bradley david photography

First of all, many thanks to Marlow Prado-Blankenship and Ms. Sarina Morales, The Nike Field Reporter, for thinking of me and my coverage from last year’s LA Boxing: Fight Night.  Marlow and Barbara [Bartolomeo] were one of several fighters in the exhibition.  Needless to say I was highly impressed with the toughness and conditioning of these ladies.  I would not want to tick either one of them off.  Congrats to your both on the article.  Check it out here:

A Hit Friendship

Bradley

Chicago, Illinois — Available for order, Christina and Christian’s wedding album!

New York — This is the second collection I’ve photographed for Arti and NeuAura.  Before I received the samples I had plans to shoot the collection outdoors.  Unfortunately, the DC area got hit with two monster snow storms, so I was a bit worried about the shoot.  My only requirement was to maintain a rustic theme, so I Googled “rustic” and didn’t see images that I liked.  I stumbled on some images of wood flooring and knew that was the direction I wanted to take.

I headed down to Home Depot, perused the aisles for cheap solutions, but didn’t find anything reasonable.  Staining cut planks of wood required too much effort and buying a big box of wood flooring was uneconomical.  I stumbled on some pressed wood shelving and decided to go with four shelves for $20.  But after shooting the shoes on them, the results were terrible.  The wood pattern and quality looked really cheap.  I was really worried after that.

Overnight, I remembered seeing some pretty good quality flooring at Ikea.  The next day I swung by and picked a box for $30.  Wow!  The put together the set on my dining room table, but still wasn’t sure what to expect.  After shooting a test shot, I was feeling pretty good.  The results were lightyears ahead of the Home Depot solution.  I’ll be return the shelving and keeping the flooring for future shoots!

Client: Arti Upadhyay
Company: NeuAura Shoes (New York, NY)
Product: Animal-friendly fashion footwear

Fort Washington, Maryland — This was a really cool shoot at Old School Boxing, located in the basement of Rosecroft Raceway.  The thing that got me was, from the outside, you’d never know it was there.  I went back and forth down Rosecroft Drive thinking I had missed it.  Lucky for me Cyprian answers his cell phone!  The gym is a very authentic boxing gym with, you guessed it, that old school atmosphere.  Inside, dozens of sweaty, yet welcoming faces greeted me as I entered the gym.  The smell reminded me of the wrestling rooms back in high school.  Weathered boxing gloves and old speed bags line the ceiling, while posters of boxing legends hang immortalized on the walls.  I’ll definitely make another run back there and shoot around.

Client: Cyprian (CP Boxing)
Location: Old School Boxing (Rosecroft Raceway), 6336 Rosecroft Drive, Fort Washington, MD, 20744-1921

MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, Maryland — Two years ago, I covered Jay and Marlene’s state-side wedding reception.  That went by fast!  Here we are, two years later and my good friends are a few weeks from delivering their first child.  Congratulations to you guys!

After shooting some pretty vanilla shots, I decided to remove the softbox from the equation and go with a single, direct flash.  I stopped down the lens from f/4 to f/11 to get that low-key look.  Do you like Jay’s motivation?  I told him to think of something that smells good!  Maybe he’s thinking of lumpia and adobo.

Clients: Jay and Marlene Unisa

ROCKVILLE, Maryland

Client: Tony Cavasilios
Company: Third Eye Earth
Product: Organic clothing (t-shirts)

WALDORF, Maryland — I got an email from Edel to help her produce funky, rock-star maternity shots for her upcoming rock-n-roll-themed baby shower.  We pitched around some ideas over email and cell phone, then agreed that we should put together a session.

She commissioned her cousin-in-law, and one of my favorite make-up artists, Kate Ricasa of KateR2You.  I worked with Kate on the Noreen and Stacey weddings and swear by her.  Kate did an excellent job, producing two main looks: family mom and rock mom, with three minor revisions made to the latter.  The combination of lighting, hair and make-up produced some great images.

