Los Angeles Rainbow photo

After a long day staking out a second day of possible mudslides in La Canada Flintridge, which fortunately never came, I pulled off for gas in the town of Eagle Rock, just north of Los Angeles and came across some of the most incredible afternoon light I’ve seen since leaving Florida. I hopped out of the car and started pacing up and down the street looking for something interesting to shoot and when I turned around saw this giant rainbow arching over the entire skyline. I was hoping to find some human activity to shoot against this background, but unfortunately there was none to be found. Still, it was a nice scene so I took a few shots. After the light went away I continued walking around and found myself on an overpass looking down at traffic driving east along the highway. I like the shine of the lights on the wet road. After taking a few frames I looked at my monitor and noticed I had a padiddle right up front. That was good enough for me so I hopped back into the car and made my way home.

On looking up the spelling of padiddle, I came across a wikipedia page with some interesting variations on the game I grew up playing on long nighttime drives across midwestern highways. Now that I’m all grown up I like the Canadian version called “beer” as well as the one called “sex.” I’ll have to remember those.

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Laura Ling and Euna Lee

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Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Laura Ling and Euna Lee at the Burbank Airport

This morning I got up at 2:30, a time which is much closer to that at which I usually go to sleep, to shoot the arrival of the American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee at the Burbank Airport. I covered this story a couple months ago (both times for the Associated Press) when things were quite somber. But today was the exact opposite as the pair from Al Gore’s Current TV arrived, along with their new hero Bill Clinton, in a private, Steve Bing-owned jet, to reunite with their families after 4 months without communication while they were being held prisoner in North Korea. As I’m sure you all know, the two had been sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp after being arrested for crossing the North Korean border while working on a documentary project for Current TV. That was, until 30 hours before their speedy arrival home following successful negotiations by Clinton for their release. I was trying to imagine how surreal it must have felt to be in the mindset that you’re about to be shipped off to a labor prison, and then without warning to have a door open and see former president Clinton standing there waiting to take you home. Hard to fathom. Despite the early wake up, and despite being part of a media pack that I usually try to avoid, it was a cool story to be a part of.

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Well, the engagement’s not really a surprise. Just a fun moment that happened while I was photographing Erinn’s sister, Heidi, and her fiance Seth south of Los Angeles in Laguna Beach, a town I’ve been told is famous for the MTV show, Laguna Beach. I’ve never seen it, but this parody gives me a pretty good idea. Anyhoo, the two are getting married in Michigan next summer and I’m doing their wedding and engagement photography. As for what’s going on behind me, you’ll have to ask Erinn’s mother.

View more work by Venice wedding photographer David Zentz.

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I recently produced a few slideshows for a popular LA fashion blog called SNOB Style. The blog is the passion project of Erika Stanley, pictured at top and bottom right, who writes and shoots videos about all things fashion. For this project she was demonstrating, with the help of makeup artist Robyn Fisher, three different looks for summer makeup. Definitely one of my tougher assignments! What with the wine and cheese and Robyn’s studio, which is at her Studio City home on a high hill overlooking the valley. The full project can be seen here.

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Venice Graffiti Wall

Here’s another from the hood. Trying to work up the nerve to flip off of it, Curt “CP” Parks runs along the Venice Graffiti Wall in Venice Beach, Calif., while shooting some photos with other members of his hip-hop group, RME. Also known as the Venice Public Art Walls, they are managed by Venice art group In Creative Unity and individuals are allowed to paint on them on weekends after applying for a permit.

I’ve been a bad blogger, but I’ve got an excuse! On the 12th of December I flew out to meet up with Erinn at her parents’ place in Emerald Isle, N.C. After a wonderful week there with her family we took off on a cross-country road trip with the purpose of moving Erinn’s belongings from her home in Peoria out to our place in L.A. I’ve been out here solo since September and am glad she’s finally able to join me! Our road trip took us from Emerald Isle through Asheville, where we visited my friend Cameron, up to Peoria, where we were able to catch up with my friend and former housemate Adam and a few of Erinn’s friends and also had the pleasure of packing Erinn’s entire powerless apartment into her car in -3 degree, post-ice-storm weather. From there we headed southwest through Tulsa and Albuquerque en route to a rendezvous with my mom and sister in Flagstaff, Ariz., where we spent Christmas week in an amazing mountain home, courtesy of Lauren’s Tucson landlord, surrounded by several feet of fresh powder snow. Finally, we made our way to our ultimate destination on the 29th in time to be here for what turned out to be a fairly quiet, but memorable New Year’s Eve complete with a fireworks show completely obscured by a dense fog that covered the coast the entire day. It was a great trip from start to finish, but I’m happy to be back home and ready to get back to work. And hopefully I’ll be better about putting up new work now that things are back to normal.

Tree decorating in N.C.

Emerald Isle starfish

An homage to “Planet Earth”

Tail lights

Buffalo Trace distillery; Frankfort, Kent.

Peoria at -3 degrees

No power hair dryer

Erinn’s first tumbleweed encounter; somewhere near Amarillo, Tex.

Tumbleweed pom pom

Canyon de Chelly, Ariz.

Flagstaff bedroom

Wood fires take awhile to heat an entire house

Picture window

Santa!

Snow, snow, snow

Snowman building

5:30 a.m. after a faulty fire alarm woke us all up

Sunshine

Yellow

Yoga

Classic

Sherlock 1

Sherlock 2

Cruising Flagstaff

The trap works!

Quiet time

Crystalline windshield

Grand Canyon!

From the lodge

Sedona, Ariz. chapel

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Actress head shot

I’m continuing to expand my headshots business and have added a headshot photography page to my site. My latest client was actress Kristin Vogelsong.

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