27 November 2009

Russians in America

A funny thing happened to me one day. I was looking for a model in Vegas and posted an ad on craigslist with my website info. Within a day I got a call from a girl who viewed my online portfolio and was impressed with my work so much that she couldn't help contacting me. To my surprise she was also originally from Russia and have been living in Vegas for the past few years. Her name was Masha and she came to USA in 1995 after she won a greencard in the annual lottery hold by US government!

Masha stopped by at my studio last week with her boyfriend Goga to get some professional headshots done. I had a total blast photographing them and of course got to speak in Russian. Hopefully, my photographs will help Masha to make the first steps towards her dream career as a convention model and a movie extra.



We just couldn't choose between these two images! =)

18 November 2009

Wall Street Journal

Having been a financial roller coaster for the past few years, Las Vegas has become one of the major objects of interest for the Wall Street Journal. It's unfortunate that Sin City keeps sinking deeper in economic turmoil, but fortunate for me because I get to provide the visual interpretation for the Wall Street Journal's articles.

Yesterday I was taking photographs of the property on the Strip where Harley Davidson Cafe, Hawaiian Market Place and Travelodge are located. One of my images appeared in today's issue of the Wall Street Journal under the "Heartbreak Hotel: Vegas Dream Crashes" story.

I never know the context of the article except a few facts and names of the people/places I need to photograph so it's always interesting to see which of my images gets to be the one. For this particular story, I don't think there could have been a better match between the verbal and visual part.

Click on the image below to see the large version of the tear sheet.