagement Party, Sarah wanted to play off the “French Chateau” style of her parents’ Denver home. She also wanted to create an event that would be totally different from what she envisioned for her wedding. In brainstorming with her mother and event planner Heather Allen (of Table 6 Productions), a Vogue magazine photo spread about the film Water for Elephants provided inspiration and a starting point.

The florist, Perfect Petal, found the colorful parasols that created an awesome focal point for the event, dangling upside down above the bar area and setting the fun tone. Paul Borrillo Entertainment provided various entertainers including a magician, a Marie Antoinette character serving appetizers from her skirt, a contortionist, a fire thrower, and the “poet” Cyrano de Bergerac, who appeared throughout the evening and kept the party lively. Guests loved visiting the smaller poolside bar where The Inventing Room served exciting cocktails and ice cream created using liquid nitrogen. Catering by Design put out an awesome French spread at several stations including crepes, fries in newspaper, beautiful cheeses and fruit. Sarah and her mom ordered the candy and toys that both kids and adults got into.

Through out the evening the quartet “Ribbons and Strings” entertained guests with Sarah’s selection of classic rock tunes which worked beautifully with the light-hearted atmosphere. It didn’t seem like anyone wanted to leave!

It’s not often that the story you are working on partially burns to the ground. That’s exactly what happened while we were photographing the last caddie camp in the USA on the charming island of Nantucket. We were documenting the last few days of the annual summer camp, which dates back to 1930, when a fire broke out in the mess hall, destroying it and one of the three bunkhouses that sit off the 10th fairway at Sankaty Head GC.

Most of the campers were out on their morning loop when the fire broke out. About a dozen campers escaped from their bunks without injury, joining their brothers at the cart barn to watch the massive flames and wonder what would be left of the camp and the few possessions they had brought to Nantucket for the summer. We kept shooting through it all, but we were really glad that Golf World ran Jeff Silverman’s story without focusing on the fire. They ran 17 of our images across a cover and 9 pages. Those are impressive numbers for a weekly magazine in the year 2011! We transmitted some images for a breaking news story on golfdigest.com, but the camp is so much more than just a spot news story.

Many of the campers come back every summer, and the bond that they all share was remarkable to document. There was once dozens of these summer camps all over the US, where kids could come learn how to caddie, earn some good money, and play some golf. The membership at Sankaty Head, which includes Jack Welch and John Akers, continues this tradition. They have a unique perspective on the importance of mentoring and the broader impact golf can make in the community. The members fund $120,000 in annual scholarships for the campers and they have already started rebuilding the camp for next summer. It was fascinating to see former camper and current director, Peter Montesano, lead these young men during an incredibly emotional few days. No one went home, no one quit. They helped one another out and turned the rec room into a temporary bunk house. Their camaraderie should be a lesson for us all.

We were very happy to see this story get so much positive feedback from the readers of Golf World, as well as a shout out from Geoff Shackelford!

Valerie McCarty with Herschend Family Entertainment commissioned us for a two-day advertising shoot on the Showboat Branson Belle in Branson, Missouri. We faced some adversity with the weather and flooding in the area, but thanks to Valerie and her local team, we were able to create a great custom image library for the brand. The work is being used in their new brochures and will be incorporated into an updated website.