I really enjoyed shooting with Edel, Harv and Kai.  I wanted them to be themselves in posing and in character.  So with some simple suggestions, the trio helped create a beautiful set of shots.  Thanks, guys!

BRENTWOOD, Maryland — What a blessing it was to have such beautiful weather on Mercedes and Richard’s wedding day.  I learned about my cousin’s wedding two weeks before today and asked if they wanted my cousin Jeremiah and me to shoot it.  I was pretty excited to visit my old neighborhood in Queenstown, right off of Chillum Road in Hyattsville, Maryland.  I had such great memories growing up there, so it was befitting that I continue making more on Mercedes’ wedding day.  Congrats, my beautiful cousin and my new cousin-in-law, J.R.!

NEW YORK, New York — To finish off our trip up North for Frenchie’s baptism, we headed over to one-of-two, sad to say, tourist traps: Katz’s Deli.  Although the ‘tourist trap’ label is a bit harsh, modern television media and food programming turn them into those.  Best kept secrets become a melting pot of annoying people-traffic.  But there is an upside.  In their purest form, places like Katz’s, Ben’s Chili Bowl in DC and Pat’s in Philly are all tributes to awesome, O.G. throwback architecture and culture.  It’s not your typically wanna-be chain restaurant that’s hired the crew from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to design the joint.  We’re talking blood-n-sweat, Mom-n-Pop shops who have built their reputations over several decades.  It’s definitely worth experiencing at least once, even though crowds–myself included in those crowds–can spoil things a bit.

My brother Paul discovered Katz’s from Food Network show and recommended that we try out their famous kosher sandwiches.  The food is pretty good, the wait-time and crowds are absolutely not.  If you decide to head there, do not sit in the back area towards the right if you intend to have someone wait on you.  Sit in the main eating area.  Sitting in the back (next to the bathrooms) requires you to go to the front and grab your food.  Not a big deal, but it sucked that we gave up good seats and wait service in the front.  Sitting where we were did buy us relief from the hoards of chair-bumping tourists!  I had a pastrami sandwich. Rating (7.75/10)

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — The last leg of the trip brought us to the City of Brotherly Love.  Yes, that’s right, we hit up Jim’s Steaks to compare it to our other beloved tourist trip, Pat’s King of Steaks, or Pat’s for short.  Before we got into the city we couldn’t imaging anyone else lining up to eat there given that it was pouring outside.  We were wrong.  The line had us waiting for around thirty minutes just to sample our first non-Pat’s sandwich.  The chefs were great to photograph as they played along with my attempts to covertly capture them in action.  So, what can I say about the steaks?  The meat was a bit too chopped up (almost minced) for my taste, but it was definitely good.  I’d highly recommend trying it out if you’re into the comparison thing.  I’m still a Pat’s loyalist, but you know, sometimes you need to see what the competition is all about.  Well, I guess this begs the question, how good is Gino’s?  I may stay away from this one.  That’s like me going for the Cowboys.  Rating (7.5/10).

GEORGETOWN, Washington, D.C. — A few months ago I received an email from Arti Upadhyay, owner and designer of Neuaura Shoes, saying that she’d like for me to shoot her Fall/Winter shoe collection.  Wow, just the opportunity I was praying for!  We played a little phone tag, but we eventually agreed to work together.

Arti is making quite a name for herself in the Vegan fashion scene.  As many of you may know, Vegan fashion wear eliminates the use of animal products. Period.  That means end-to-end–yes even the factory in Brazil is Vegan-approved–no animals were harmed during the manufacturing of Neuaura products!

A few weeks after our conversation, I received the samples in a huge, worn box.  I could tell this guy had made it’s rounds with FedEx; turns out the collection was being featured in various fashion articles including The Wall Street Journal.  I decided to take the collection down to Georgetown to give me a quasi-city feel.  The Washington, DC area isn’t know for huge skyscrapers or that New York hustle, so I’d have to fudge the L&F with tight shots and editing.

Check out the article from City Saheli featuring one of our images!