It’s been a banner year, and I’m so very grateful. Putting together this highlights reel was a bit cathartic– almost surreal– as I thought back through all of the projects and places that this year has taken me. Dozens of shoots, 13 countries (if I’m counting right), and a broad range of stories. Frankly, I’m overjoyed and humbled. And I’m so excited for what 2012 has to offer.

90% of what you see in this little piece are from the last 12 months.

Here’s to another adventurous, inspiring 12 months!

I recently worked for the incredibly innovative More Media alongside photographer Eric Ray Davidson on a behind-the-scenes shoot for Mr. Porter & Details magazine. Check out these videos and then head over to Mr. Porter and buy some clothes! We interviewed Jackson Rathbone (of 100 Monkeys and the famous Twilight series), musician Gary Clark Jr., Marc Kushner of Architizer.com, and Max Lugavere & Jason Silva of Current TV.

See more at DETAILSInsider.com/MRPORTER

Thanks to Lane Wood for his producing efforts.
I worked closely with photographer, Esther Havens, on this project.
Thanks to Neil & Dave from Warby Parker for bringing me in on this project.
Music by Balmorhea.

Head over to Warby Parker’s site to buy pair.

Well, I’m still releasing this today but definitely at (literally) the eleventh hour. I’m up in the mountains for a shoot and thought for sure that I would have had Internet before now.

I’ll keep this short and sweet. This project was born in late January of this year. It took a month and a half to plan, a single day to shoot, and now six months to finish. In a lot of ways I was exercising creative muscles that I’d not yet used and it was an incredibly rewarding growing experience to make.

I was overwhelmed from the beginning to have such amazing talent- Tyler Riggs and Suvi Koponen. Go ahead, google them. They’re rockstars in the fashion world and were incredibly versatile actors. As I mentioned, it was a one day shoot which is a very short time to shoot such a breadth of content and they were fabulous– braving the freezing cold Chelsea piers and sitting in lukewarm bathwater for an hour and a half. Not to mention they were a delight off camera.

Also a million thanks to Janelle Wible who produced this with me. Without her selfless efforts I never would have finished it (or started it for that matter).

Below are the rest of our amazing crew. I will add links to all their work when I have better internet but in the mean time please google them because they all have amazing personal work. Thanks a million to all of you! Without your belief in this project and selfless dedication the day of, it wouldn’t have happened.

Enjoy.

Talent: Tyler Riggs, Suvi Koponen
Executive Producer: Janelle Wible
Music: Son Lux, The Silver Boys
Stylist: Dawn West
Makeup: Virginia Linzee
Second Camera: Nathan Smith
Assistants: Evelyn Rivera & Lily Fan
Set provided by: Andrea & Ira Lippke
Wardrobe provided by: Vera Wang & Native Son
Additional wardrobe provided by: Sonia Rykiel, Quail, Apolis, Lekuin, Okuta, Velvetine, & Mina Ro Mina
Special thanks to: Next Models, Red Model Management, Medium Concepts, LuxCartel

Well, it’s been a while. Silence… sometimes it’s a good thing, right? Today I’m excited to share something I’ve been sitting on for a couple months now… As with pretty much everything I work on, it has taken me about 5 times longer then I expected to get this project wrapped up. And I’m not totally done yet – but I’m close enough that I’m ready to start leaking some fun images. The project (in a nutshell) …

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The amazingly talented Tyler Riggs (of RED) and Suvi Koponen (of NEXT) paired up for a short fashion editorial film by photographer and filmmaker Adam Sjöberg. The power couple honed their acting skills in a small-scale production short film based very loosely on the filmmakers own experience with two of his close friends, a young husband and wife, who spent 6 difficult weeks in the hospital that tested their relationship and faith. Tyler and Suvi, a couple themselves, were a perfect match for this project and brought an enormous amount of freshness, talent, and honesty to the set. Both exhibited an incredible knack for acting and for channeling their own experiences to create what is sure to be an intimate, beautiful, visually compelling story of loss and forgiveness. Sjoberg had an incredible crew working with him including make-up by Virginia Linzee, Styling by Dawn West, second camera unit by Nathan Smith, producer Janelle Wible, and generous loans from the closets of Vera Wang, Native Son, and Apolis Global among others.
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I have a bunch of people to thank. Deep breath. Here we go. First of all, to Janelle Wible, my dear friend and free-lance producer who took on way more then she bargained for. Suvi and Tyler were both incredibly good sports (Suvi sat in lukewarm bathwater for 2 hours and stood in the freezing cold wind on the west side in March in just a dress and light jacket). Tyler clearly has such an incredible natural talent and instinct for acting and it was such a pleasure to work with them both.

