 I'm Brian Sakawa, you're watching He Spoke Style and as you can see, something a little different today. I'm joined by Rob, who I'm sure most of you know is our photographer and videographer here at HSS. Nice mustache, by the way. It's great for social distancing. No one wants to get near me looking like this. Definitely keep people away for sure. Well, it's been a while since Rob and I have been able to actually shoot together, so we thought we'd hop on a little call here and make something out of it for you guys. So we've had a lot of time to think recently and I started thinking back to some of the more memorable moments we've had shooting together over the past seven plus years. I made a list and then I had Rob make a list independent of mine. There were some crossover but which wasn't surprising and then there were some things that were interesting. So I'm going to jump in with with my first pic here and that was our very first shoot and I remember this for a variety of reasons and I think you do as well. For me it was mostly that we had no idea what we were doing, like either of us. Right? You brought all these lights out. Man, so much like pro studio lighting gear, like out on the sidewalk. Yeah, I had no idea what I was doing in terms of like how to pose. I remember like we wanted to get like a candid shot and I was walking and you had to yell out my name so I would look a certain way and actually I think I can probably find that. I remember that exact photo. It's on one of the, we shot three looks. I changed in your big white suburban. Oh yeah. Did you break something? Oh yeah. We totally knocked one of those lights over and like broke the glass diffuser dome on it. How much did that cost? I like that little piece of glass. It's like 150 bucks every time you break one. Don't ask me how I know every time I have to buy a new one. Yeah, it was really cold that day. It was in a, we shot in a small neighborhood in Baltimore called Ridgely's Delight which is down near Camden Yards if you know the city at all. It's a nice city. We'll put up some pictures of that first shoot for everyone. So the next one was on both of our lists and that's not surprising and that was our trip to Venice with Purcell. Oh yeah. Yeah, that was really exciting because we had just signed with our talent agency then and it was literally like a week or two later we were on a plane in first class going to Venice to be at this thing. Tell me what like your impressions were when that was going on. Oh man it was like super exciting to be there and that event was like so atypical as well. I mean certainly atypical for anything I had done previous to that but like as we've done other events I don't think we've ever, I've never been a part of another event that was so just like art driven and it's kind of like avant-garde. It was really really interesting. Yeah so what was so the event just people don't know is called Atelier Purcell and that was like this thing that used to do, I don't know if they'd do it anymore but they would invite like all of these interesting artists, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, photographers and they basically like stuck them in this house in Venice for like, I don't know was it like three or five days something like that and they had to create like a piece of work. So among the people who were there when we were there were Nan Golden photographer, Abel Ferrara, the director who I remember having a very interesting conversation with. I was very scared. I watched, I watched Badly Tenant before we went just so I'd know something about him but and then the one that sticks in my mind though is the dancer. Do you remember that? Oh yeah it was incredible, incredible display. Like people like left that room just like with their breath taken away like it was really really exciting. We had no idea like what was going on like we were just ushered into this dark room and then there was this solo dancer who did basically like a dance of a phoenix and the light, the lighting and the music and like everything was just like so overwhelming and we were just in this small room together and I remember going out into the courtyard after that and people were, I was crying like people were crying like our friends from Per Sol were in tears. We just, I hadn't witnessed anything like that in a very long time if ever. Yeah it was powerful. Yeah really great trip. We made it, we made a cool video too. Oh yeah I mean that video was great like shot it on my little tiny right over here the Fuji. Yeah shot it on this little guy like not a video camera at all but like totally fun to shoot there. My other memory from that trip was that like I decided that I would sleep when I was dead because we'd like, we'd get done with the day and you were like oh my god I'm so tired I got to get to bed and I'd be like I'm only going to be in Venice for three days and I would like go out and wander the city like with a bag full of camera gear like by myself till like three or four in the morning and then like get up and go shoot again the next day. I don't know how you do that. I remember sitting, sitting out in Saint Michael Square and hearing the clock strike four and looking around and I was the only person there just like yeah amazing trip amazing trip like great people great event good images and just all around. When we go on these trips like we work hard I think that's we don't just do what we have to do we kind of and we don't just go like above and beyond for the brands but we I think we try to make things that we want to do as well too. Sure and I think that's definitely the case of the the next one that we both picked as well which was a recent trip to well I guess it wasn't so recent or was it? No was it a year ago? When did we even go? It was I mean it was I think a little over a year ago but that was pretty like recent compared to some of the other stuff. Yeah so this was when we went to Miami for with JLC for Watches and Wonders which we called Watch World. Watch