Miami Photographer Joshua Prezant

The other day Joshua Prezant Photography got called in to photograph a rising star in the TV media world.  Alicia Menendez.  She is one of the faces that Fusion TV is banking on to bring in the millennial folks to the newly built  English-language channel from ABC and Univision.

The instrcutions from one of my favorite clinets, The Washington Post, was simple and usually what I get from them.  Have fun and shoot something cool. Although this time I did have one request.  Nothing behind the news anchor desk.  So after a quick google search of Menendez I was on the phone with her wonderful people at Fusion. They were extremely helpful and we set up a shoot time.

Having been in many newsroom over the years ( both TV NEWS and Newspapers) I had an idea of what I would be working with and started to visualize ideas.  But nothing I thought of came close to the vision of what this newly contructed 160,000 square foot studio in Doral, FL looked like.  It truley was a amazing site with all the new technological toys one could thing of that would be in a digital newsroom built from the ground up. So off I went scouting the location when I arrived at the shoot.

After scounting I met up with Menendez for a quick introduction.  Witin seconds of meeting and talking with her I knew I would like her.  And I did.  Menendez was very friendly, and not the friendliness that most TV personalities put out there.  She did not come off eager to be liked or to be put in a mold of who she was supposed to be.  She was just herself.  For good or bad.  She had a smart intelectual humor that mixed in equal parts of the ever so slight mix of good rounchiness and “geek” humor.  And you can see it in her slight wise cracking “this is who i am” smile that came out in the photos.

It was a great shoot and the article by writer Manuel Roig-Franzia came out wonderful.  I wish Alicia all the best on her new gig.

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Growing up I had the opportunity to go a a bunch of boxing events throughout Florida.  This was in a time when Miami Beach was still a fight center in the boxing world. Through my father’s Uncle I was able to not only see some of the great match ups that came through Florida, but to also meet the boxers and promoters.  As a young kid I thought that this world was amazing ( much to my mother’s dismay). So anytime the opportunity arrises to photograph something boxing related I jump at it.

When Joshua Prezant Photography got the call to photograph legendary boxer and Olympic gold medalist Sugar Ray Leonard I made sure to clear the schedule to make it work.  Right away my mind started to go wild with all amazing things I wanted to try to do photographically.  But then I soon learned that I would be photographing him for a story not necessarily about boxing, but for a different fight that he took on.  He was helping to shed light on a dark time in his life as a teen when he was sexually abused by two people very close to him.

With more details about the story I learned that I would be photographing him in his hotel room in Miami Beach late at night as he was preparing to give a motivational speech the next day to a thousand or so corporate folks from Burger King.  Out when anything overly related to boxing in the photograph.  No gloves, no trucks, no wardrobe changes,  no boxing ring, no sweat!  Just an intimate portrait of Sugar Ray in his “lounge around the house comfy clothing.”

I had to work with what I had.  Plus, how much into a photo shoot would he be after being interviewed about his abuse for an hour or so.  As I was setting up the lighting I carefully listened to his story as writer Wayne Coffey interviewed him.  After they were done, it was nearly 10:30 pm or so.  To my amazement Sugar Ray was truly hospital and easy going when we started shooting.  Although we did not have much time and after what had to be an emotionally draining interview he patiently sat for my photo session…. Even allowing me to get a more upbeat idea in before we ended.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/zone-sugar-ray-finds-new-arena-sexual-abuse-victim-helping-article-1.1483655

Sugar Ray Leonard © Joshua Prezant 2013

Sugar Ray Leonard © Joshua Prezant 2013

On a beautiful sunny, and unusually breezy day in South Florida I found myself driving down a two way road with gigantic mansions on the left and nothing but sandy beach and ocean to my right.  I was headed to the home of the prolific writer James Patterson. I was on assignment for the Washington Post Media Company to photograph James for the cover of their upcoming style section.

When I entered into his home I was immediately in awe.  Not because of the big house or the location, but because of the amazing collection of photography that he and his wife had. And when I saw the picture of James on his mantle with a signed note at the button from your pal Harry ( as in Harry Benson) I got a tad bit nervous. First off, he knew what a good picture was and second off he was pals with some of the best photographers out there. If i screwed up, I would be getting called out by the likes of Harry Benson and Elliot Erwitt!

The assignment called for a very clean background with an emphasis on James’s eyes. I had about 15 minutes with him, mostly talking photography in between shots.  It was a real treat for me to photograph a subject with such a passion for photography.

 

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© Joshua Prezant 2013

A recent magazine cover shoot with the Miami Heat’s James Jones didn’t go as planned…But came out red hot instead!

When the magazine Headwise called  Joshua Prezant Photography and said they lined up the Miami Heat’s forward James Jones to be on the cover of their magazine I knew the shoot would have to be quick and squeezed into the very busy schedule of the basketball team.  When the team is in season the players have very little time for anything but basketball.  So having worked with many professional athletes over the years I knew things have to be ready to go and in place well in advance of the actual shoot.

As usual with shoots like this the first step is to start coordinating with the teams PR representative to come up with a date, time, and place for the shoot.  After finding a day that worked for the team and my crew the next step was to scout the location.  The magazine ideally wanted him overlooking the water with something that screamed said Miami. A few days before the shoot we scouted the location at the American Airlines Arena in Downtown Miami.  We would have to shoot at the Arena where the team played and practiced because right after practice  was the only time James Jones had free.

A perfect spot was picked on an outside balcony and a platform to raise James Jones safely above the rails were ordered up and electrical outlets double checked. And as any good photographer knows, you have to plan for backups just in case of anything.  So we scouted some backups and have a plan B and place C ready.

The day of the shoot my team and I arrived three hours ahead of the shoot time given to us by the team to get set up and ready to go.  As these things generally go, the shoot time kept being pushed further and further back because team practice was going longer then expected ( and no.  You can’t just have the PR guy tell the coach we need one of his players now!) And sure enough with this being in South Florida and all right as the player arrived for the shoot fresh out of the shower a sudden heavy rain band went right over our outside set up.  We had no time to wait out the rain as the player had to get his kids in 10 minutes.  We thought we had 20 minutes with him!

But we were prepared for anything and my team and I kicked into gear and got everything ready to go inside and made some great shots.

It was not what we all were expecting, but the client loved the pictures and so did the subject.

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It is not even March and the March clips are pouring in.  Last month found miami based Joshua Prezant Photography photographing lots of high powered movers and shakers in the financial world for different financial magazine. Next clip will be of Ron Stone ( keep a look out).

Each subject that sits before my camera is a another person whom I could learn something from. And when the person sitting in front of you manages over a BILLION dollars with a superb track record of great returns over the last 30 years one pays extra attention to any tidbit of advice for making and investing money that they are willing to share with you.

Bill Dunn, of Dunn Capital was no exception.  If you invested $100,000 with his WMA program (his longest running program) would be worth more than $4 million today!  Dunn created a computer program that helped with long-term-following commodity trading back in the day when the computer program lived not on a hard drive or thumb drive, but on hundreds of IBM punch cards ( see picture in clip).

Bill Dunn was extremely patient and a easy subject to photograph. Despite some rain clouds that moved in on us, we were still able to capture the wonderful view from the back of Dunn’s Stuart, FL headquarters.   It also did not hurt that I thought he was a spitting image of Artist Chuck Close.

Opener in magazine

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