Steve Maller Photography

This past week’s big baby clothing catalog shoot involved a huge amount of planning in order to process the dozens of kids in the smoothest way possible. I dragged out every piece of gear I have (including a few I had to buy for this), as well as recruiting every person whose skills could make this happen. So this is the “stage set” I built and a sense of the scale of what I did…

I had the good fortune of landing a wonderful contract recently. I’ve been preparing for weeks, and this week I finally began shooting hundreds of photographs for the new babycenter.com online store…

Beth and Adam are getting married next month on Treasure Island, and we thought it’d be fun to do an engagement photo out on the water somewhere. They chose the tidepools out at Pillar Point, near where the Mavericks surfing competition is held. It was a beautiful evening, especially being out there with a young couple so obviously in love!

My lovely wife Doreen orchestrated a magnificent feast for Thanksgiving. We had my in-laws Al and Syl, my Mom and sister, the Simkes, Meg from LA, Susie, and Leia and DJ. Everybody brought yummy treats, and we have full tummies and a very full fridge (anybody hungry for leftovers?).

Sam grabbed my 20D and designated himself the evening’s official photographer. Ariella helped out a bit on the 1DsM2, as did Leah. I managed a few photos, too. Check ‘em out at http://stevemaller.com/thanksgiving2007/.

I am about to shoot a big catalog update for an on-line retailer, and I had over 30 babies come in for a “look-see”. We’re looking for about 20 or so kids, and I think we got a good selection. These “professional” kids were quite adorable, even if I couldn’t stop thinking of “Little Miss Sunshine”.

Meredith is an old family friend who’s celebrating her bat mitzvah in a couple months. She wanted to do a portrait which reflected her love of dance, and in particular her love of the aerial form of it. I made a series of photographs of her this evening at the ODC Dance Commons with the help of some dramatic lighting, and I think the effect is nice.

Doreen and I took Walter to our favorite local dog park, and I finally grabbed a few snapshots of him. Here he is in all his glory, runnin’ with the big dogs.

More here… http://stevemaller.com/walter/11nov07/

Last night was Eli’s bar mitzvah. It was a fun, raucous and elegant affair. But the evening almost began tragically (well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration…) when, after hoisting each of the family members (by far all in smaller packages than him), Rick (the dad) was lifted skyward in celebration. But the seating surface apparently created very little traction with poppa’s trousers, and he unceremoniously slid right off the chair onto his handlers. Fortunately there was neither property damage nor physical harm done to Rick or his well-meaning co-celebrants!

Last night was the “Poetry Slam” at Sam’s school.

The evening was wonderful. There were at least 20 kids who got up and performed their work with unabashed energy. Sam was the opening act (of sorts), performing a beautiful rendition of “Wonderwall” accompanying four girls on acoustic guitar.

Then came the poets. One after another, they were wonderful. Sam brought the house down with some of his “rhymes”, and elicited countless “awws” with his declarations to his sweetie (yes, his sweetie).

There are a few more photos of him, as well as lots of his fellow slammers here: http://stevemaller.com/sam/slam07/

I love it when my clients fly me off to exotic locales and put me up real fancy-like!

I am in New York City this week for a very special press event for one of my corporate clients, and they not only flew me out here, but put me up at the ‘W’ in Times Square. I love New York (cue the music!) and I enjoy every time I come here, even when I’m not livin’ large on the 40th floor…