World. There's a funny there's a funny thing at the end of one of our videos where we were testing out our equipment for going to this event but all right everyone we are here at Watch World we're we're looking at watches Derek here has the most expensive but ugliest watch I have ever seen could you tell us about it? He doesn't want to talk about it he has nothing to say he knows he's he's stupid for buying this watch he should have got a Seiko 5 I mean instead he spent a million dollars on this Richard meal which looks like a piece of cotton candy hey to each their own who am I to judge thanks for watching from Watch World I'm Brian Sikawa what did you like most about the Miami trip? There were a couple things like I thought that well what stands out about it is it was one of the first times that we really kind of went to an event and planned to shoot video more than still photos yeah so for me that was looming like large in my mind because most up until our recent transition to YouTube most of my work with a camera you know throughout my artistic photographic life has been still work and so I just remember really being focused on like making sure details about videography were were being thought about I remember Derek Jeter blowing us off no it was A-Rod oh A-Rod that's right I wanted to do an interview with him and he wouldn't even like come near us A-Rod blowing us off but I remember like the shoot location at the hotel was pretty cool oh well let's talk about the shoot location at the hotel because we we we had a we spent the day like we worked hard that day we spent the day just like shooting three different looks with the was it that was all the reversal the anniversary and the first one went well I think we shot that like right at the hotel like right at the hotel yeah the second one went well eventually because we went we went over to the design district yep we shot it and then we realized that like there was a wardrobe malfunction like one of my pockets was was in and it just didn't look good so we anyway we we only discovered that after going back to the hotel so we went back we were both just like oh so we went back and then we shot it and it was good we basically did the same exact shots and then the the last part that I remember at the hotel is we were we wanted like a nighttime kind of feel and we did it in black and white and we did this really cool sequence going into the elevator coming out of the elevator walking out and then like as we were coming back in as we're finished they caught us yeah shut us down like right as we were wrapping up yeah luckily luckily we had everything we needed so what about and I remember also the getting chased by the shopping mall cop yes that's what I'm gonna say I was gonna say the epic lunch that we had at this place I can't remember what it was called I don't remember the name of it but just like that sushi boat was like wider than my screen like you there's no way you could have shown the whole table yeah like huge I brought Robin there when we went for vacation but that was it was a good time good people always good people and we were pretty happy with everything that we got out of that so the next one we have here was one that you chose and it's the studio shoot that we did for a brand a while ago yeah yeah so you know and the the reason for the the love of that shoot stands out to me like has nothing to do with the brand and but it's one of those rare instances where we chose to really go at it from a from a much more studio perspective on still images and really use lighting gear like in a studio setting and I love to do that like as a photographer I love studio lighting I love to be able to craft what the image will look like and really put the light wherever I want to it's time consuming to do that it's it's time consuming and it's not something it's not the the style of shooting that we mostly have done throughout the course of he spoke style but so the opportunity to do that stands out as something that was really enjoyable and then like still some of those like pieces of those finished images are still like header images on like yeah because I would say I would say one of the images is like iconic it's the one that we always use it's such like a great encapsulation of uh everything that we stand for I think right right and so that's why it stands out to me like I remember like we wanted to be like dark and moody and and we just worked I think I told you I wanted to have like just like a little bit so that the shoot was for uh old spice like palm so the post was about how to do like the classic side part hairstyle so I was like I want to have just like the littlest bit of light on my part and you were like oh I got it I'm gonna I totally got this yeah and it's just like that is super fun to go into a shoot that way and I think it took like I'm trying to remember how long it took to actually light that and it took a better part of an hour at least to light it just to get it ready I think yeah yeah yeah I was I was just looking around here the studio like I can't imagine like we didn't have a lot of room in that studio but I didn't have all those soft boxes up anymore here right like we just challenging yeah we were experimenting with uh uh a softbox big softbox for a tea light but the footprint was just too large so yeah yeah yeah I like those images a lot and I still like you said we still use them quite a bit all right so moving on we have another uh fantastic trip that we were able to take together it's a BMW and that was just setting it up letting people know what that is so I I can never remember what year it was do you remember I think it's 2015 2015 October of 2015 October 2015 so there you have it so we were doing this is probably like one of the most rewarding projects that we've done at least from my perspective because we did so many different things so that the job was we were on a European road trip in the new BMW 7 series and we flew to we were going to three cities we went to Zurich we went