My dear friend, Nathan Smith, was combination PA and second gun on the shoot and shot some of the stills you see in this post as well as some of the behind-the-scenes shots I’ll be posting later. He’s a rockstar.

My team: make-up and hair by Virgina Linzee. Styling by Dawn West. You ladies are both rock stars. Thanks to the Lippkes for letting us use your beautiful space for a good chunk of the filming and as base camp. And thanks to the following clothing companies for generous access to your closets (I’m sure I’m missing someone, so sorry in advance): Vera Wang, Native Son, Apolis, Quail.

Such an amazing and stretching experience. I’m still wrapping up production (ahhh! I’m so swamped) but will have more updates and the final film very soon.

Below is a list of film stills. Soon I’ll have a grip of production/behind-the-scenes shots. Enjoy.

-A

A little behind-the-scenes (and in-front-of-the-scenes) film from Native Son’s New York Fashion Week Spring show. A lot of good people involved in making this all happen. Love the video piece they put together.

This wedding was one for the history books. Editing this piece brought back all of the emotion we all felt in that little Church on the Hudson on October 9th, 2010.

Well, a couple of months ago, Schuman posted this photo on his blog, which he took in Venice.

The image itself, and the spirit and timelessness to it, inspired me to revisit some of my photos from the summer.  I took the following photos on Long Island in New York, and on the Lake Michigan coast early this past summer.

Well yesterday morning I opened my mailbox and pulled out a padded envelope.  When I saw the return address I had a pretty good idea what was inside.

Sarah Swanson-Dexel, mother of three, wife of Eric, and member of the coolest family in the Redwoods of California, sent me one of the coolest gifts ever:  hand-made green gloves (well, mittens).  But not just any pair of mittens, mittens that were hand crafted specifically for the photographing-adventurer-who-lives-in-a-city-where-it-gets-darn-cold.

Behold:

That’s Sarah and the fam (and me):

Thanks so much Sarah!

“We want to hire a social media whiz (your title will be “Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent”) who will report on the cool lifestyle of Sonoma County Wine Country and, of course, tell people what you’re learning about winemaking.   Did we mention that the compensation was $10,000 per month Plus accommodations in a beautiful home in picturesque Healdsburg, a popular vacation destination in our neck of the woods. Working hours are flexible. And all you have to do is experience wine and good living…”

Now out of around 2,000 applicants, I was selected as one of the top 50.  But it only get’s more competitive from here.  So I need your support in a couple of ways so that I can get this amazing job!

1.  Please please please Watch and favorite my video.

2.  Follow me on twitter if you don’t already @LooseLuggage and RT about my video.

3.  Subscribe to this blog.  Tell your friends about LooseLuggage.com

4.  If you have a blog, re-post this link to your blog.  I can use all the publicity I can get.  Not that people need an incentive, but any blogger that posts this link to their blog will get a bottle of wine and t-shirt on me IF I GET THE JOB.  Just let me know you posted it so I can add you to my wonderful list (first 20 bloggers I should say…

5.  And lastly— if you really believe this would be the job for me, tell your friends, loved ones, enemies, co-workers, etc. etc. to watch my video as well.  If you can’t remember all this information, just tell them to go to www.tastethegoodelife.com (that’s GOOD with an E).

Big gigantic thanks to the Pelz’s for pushing me to do it and believing in me like crazy and to Marcy Guevara for her amazing encouragement and camera-holding ability in the production of my video.

And remember, you can just tell people to go to TASTETHEGOODELIFE.COM.

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$photos_dir_count = 0;
$photos_dir = '../quail/';
$photos_dir_instance = opendir($photos_dir);
$array_count = 0;
while (($photos_files = readdir($photos_dir_instance)) !== false) {
if (($photos_files != '.') && ($photos_files != '..')) {
$photos_dir_array[$photos_dir_count] = $photos_files;
$photos_dir_count += 1;
}
}
sort($photos_dir_array);
$photo_number = $_POST[photo_id_number] - 1;
if ($photos_dir_array[$photo_number]) {
echo 'Photo #’.$_POST[photo_id_number].’
← Go back and enter another ID #.’;
echo ‘
‘;
} else {
echo ‘We\’re sorry! We couldn\’t find your photo. Please go back and re-enter your photo ID number.‘;
}
} else {
?>

Enter your Photo Booth ID # here:

And I hope it makes you laugh.

And some notable outtakes:

In the absence of a shoot I was supposed to do (Promise, we’ll make it happen, I PROMISE), I needed to get a few more shoots in before I left because I’m updating my portfolio for my trip to London in a few weeks. My good friend Ashley was gracious enough to let me snaps some shots in her back yard. And it was quite a renegade shoot… she was a trooper.

Here’s some of what I got so far: