Persona Nutrition

It’s so exciting when a client commissions my work based on specific images in my portfolio. That’s exactly what happened when Persona Nutrition reached out to create a series of lifestyle images featuring their customized vitamin packs. Persona, which was recently acquired by Nestlé, creates personalized, doctor-approved vitamin recommendations based on information customers provide about their health and lifestyle. 

The creative director at Persona was referred from a prior client, and had seen a shoot I had worked on with Kleenex that she loved.  Taking inspiration from that shoot, I photographed seven different scenarios on a beautiful fall day in Highland Park, a suburb north of Chicago. We asked the location scout for a home with a clean and bright bedroom, living room, kitchen, and home gym.  This particular home we chose to shoot in also had an office that we were able to convert into a home workout space.  

We cast three talent for the shoot, and Lavi Toma provided all of the wardrobe and props. Hair and makeup artist, Lauren Frenden made them gorgeous. It was a fast-paced shoot, but we managed to get everything on our list.

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  • Producer: Trevor Power

  • Tech: Josh Marrah

  • Assistants: Brian Gladkowski, Josué Briones

  • Stylist Lead: Lavi Toma

  • Grooming: Lauren Frenden

  • Locations: Levinson Locations

Brand Attributes

The start of a new year seems like a great time to reflect and set new goals. Last year, I worked with a consultant that helped me identify my core brand attributes. This has been critical in helping me identify the right work to show in my portfolio and helps me think about new projects that would really speak to what I’m best at. The primary attribute that ran deep through much of my work was tenderness - followed by fresh and down-to-earth. Sometimes we are the last to discover what everyone else can plainly see in our own work.

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Happy Holidays from Aldi

More holiday fun with a team at Leo Burnett for Aldi. Here are a few favorites from this fun project. Three days, 15 scenarios, and countless products and recipes. Extra big thanks to my great team!

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  • Producer: Amanda Gray

  • Tech: John Burdett

  • Assists: Josh Marrah, Scott Curtis, Josue Briones, Chelsea Marrin

  • Food Styling: Cindy Melin

  • Props and Wardrobe: Agga B

  • Grooming: Lauren Frenden

  • Child Wrangling: Meg Grunewald

  • Locations: Levinson Locations

Optum lifestyle photography

Being able to work with Clients on multiple projects often produces even better creative results. Everyone knows what to expect and is able to do their absolute best work. This was definitely the case with this past project with Optum. We started working with them 18 months ago - planning an original library shoot which was executed in the fall of 2018. This past August we were delighted to shoot the follow up and add on motion this year. The concept was focused on patient journeys. I got right to work storyboarding their wish list of still scenarios into cohesive motion narratives. Our three patients were Ruby, Gerald and Marcus. We followed Ruby checking in at her physicians appointment, receiving a home health visit and interacting with a physician virtually at home before spending a moment with her granddaughter. Gerald went to a doctors appointment, used technology to communicate with his health care team, received prescriptions in the mail and took his dog for a walk. Marcus visited the doctor and stopped at the pharmacy before heading home to play with his son. This was an absolute dream to work on and I can’t thank the great team at Optum enough for trusting my creative vision on this project.

Motion pieces coming soon.

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  • Producer: Trevor Power

  • DP: Josh Jones

  • Tech: John Burdett

  • Assistants: Tom Michas, Jack Goodwin, Will Hartman, Doug Birch

  • Stylist Lead: Lavi Toma

  • Grooming: Lauren Frenden

  • Child Wrangler: Meg Grunewald

  • PA: Emily Madigan

  • Locations: Levinson Locations

New Director's Project

This project, inspired by children, inspired by life, follows a little boy’s trials and errors while flying, making and breaking various toy planes. The concept started after a meeting with a new consultant and evolved into a personal journey narrative that is close to my own heart. Hours, weeks, months of storyboarding, re-storyboarding, casting, production and editing have finally resulted in this finished piece.

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This project couldn’t have come to life without generous help & support from the following people:

  • Talent: Rebecca & Trace DeLeon

  • Producer: Trevor Power

  • DP / Editor: Josh Jones

  • Grip: Ryan Winnicki

  • Assistant: Chelsea Marrin

  • Styling: Lavi Toma

  • Grooming: Lauren Frenden

  • Child Wrangler: Meg Grunewald

  • Location: Kate Levinson

New work for Tyson's Holiday Recipe Campaign

Cookies with caramel corn and bacon? Delicious meatballs and sausage rolls? The folks at Tyson and IN Connected Marketing have created a bevy of delicious recipes for the carnivores you know. Here are a couple of my favorite moments. Special thanks for awesome creative direction and killer crew for making this a success!

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  • Producer: Trevor Power

  • Tech: John Burdett

  • Assists: Tom Michas, Jack Goodwin, Will Hartman

  • Stylist Lead: Lavin Toma

  • Food Styling Lead: Johanna Lowe

  • Grooming Lead: Lauren Frenden

  • Child Wrangler: Meg Grunewald

  • PA: Emily Madigan

  • Locations/MoHo: Levinson Locations

Cox Communications

This past spring, I had the opportunity to create a brand new image library for Cox communications including images for both their small business and residential communications services. We partnered with FCB to produce a thee day shoot on location that included 26 lifestyle scenarios. I was thrilled to be able to finally work with Mary Beth (below) who has come to dozens of castings over the years. She was absolutely perfect for the role of creative small business owner - and she even brought her own composting bucket to the set which was awesome. We also cast Imani and Andrew Mazzorana - who had a pretty easy time playing siblings since they are brother and sister. In house producer Trevor Power took the lead on pulling a lot of details together - and prop/wardrobe team Lavi and Sebastian Toma went absolutely above and beyond their scope in order to create convincing sets and wardrobe options on a tight schedule. Huge thanks to the crew involved and a fantastic creative team at the agency - we were practically finishing each others sentences and the teamwork really comes through in the final results.

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  • Producer: Trevor Power

  • Tech: John Burdett

  • Assistants: Jon Wes, Charles Bouril, Maria Efting, Tom Michas

  • Stylist Lead: Lavi Toma

  • Grooming: Lauren Frenden, Kelsey Moravec

  • Child Wrangler: Meg Grunewald

  • Crafty: Samantha Long

  • Locations/MoHo: Levinson Locations

New branding images: Palantir

It’s something I love to be a part of - refreshing portraiture and lifestyle images for a company with a great purpose. I have worked with Palantir for the past few years to bring their culture to the forefront of their visual identity through photography. It’s inspiring to see a group of creative minds coming together and channeling their various skills. Their team stands behind their motto - to collaborate, make the right choices and think about long term strategy. We created 39 new portraits and documented a series of breakout groups, brainstorming sessions and team building activities this past May. Visit their website for more about this great web agency: palantir.net

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