So, as you may know, my trip to London was nearly a disaster when our model backed out last minute. But thanks to a connection the brand had with a local model, the shoot and the trip were saved!

The morning of our shoot, I grabbed a coffee in a cute little cafe next to Big Ben, and headed off to the studio.

The studio's location was quite a distance from my hotel. So, I was forced to brave the morning rush-hour of the London Underground as I boarded the crowded tube with a camera case, a giant bag of underwear and a duffle full of essentials. Needless to say, the morning commuters weren't pleased with me.

Luckily it was a straight shot, no messy transfers to worry about. After about 35 minutes of travel, I was quite proud of myself as I arrived at the studio on time to the minute! This gave me an hour to set up before the model was to arrive.

The shoot went extremely well. I was very happy with the new model, both in looks and in his level of professionalism. Not to mention he was just a very pleasant guy to be around, happy, energetic and funny.

The shoot began with some equipment troubles as two lights in a row dropped dead on me. But after that problem was solved, the shoot went on without a hitch. It was a great day in the studio, and I'm very happy with the results. Let's hope the client is too! Even though we lost a "celebrity" I think we gained a much better looking guy, and certainly a nicer and more deserving one!

Here's a few behind the scenes pics from our time in the studio.

Today the real work here in Sydney got underway. I had the day yesterday to adjust and had to hit the ground running today for a full 9-hour-day's shoot for Australian men's underwear brand, Cocksox. I have this awesome company to thank for this trip down under and today we began what will be three days in the studio shooting over 180 products for their site redesign launching soon.

It was an early morning and a quick breakfast in the hotel lobby before heading to Hatch Productions Studio, a space immensely and immeasurably larger than my studio back home. Working in the kind of space and equipment this studio provided was not only fun, but affirming as a professional photographer.

We got to work setting up what has become my standard three-light layout for a catalog shoot. I used Elincrom strobes with a single large octabox as my key light and two strobes bounced off large white boards to fill the seamless white background. I'm still working with a Canon 7d (which I hope to upgrade soon) and a Canon 35mm F1.4L USM lens.

Our stunning model Chris Noffke (Chic Management) arrived and after hair and make-up we dove into the fray! One pair after another, we knocked out a full range of angles for each of 60 pieces. Chris was a pleasure to work with, laid back and charming (and of course not bad to look at for 9 hours straight). Back cramps and eye spasms aside, it was a pretty enjoyable shoot regardless of the repetitive nature of a catalog project. The entire team from Cocksox are so pleasant to be around and made the day go by much faster. Two more days of the same doesn't seem too daunting to handle with this great team of people and such a great model... but remind me I've said this about halfway through day three.