CHEF AMANDA BARENO

This is Amanda Bareno, the new Head Chef of Vivace restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel Amman. It is a terrific place to eat fine Italian food if you have more money than you know what to do with. I shot this portrait for the fine folks at Nox Magazine. Chef Amanda was very gracious in agreeing to take this photo in the walk in freezer. The flame in the pan is from burning paper towels that burnt great for about 5 seconds, then spread ash all over the place. We went through quite a few until I got the look I was after. After setting up for about 30 minutes in the cooler, and another 20 minutes of shooting, my fingers were pretty numb; a small price to pay for a shot I really like.

BEAUTIFUL CARS

Pictured above is a 1961 Lincoln Continental Convertible (same model and year as the car JFK was assassinated in), and a 1973 Lamborghini Espada S3. I shot the Lamborghini just for fun while I was waiting for another car to arrive. This beautiful Lamborghini spends its days in the bottom floor of a parking garage inside the Royal Palace.

The Lincoln has been a very important car to the Royal Family. It was used on state visits by President Habib Burgiba of Tunis, President Hafez Al Asad of Syria, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Chancellor Kurt Waldheim of Austria, the Shah of Iran, and the King of Nepal. It also served to carry His Majesty King Abdullah II on his coronation day. The car remains "in commision" for significant occasions. I wonder if the release of my first car calendar counts as "significant".

WHO THE HELL IS THIS?

I shot the above cover last month for the wonderful folks over at U-Magazine. The funny thing is, when I went to go pick up my copy of the magazine, I didn't recognize the model. The art director really went to town on her with Photoshop. I've included the before and after shots to show her evolution. Final thought: think twice about any fantasies that involve sleeping with models!

ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS

Well, I got the job shooting the Royal cars for an upcoming calendar. I've been working everyday inside the Royal Palace. Before you get too excited, you should know that I'm shooting in the bottom floor of a parking garage, in a makeshift studio I created out of bed sheets. My assistant speaks very little English and gets frustrated when cars take longer than an hour to shoot (though to his credit he complains in Arabic). For lighting I have three Canon Speedlites and two halogen work lights. I've created giant soft-boxes out of white sheets, eliminated ceiling reflections using black fabric strung over the cars, and balanced my lights shooting in a modified tungsten white balance and gelling my flashes with CTO's. Every car is a new challenge. I've shot six, so six more to go. I'm not a huge car person, but I fell in love with the 1955 Mercedes Gullwing pictured above. It is truly a work of art. They simply don't make things with this attention to detail anymore. It is roughly a million dollar car, and I want one! I'm also told it was the late King Hussein's favorite.

A JORDANIAN TRAGEDY

Pictured here is Jordan's most famous boxer, Mohammed Abu Khadija. The guy is massive, intimidating, and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He grew up in the Baqa'a Palestinian refugee camp just north of Amman. It is one of the most densely populated patches of ground on earth and a very rough place. Khadija quickly rose to become Jordan's most promising boxer, training under an Iraqi coach who defected just before the first gulf war. His career highpoint came when he qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Greece. To make extra money Khadija worked as a security guard at a particularly rough coffee shop inside the camp (like the one pictured below). A few weeks before he was set to leave for the Olympics a gang of seven men entered the coffee shop and stabbed Khadija several times. He fought back and ended up killing two of them with only his hands. In the US this would clearly be self-defense, but here in Jordan he spent over a year in jail awaiting trial. He was found innocent, but by the time he was released the Olympics were over and he was too old to qualify for the 2008 games. He is now the head boxing coach for country of Jordan. Walking with him through the camp was like walking around Philadelphia with Rocky.

THE ONLY SHOT THAT WORKED

My friend Sultan graciously let me use his daughter Zaina for this shoot for Family Flavours magazine. The only problem was, all he told her was that "Uncle" Brian wants to take your photo, so she put together two different fashion outfits and rushed her dad over to my house. When she arrived and discovered how boring a proper photo shoot is, she was less than thrilled. I pumped her full of chocolates and praise, but she still had the saddest face in all the pictures. I made her a deal to take only three more shots, which she counted down with me, and I believe the picture used in the ad was the last one. Afterwords I asked her to put on one of her fashion outfits and her disposition immediately changed and I took the bottom shot. Kids!

DESPERATION INSPIRES ART

I purchased this painting yesterday from a store in Amman. It is by an Iraqi artist who recently received the rare privilege of being able to emigrate to Sweden. I've made it a point when I travel to buy a piece of art from all the countries I visit. My one requirement is that the painting must encapsulate my impression of the place. It has taken me a while to find this particular painting. You go into a store here and everything is camels and bustling street markets. This has not been my overriding impression of the Middle East. This man sits smoking a desperate cigarette, full of longing, yet lacking almost all hope for the future. Yet there remains the candle, and he clings to that as people here cling to the idea that things will get better one day. Unfortunately I hear a lot about Barack Obama making everything better, and very little about Jordanians making things better. I suppose a monarchy kills ambition the same as anti-depressants and pot do back in the States. Nevertheless, I find hope in this painting. The artist must have painted it when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, and then fate intervened. Now he's in Sweden, perhaps a bit guilty, and certainly struggling for inspiration.