What do ZZ Top, Dave Matthews Band, and Marilyn Manson all have in common? They all rock the super cool theater complex, Toyota Presents Oakdale, in Wallingford, Connecticut. The venue features “The Dome”, which is a multi use theater for 1500 or so, plus the Main Hall at 4500 seats. It is a massive complex with plenty of parking, special event meeting rooms, and is complete with a cool 50s style diner for the bands and crew to eat in private.

Lighting the venue was tricky due to some daylight coming in, after some pipe and drape were added to block stray light and my extra lighting added, away we went. The exteriors were a bit tricky as well with the fog, rain, and snow, especially for a California boy not used to the East Coast in January for photography. We had a short window to shoot exteriors the first day during a slight clearing and we pulled it off. I used some of my widest lenses to capture the interiors and show the scope of the unusual theaters, the Canon wide tilt shift lenses are always on the top of my list to use when possible for the added correction and composition flexibility they offer.

By the way, the rumor is that the barn is haunted, but no one will go there anymore to prove or disprove it. Maybe some chilly Halloween evening you will want to check it out for yourself! Another great LiveNation venue.

December 4th 2012 was the House of Blues 20th Anniversary party extravaganza at the Sunset Strip venue featuring that little old blues band from Texas, ZZ Top. A star studded frenzy of an evening to say the least. Movie, TV, and Rock Stars alike showed up to drink, party, and feast on the menu of Celebrity Chef Aaron Sanchez. The venue opened early for VIPS to start the party which went on from 5:30 pm until 2 am.

I was honored at been having asked to shoot the event, House of Blues and Live Nation have now been one of my top clients for almost 14 years. I have been to every House of Blues at least twice, and am now fortunate to be shooting many of the Live Nation venues as well that are located across the country.

The band was very cool and easy to hang with despite all the calamity. Instead of writing a long blog, I thought I would just share a few more of the photos and let them explain!

Well, Kim Kardashian does not live there anymore as she bought a nice new home, but I thought it may be interesting to show what her beautifully decorated condo looked like when she did live there. You may recognize the condo from earlier episodes of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”.

The Beverly Hills condo was listed and sold by the “Million Dollar Listing” personality, Josh Altman, and his brother Matt. There were beautiful photos of her on the walls as decoration but I choose not to show those, and they were not shown in the original advertising.

The most interesting decoration is the large wood carving from Indonesia. It is a giant piece of art assembled from 5 separate panels. Very Cool. I often shoot high end real estate for sale as part of my Architectural Photography job. You can see the rest of the photos on one of many Celebrity Web Sites that grabbed my shots. Enjoy the tour!

You would most likely not notice this home driving down beautiful Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu as this property is very private and faces the ocean. The photos here give you a bit of a preview to a super cool piece of contemporary architecture that you could enjoy for around a 7 million dollar price tag.

The water comes right up to the property line daily and pounds the seawall that keeps it dry. As I was photographing this home the tide was coming in with a bit of a swell creating a very dramatic environment as the sun went down. Every room has great ocean views and the sound of crashing surf. This is a very cool piece of contemporary architecture fit on a small lot between the ocean and the highway.

I used my style of night time architectural photography to show off the cool features of this home that are the reason people want to live on this pricy part of the coast known as Malibu!