to Milan and we went to Munich and along the way we were meeting interesting people uh and telling their stories and uh highlighting features of the car like through their stories so uh in Zurich we met Mark Farner uh from Radical Sports is like one of the forerunners of introducing carbon fiber into skis and snowboards um we met a really cool experimental jazz jazz musician there uh well it was a similar thing for all these cities so we flew flew into Zurich picked up the car and then we were off to the races yeah yeah and uh we had uh I wish I could remember his name but like our our handler you know followed us around Bjorn yeah yeah yeah Bjorn followed us around uh you know so we would just drive every day or like go to go to the next meeting um and what stands out it's sort of what stands out for me is exactly what you're saying like so many interesting people and the opportunity to shoot so many different types of things like the first night I was shooting live music like who doesn't love having access all areas with a camera at a live music event that's awesome you know like um and then like shooting interiors of the car and like really detailed like photos that that told the story of of of the makeup of the vehicle and yeah it was super we made so many cool things like so it was such like a multi-pronged approach I mean we weren't really focusing on Instagram I don't I don't think I really knew how to use Instagram at that point but we made so many uh amazing blog posts we did cinemagraphs uh that came came out really awesome uh we did a short video which was which was fun you remember that one uh huh uh you you remember mostly uh I think uh meeting John Paolo oh but yeah great we took that photo actually right there yeah yeah sure it did what did you like most about meeting him I had met him met him previously but that was your first time yeah so he was just such a gracious like warm um like super awesome down to earth like guy you know Italian gentleman type type personality but just like um like in my mind what I think of when I think of the Italian people like he's he's really boisterous you know he he um he's really kind and generous oh super kind and generous yeah yeah um and so uh he he met with us and we went out to a great lunch with him or dinner dinner dinner yeah had a great dinner with him a big fish that was very salty yeah and and I think I like I don't smoke cigarettes but he was smoking a cigarette so he gave me one and I took like three puffs oh you were like handed off of it no well not not really yeah it like hit me like zing but then like I felt so terrible the next day oh yeah uh yeah like walking into that restaurant with him I always say this but uh was like uh that scene with uh and good fellas when Ray Leota walks into the Copa Cabana it's that famous scene like that follow scene that's like two minutes long you know one shot and everyone knows them and stuff and they're saying hey hey how's it going it was exactly like that that's how I remember that's how I remember it in my mind um okay so the next one I'm pretty sure you remember and hopefully you can um help refresh my memory a little bit because there there are aspects of this that I just can't recall so I I simply called it samurai guy samurai guy yes and okay so I went back looking for the photo that you took of him at the top of the stairs but before we talk about that maybe you could like just set this up I don't remember what we were shooting I remember where we were exactly yeah so yeah we were we were over kind of by MoMA or uh or mica mica yeah we're over kind of by mica yeah and there are those uh those steps that head down um what were we shooting do you even remember I don't I don't uh that was it seems to me around the time period where we would have been shooting maybe that crazy checkered blazer like the really huge pattern I went back through like blazer literally before this every single folder in the drive that I have with our photos on it and I could not like identify where this was but I remember in the proofs that you sent there was this this you had the photo that you took so anyway we went down the stairs right we were trying out to like find a different place to shoot yes and and we had seen him on the street right you know like already this crazy like a crazy I don't know if it was homeless or just like a crazy like guy who lives in Baltimore could it be either yeah definitely definitely mentally not not well you know um and we went down but as we came back up he was standing at the top of the steps and he's got like this long like stringy hair right yes um and he's not like a small guy to begin with but he's got a machete was no so I couldn't remember whether it was like an actual machete it was like an actual legit machete and we're both just like I couldn't remember if it was that or like in my mind that's what it was but then I was like no he couldn't have had that he must have had like a like a stick or something but it was a machete I thought we were going to die yeah straight up a machete and and like not only do we not die but we like just kind of like walked past him right like we walked past him and and then we kept on shooting and then a little while later we look across the street and he's like down with his arms behind you know he's like eating pavement and the cops are like all surrounding because of course like oh I don't remember I don't remember that crazy guy like carrying around a machete on the streets is going to draw some attention eventually I literally thought like he was going to start hacking us oh man yeah so that that was memorable in a different kind of way yeah next one is one of your favorites I know I've got a picture of it up on the shelves or the yeah the shelves there and it was from early on gosh I mean I can't pinpoint the year but you know what I can say is that we had spent the morning shooting we were definitely in downtown Baltimore and we were kind of done for the day like we had we had wrapped the last outfit and we were just kind of walking back to the car and there was just that lot isn't even there like no it's been like multiple things it's been multiple things since then but it was like this this old undeveloped lot and the wall behind it you know had some graffiti on it it's like pretty pretty gritty looking but there was like this old milk cart in there and I just thought like oh it'll be really awesome to have you all dressed the way you were and juxtaposed against that like empty open scene and I still love that photo like I just it it is it's just interesting to me like why is that person there like what are they doing and then and the pose you know you're kind of like sitting there just like thinking a little bit or whatever I just yeah I just in my mind that stands out as a sometimes that happens where we'll do like just kind of this random photo we'll take and we're like oh that was pretty good I don't know how that happens yeah right I mean and it probably wasn't something that we were ever really gonna so much you know like use for the blog I don't think we've ever put it anywhere other than we did like an unpublished picture post or something like that a while ago yeah but no it's it's uh you made a nice canvas of it's in the studio right yeah I just I love it cool uh next one uh was a pick of mine uh and probably not for the reasons that that you may remember this is another one I'm gonna need some help remembering stuff with and that's uh when we shot the Bentley Continental GT Black Speed Edition this was freaking car that's one of the coolest cars I've driven uh actually I think of my my favorite my favorite uh more than the Ferrari the you know it just it felt like a tank but uh a very nimble tank uh humongous engine so we had this car it's bright red and uh we have it for like we're spending the day shooting with it made like a little video we put the GoPro's on it and drove around uh we it was a really cool uh oh we also flew the drone to make that video um but it was really really cool to do so as we were like trying to like figure out where we wanted to shoot it uh what I remember is like we picked this corner downtown and we parked it there yeah you know where I'm going with this but before before that happened we'll we'll get to uh the first thing that happened was were we on the wrong side of the street uh no we weren't on the wrong side of the street but we weren't like we had pulled out past the corner yes because that because it looked better that way because it looks better right I mean looked better mm-hmm so the first thing that happened was we were like sitting in the car uh and then a cop rolled up on us do you remember that okay yeah yeah so he like rolls up and tells me to roll the window down and I rolled the window down and and I'm like ah he's gonna like give me hell for being halfway out into the street exactly that's what I thought and and what did he want to do he was like hey can I take a look at this car right yeah so so we got no doubt so we had the had the uh the cop check out the car and he didn't care that we were pulled out halfway into the street taking these pictures not at all but then the next thing that happened is we got to hear Baltimore's best rapper he was amazing the best it was on I looked through okay so he he rolled up on your side he was just like walking on the street and and as I recall uh he said something like uh hey you know he's like really trying to get us to like uh open the car we were like uh I don't think so you know it doesn't look like a very friendly person uh and then uh you know similarly like the samurai guy look at who this person is uh and then he's like no no no and we still like wouldn't open the door he's like I need this for my music video I'm Baltimore's best rapper and then he started like rhyming for us right and I I took a video of it but I looked back and I couldn't find it so that's gone forever uh so yeah I mean how many years ago I remember you taking the video of it yeah yeah I mean like those two things stand out uh it occurred to me that day that when you have a car that fancy and a bunch of camera gear and red and red like the cops they don't give a s*** what you're doing right the cops are gonna let you do whatever you want to if you've got that car and a bunch of cameras and you look like you belong there like sweet park wherever you want just just do whatever you want to um and then a lot of just like we one of the go-pros like fell off the car while we were filming oh we're like driving downtown and it fell off the side of the car and we had to go back and scoop it up it did it get run over it didn't get run over but but we totally had to go get it we've got some there's footage somewhere of like this gopro just going oh I have to look for that and it was like uh I'm not a drone pilot by any stretch but it was one of the first times that I actually flew a drone and there's some of that footage that I still really love like there's like this wraparound shot that starts from one side of the car down like low at the hood level and like wraps all the way around to the other side and like every time I have like watched it I'm like I shot that you know that's cool yeah it's like that was at the very end of the day yeah like when you get the lens like the headlight flare and stuff yeah yeah all right so the next one is was kind of a trip based but uh you you chose it um the shoot that we did for van cleef and arpel of in chicago with watches right right so the the reason I chose it and what stood out to me as the most hilarious thing was that I wonder if it's the same thing that I thought when I saw that on the list we rolled into town yeah and before we even go to the hotel or anything you're like yeah I just got to stop by the boutique and pick up the watch and you know it's chicago it's the middle of the day there's like limited street parking and we figure that out and you're I'm just like hey you know I'll stay with the car you're like yeah I'm just gonna I gotta