On a recent trip to LA my production manager and I had a few hours before we flew back to Sacramento. So I used the opportunity to work with a friend of mine, Mackenzie Firgens. She and I became friends a few years back when she worked on a project at the Preston Castle in Ione, CA. Whenever the opportunity arises I love working with her. She is such a natural in front of the camera very beautiful. It makes my job so easy.

The location for the shoot was The Garland Hotel. They had completed some renovations recently, and it was a very nice boutique style hotel. It had a lot to offer for location shooting.

Because time was short I scouted locations while Christine (production manager) worked on outfits for Mackenzie to wear. We pulled the whole shoot off in about an hour and a half.

For the most part we shot with existing light on the Nikon D810 with my 85mm. I did use the D4 and my 50mm with a flash on the last set of images in the room. I love the light when the flash is directly lined up with the lens.

I'm so fortunate to be backed up by Christine to watch the clock because I could have just kept shooting, but then we would have been late for our flight.

I'm really looking forward to our next visit to LA when we get to shoot again.

About Mackenzie: She made her feature film debut starring as Harmony in the underground hit Groove, which was an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, and released by Sony Classics Pictures. Firgens originated the role of April in the film version of the Broadway sensation Rent, directed by Chris Columbus. As April, Firgens had the opportunity to create a new character for the classic musical, and shares the screen with Adam Pascal.

Firgens also starred in Quality of Life with Lane Garrison, which won a Special Mention Award at the Berlin International Film Festival as well as the Best Youth Film at the Stockholm International Film Festival. Additional film credits include Broken Arrows with Lori Petty and The Hamiltons with Brittany Daniel.

Firgens can be seen in David Carradine last film the action movie "Break" also with Michael Madsen and Chad Everett by the award winning director Marc Clebanoff. (Wikipedia)