Heaven’s Disco must be cranking this week as Robin Gibb joins Donna Summer on the dance floor behind the pearly velvet rope…

I shot this portrait of the Bee Gees for Entertainment Weekly back in 1997 when they were making their comeback tour and as you can see from this photo, the lads were a lot of fun. The background is a set we built in the studio after imagining they should each have a room filled with gold records. When I told them the concept, the brothers laughed and said “you know we’ll have to look into that…”

Just imagine how great that would look under a disco ball in Heaven’s Studio 54…

There are many online photo communities and I’ve recently enjoyed interacting with the 500px online photo-sharing community. This weekend I added  a portrait of Evan ‘Charlie Runkle’ Handler from the ART & SOUL project to a group of black & white celebrity portraits I call Film Noir. An alert 500px member noticed that if you go on 500px without logging this photo is marked “NUDE CONTENT”

So either the 500px webmasters are fans of  ‘Californication’ or the Nude Content bots have mistaken Evan’s head for something else…

Evan is such a sweet guy! Those 500pxbots gotta show him some love!

Congratulations to Sunrise, Florida’s own Melanie Amaro for her X Factor USA win. She’s got an amazing voice that took her to the top of a talent-packed group. Here’s Melanie’s favorite shot from the shoot I did when I appeared on X Factor to photograph all the finalists.

How cool that Melanie chose it for her Twitter Profile..

EQUIPMENT:
SONY NEX-5N
SONY NEX Electronic Viewfinder
SONY NEX Camera Mount Adapter LA-EA2
SONY CZ 85/1.4

LIGHTING:
K5600 800w Joker HMI Crossover Kit
Profoto 7′ Silver Parabolic Umbrella Style Reflector

Wishing Great Success to this week’s X Factor casualties LeRoy Bell and Lakoda Rayne.
On your way to stardom, never stop believing in yourself. It was my pleasure to photograph you!

LEROY BELL

LAKODA RAYNE

LIGHTING:
K5600 800w Joker HMI Crossover Kit
Profoto 7′ Silver Parabolic Umbrella Style Reflector

This is beyond surreal…Much L-O-V-E to everyone at X Factor and Sony for my prime-time debut photographing celebrity portraits of the X Factor Finalists with SONY NEX-5N then passing the cameras out to all the contestants so they could see how easy it was to get great professional results with a camera small enough they can take it with them everywhere.

To all the finalists for welcoming me to their show this week – you guys rock!
To Steve Sommers and Kayla Lindquist of Sony…thanks for believing!
To my personal fashion stylist, my lovely wife Fazia, I love you baby!

EQUIPMENT:
SONY NEX-5N
SONY NEX Electronic Viewfinder
SONY NEX Camera Mount Adapter LA-EA2
SONY 24mm/1.8 E-Mount Lens
SONY CZ 85/1.4
SONY CZ 24-70/2.8

LIGHTING:
K5600 800w Joker HMI Crossover Kit
Profoto 7′ Silver Parabolic Umbrella Style Reflector

STACY FRANCIS was one of my faves. Sorry to see her go but I'll always remember her in the spotlight!

STACY FRANCIS

CHRIS RENE

JOSH KRAJCIK

MELANIE AMARO

MARCUS CANTY

LAKODA RAYNE

LEROY BELL

DREW

ASTRO

My pal Tim Daly saw that I was sharing my ‘Secrets of Great Portrait Photography’ at this year’s PDN’s PhotoPlus Expo on October 27th in NYC. Naturally he’s gotta share his own, so in the interest of another point of view, here are Tim Daly’s ‘Secrets to Great Headshot Photography’

Casting Directors take note – that’s Tim’s handsome son Sam Daly in the the video with him. Sam is available for you next blockbuster and in the meantime, my go-to guy on LA Nightlife. As for Tim, he’s pretty smooth in front of a camera:

Tim Daly photographed for ART & SOUL

It’s kinda cool when you’re watching 60 Minutes and all of a sudden one of your photos fills the screen like this Sports Illustrated Cover of NFL Agent Drew Rosenhaus for a profile on the Miami superagent, but hey 60 Minutes, how bout a little love?

One of the most overlooked aspects of any shoot is making sure the subjects have FUN!  But we always try to have fun and we certainly did when we shot Serena Williams showing off her new skills as a manicurist for People Magazine. You mean the 12-time grand slam winner does nails??? You bet! Seems like forehands and backhands aren’t the only hands she’s worked on tour. She’s been doing the nails of  girls on the WTA tour for years and now she’s made herself official getting her manicurist license. My favorite shot in Serena working on her gal Val’s nails surrounded by her glam squad Make-up by Natasha Gross, Hair by Angie Meadows and Stylist Lyndrea Price.

Editor: Jen Lombardo

Just in time for the Holidays, here’s just the thing for that person on your list who dreams of celebrity. Thanks to these Pappillowazzi cases from the ICP store they can sleep like a celebrity. At just 35 bucks how can you deny their celebrity dreams?

Very sad news today, yet I can only smile when I think of Leslie Nielsen and laugh at his countless funny movie lines all delivered with the same perfect deadpan and I’ll always smile when I think of the shoot we did for Draft Magazine. The tux was his idea. The 007 beertini was mine. As dry as his humor. Thanks for laughs, Leslie!

Actor Leslie Nielsen photographed poolside at home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Draft Magazine.