Darkness and Light, Richard Avedon

Check out this great film on Richard Avedon entilted "Darkness and Light"...it's in 9 parts. You can see the continuation on youtube.

A good friend of mine named Sam Sarpong called me last month. I had shot his album cover and inserts a while back, and he wanted to ask a favor. He's done everything you can think of in the world of entertainment and has filmed every step of the way for the last 10 years with a small video camera.Well, BET has bought it as a show. Sam's "Life of an Entertainer" will be airing soon.
He wanted to add a scene to the pilot of him at a shoot as he has been the face for everything from Tommy Hilfiger to Sean John, so we set one up, with his crew filming behind the scenes. Oh, and we threw in Chelsea Hobbs as well:)
We shot in Chinatown in L.A. at night. I thought the colors from the million lights would help to tell this story.This rock and roll night in Chinatown.
Well, it's now a four page spread in this month's issue of Runway Magazine which is in 11 countries and the shoot will air on the premiere on BET.... Good ol' giving and receiving.... Much obliged.

Just random shoots from the last 6 months...

Buzz Aldrin

Last September I got an opportunity to shoot Buzz. Buzz Aldrin. Dr. Buzz Aldrin. A man who strolled around another planet.How crazy must that be, to have walked somewhere else than Earth.
Anyway, we shot a Griffith Observatory here in Los Angeles. Besides being one of the best space museums and housing some of the best telescopes, Griffith observatory was also where the famous knife fight scene was filmed in Rebel Without a Cause, staring Mr. James Dean. It took place on the lawn out front, and this is where I shot Buzz.
Since the shoot was outside, and the museum was open, we had quite a crowd watching. It grew to about 60 people. Right before I starting shooting, I was trying to wrap my head around how I could just make it a little better, not just him standing there. I looked at the crowd, and standing there was a kid straight out a Norman Rockwell painting. Tousled blond hair to boot. To top it off he was wearing an authentic white space suit and had a rocket in his hand.Yeah. His parents where thrilled at the idea because their son had been wearing that suit in anticipation for the past week straight , and was hoping beyond hope that he could meet his idol, Buzz Aldrin. So we put him in the shot. Check it out on my site. terenoddo.com
Here are some behind the scenes as well:

A behind the scenes video of the shoot I did with The All American Rejects that I appear in for a total of 3 seconds! Haha!

Sean Kingston

A few weeks ago, I shot singer Sean Kingston. His single "Fire Burning" was nominated for a Teen Choice Award and he was performing it, so I wanted to do something that went along with that. So, in a tiny restaurant in downtown L.A. that was still open during the shoot, we pumped a bunch of smoke through the establishment and suffocated all the patrons. 50 dirty looks later, we got the shot. To top it off the stylist had gotten all his sizes wrong and he was swimming in the clothes. New outfits finally arrived, but while we waited, Sean and I had a nice talk. He is from Jamaica and I was born in St. Croix, so we had a nice starting point. I really enjoyed his company and that says a lot seeing as he's only 19!
For anyone who doesn't know who he is and the #1's he's had, here's a link to some info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_kingston

The All American Rejects

Last week I shot The All American Rejects. They had just come off a loooong European tour and I thought they where just going to be over it and hate being there. But they really gave it their all as you can see below .Sprint TV came to do B roll and with all their people and all our people, there where at least 40 folks behind me the whole time I was shooting. Good clean fun. Moods of Norways and Acisic styled.
Check out the behind the scenes and some of the finals....