Jah is a friend of Leslie's, and when he saw her Dia de los Muertos trash the dress session on Facebook, he contacted me about doing a fun, non-traditional Christmas card shoot. I knew this was going to be a fun one just a few minutes into our phone conversation."So, I want to do an ugly Christmas sweater theme," he said, laughing. "And, there are these poodles, like, giant poodles, but they belong to my landlord..."
I just started cracking up. We talked for the better part of an hour, and finally he said, "Basically, I just want something that would make someone say, 'What? That's a grown man doing that!'"
So, with that premise... meet Jahrae. He works in admissions at Regis in Denver, he's a total sweetheart, and he was unfortunately not able to get his hands on those poodles. I love meeting clients who I just laugh with throughout the entire shoot. We met up in the chapel at Regis (which is gorgeous), and he brought two of his security guard friends who, were somehow able to keep completely straight faces as they introduced themselves to me as "Teddy" and "Swahili," while Jah's cracking up in the background and busting out the altar wine and cigars. Then, we meandered around campus, doing some shots in the cool clock tower in the library, the Santos room where the relics are kept, and some more GQ-style stuff. Then we played with Christmas lights in an old classroom with retro tiles. Gahh, I love shooting in Denver! Dude, J... we're going to hang out more in the future, and it'll be fun. Chris and Neil.. you're pretty cool too :) Poodles next year!
