This is a photo of one of the restaurants in Naples at the Ritz-Carlton. I really enjoy taking photos of cool interiors like this. None of these photos are “required” or anything as part of my relationship with the hotel. But I often end up finding cool interiors here and there. Sometimes the team there sees me setting up with a tripod, going slow, taking my time, etc, and they assume I’m on some kind of a commercial shoot. I end up explaining that I am not on a commercial shoot; I just think it looks awesome.

This was the view from our room every sunset while in Naples, Florida. It was a family trip, and I always try to balance that with taking photos. I’m always stuck with two decisions: 1) Where do I take the photo? 2) Do I make the family wait till like 8:30 PM to eat after I’m done taking photos?

There are no bad answers for number 1 and all bad answers for number 2.

I have a funny story for you.

So, I was staying in Fort Lauderdale, and I was in an elevator with my camera. This couple got on with me and they excitedly said, “Are you a photographer?!?”

I said I was.

Then they said, “Will you take photos of our baby? Our baby is so amazing! We just got married and we’re Jews! And this baby is the best thing ever!”

I said, “No, I don’t really take photos of babies or people or anything.”

Then they started begging, telling me how amazing their baby was and it got super-awkward really quickly.

Let me back up a second… So, the female half of the couple is Definitely not the girl in this photo. I’ll get to that in a moment. They were both very short and dressed in these all-black robe-things. The girl was particularly tiny, but she had a giant head and face like a full-grown woman. They were probably about 20 years old, but something about them totally freaked me out. When this large-plate-faced woman would stare at me, she would never blink. She was kind of like a living doll in the horror-movie style of doll.

Okay, fast forward to the next day. There’s a huge ruckus out in the hallway. I go outside, and hotel security is trying to force open the door. A manager is there, and then I realize I hear a baby crying. It’s just wailing away inside. Total chaos. They can’t get the door open all the way because of that hotel-chain thing…

The manager yells, “Ma’am you must let us inside! This baby is crying and is obviously in distress!” No one comes to the door and things are getting dicey. I go back into my room, which is right across the hall, and look out the balcony. I’m right above the pool, and I look down, and see the mom and dad laying out at the pool, still wearing these giant black smocks. I think, WTF? Did the baby chain itself into the room? Is there someone else in there?

So I go back to the hallway to talk to the manager and security, and everyone is gone. I’m still thinking WTF. I still hear the baby crying.

Fast forward to next day. I leave the room and this strange tiny couple is outside my door, waiting on me.

They say, “Oh the photographer! Will you please take photos of our baby! I’ll pay you anything you want! How much do you charge?”

I’m super-creeped out now and say, “Listen, I really don’t take photos of people or babies or anything. I do mostly landscape and travel photography.”

They keep insisting, so I just go back into my room to hide.

Fast-forward to later in the day. I leave the room, and I see another young woman come out of their room. She’s maybe 19. We walk down the hallway together and get on the elevator.

“Are you with those people in that room?” I ask her.

“Oh no, they found me on the internet,” she says, then happily pushes the lobby button.

“What do you mean, they found you on the internet?” I ask, obviously.

“I was babysitting,” she offered.

“Aha,” I said. “I’ve heard that baby is absolutely amazing.”

She gave me a quizzical look then ran off the elevator at the bottom.

Fast-forward to the next day. I’m trying to get some photos of Fort Lauderdale that are interesting. I know this girl Katie-Ann and her boyfriend Pascha through a charity event. She’s kind of a model, and I asked if she wanted to spend a few hours to get fun photos on the beach and at the pool. They say sure, and come out to meet me at the pool.

I start posing Katie-Ann, tell her to go this way and that… we’re having lots of fun and taking photos for quite a while. Then, all of the sudden, that tiny girlwoman with the black smock and the giant head walks over to me very seriously.

She stares me down and says, “I thought you didn’t take photos of people!!!”

“Well,” I cowered, “she’s just a friend and I’m taking photos for fun.”

“Why won’t you take photos of our baby? Our baby is very beautiful.”

And at this point, I’m starting to think they kidnapped this baby and they’re on the run or something. I just could not figure it out. Finally, I had enough.

“Listen, lady. I’m sure your baby is amazing. It sounds like you gave birth to Jesus or something even though you don’t believe in him. For now, I’m going to take photos of my friend – why don’t you go have a pina colada and relax a bit.”

And that was the last I heard from them.

This was my view out the window looking north along the coast in Bal Harbour. It was my first time here, and I thought, for some reason, that this was just another part of Miami. I suppose it is, geographically, but the culture is completely different here. It’s mega quiet and a much older area. No beach parties, not a ton of restaurants or clubs… maybe even ZERO clubs. I was here for maybe two or three nights after a cruise to re-group and relax. I did a few jogs, some workouts, and a squeezed in a few photos while here too.

This was the very first thing I saw as I walked into the Ritz-Carlton here in Naples. And the whole thing was edible! Well, except for the lights. I suppose you COULD eat the lights. Anyway, I waited for it to get dark and then I moved over a small cocktail table in front of it with a glass surface to get the reflection… kind of a nice little trick that adds to the effect, I think!

Wow was it ever crowded here on New Year’s Eve Eve! Actually here’s a hot Disney tip if you go for New Years. Well, first tip would be to NOT go for New Years because it’s soooo crowded. But, if you do go, then you should go to the Magic Kingdom park on December 30, because they have the same fireworks show as they do on New Year’s at midnight… then, you can go to Epcot for the actual New Year’s at midnight… there’s a lot more room to find good places to shoot at Epcot because it’s so huge.

Here is my friend Kerry Ann who came down to spend the afternoon with me on a fun photo shoot. She came down with her boyfriend Pascha who was running our big charity event for us. Thanks again for everyone that took part in that. I think we had the fifth-highest charity event on the platform, so that is great. Also glad to report that 100% of the money goes to the HEALING.NET Foundation! Thanks again everyone.

This was a weird scene for sure! This was the Summit at Sea, where we took a cruise with all these “TED Speaker” kinda people. For some reason, on this cruise, they would not serve ANY alcohol until 6 PM. I’ve never heard of such a thing… and we were in international waters. Quentin Tarantino was on the boat too, and he said something funny about this bar on the boat called “Margaritaville” where you can’t get any drinks during the day, and not even any margaritas for 24 hours a day! And, also, this was days after the election, so there was a lot of pent-up-TED-angst, so when the bars were open, people finally went nuts, like caged animals set free.

Every night I went out on the beach here in front of the Ritz-Carlton to get a good sunset. I was rewarded 40% of the time over my 5 nights… Usually, I get better stats than 2/5 on Florida sunsets… but there were some strange storms, which make the sunsets both unpredictable but also quite amazing when they actually do happen. It reminds me once again that it’s most important just to show up with your camera and hope it all works out!

I feel like I don’t even need a description for this photo, as I can’t say anything more than the title. Well, maybe some background. I was on this TED-like cruise called Summit at Sea. I kept running into these monks over and over again, mostly on the elevator. We would always have very deep conversations that would only last 3 minutes. Then, one evening as the sun was setting, I saw my two friends taking photos of one another like a couple of schoolgirls – I thought it was great!