run in and get it and you were back in like two seconds like and you like get in the car hand over this watch and like the watch is uh I mean it was many many thousands of dollars like a very expensive watch I think it was like 30 what was it that much I just think 30 or 35 yeah so expensive watch and and um I was like so like yeah do you have to like sign your life aware whatever you're like no actually I just walked in and like told him who I was and they gave it to me and I was just like yeah that was the first time that that's what when you said when you said it that's that's what stood out to me it's like just like that was the first time I like we like kind of did something and I walked in and they just like here here's this really expensive thing go go have fun with it yeah I like still that sort of blows my mind you know but then um it was cold it was cold I mean Chicago and what probably like like March or yeah October or something like like early spring in Chicago um we definitely froze doing that but like the hotel was super awesome uh what hotel was that it was right across from the Langham the Langham Langham was fantastic and they were so accommodating like where that shout out to shout out to Kelly thanks for for hooking us up that day oh yeah I mean we just got to shoot wherever we wanted and it was a great environment so we were able to really make some great great images right there um it took longer than than it would take us now because it was like the first time that we were shooting watches and we were trying to do something like more editorial and like just show the vibe of the city and everything like that and uh I think it came out good well we worked we had to work really hard for it yeah we worked hard for it for like a day and a half solid um oh was it a day and a half I don't remember that yeah yeah because we got up and shot the next morning too for sure um and um the dinner wherever that dinner was at that like downtown market area another place where we had like a full fish show up on the plate and that the bar was made out of all of those um like stacked furniture I know somewhere I've got a picture of that bar yeah and we had like an edit off or something on our phones yeah yeah yeah totally we sat there like eating delicious food and like playing with our phones sounds about right all right so uh let's say we go to number 10 here uh and this is a recent trip also a trip uh and it was to London it's also with our good friends at JLC um was it what stands out about that to you I was trying to think uh I mean the people again were great and and it was great to see everyone um but what did what did you like most about that one um it was my first time back in London for a very long time I've been there previously um and I like that city like I like I like London and so that was enjoyable uh one of the main things that that's sticking out uh to me is we were looking around for a place to shoot something and that Rolls Royce pulled up yeah and and we just sort of we managed to like just like hop in and take a bunch of pictures in a Rolls Royce which was super fun yeah like we're literally like I was like hey um can I can we just like use that really quick like I'm just gonna like pretend I'm getting out of the car and then like like Rob then you jump in back and I'm gonna get in front and you take a shot of the watch oh yeah now there's some good like we had to work so fast because like it wasn't our car we didn't have it like didn't have it for us you know and we just like got in there and like took care of business and like pulled some killer shots and like got out yeah super awesome yeah yeah I I remember that that was awesome uh there was also we failed miserably uh at making a video it was like the weather was terrible um there was like just too much else to do I feel uh right yeah so that that was a little disappointing to me but I think like all the other content that we made pictures we took were awesome for that trip and then there was our lunch brunch with Shari and yeah amazing really really great yeah again it's like the people we get to meet and connections we can make and and Shari someone I know from the the watch world and not watch world Miami but uh and style style world as well uh he's a super cool guy and again very generous very nice very much along the Jompaolo Alliato lines so yeah anything else about that one try to think other than like the the nice plain seat you got to have your bond martini that's right so we're we're we went to Duke's Bar in Mayfair and Rob doesn't drink and our friend from JLC doesn't drink either so I drug these these two people to a bar and made them wait I was like 40 minutes or so to to get a little table in in Duke's Bar and then I I got the the Vesper and I was wasted like one drink from well because it was before dinner we had in a long time yeah I felt that immediately and she and I were like even super underdressed because you also wore a tuxedo yes yeah you wore a tuxedo and I didn't have socks on which some people really found offensive when I posted the picture or I forget yeah whatever um but then like the final pictures that we took out in that courtyard at that at the at the big event were also super cool like that shoot location was like off the charts it just looks so good yeah Royal Royal Academy of Arts yeah it was great yeah well those are the 10 that we came up with yeah it's cool to like sit back and remember all the the fun we've had and and the cool things we've done and scary times occasionally oh sure so well thanks for uh it's good to talk to you it's good to talk to you it's good to see you like I we don't ever uh right now nobody gets to kind of go hang out or do anything so it's nice to see your face just so just so we're clear I'm fine not seeing you I don't need to see you but you wanted to do this so we're doing it hey that's that's a child yourself you tell yourself whatever you need to be done well this was fun and thanks for everyone for tuning in be sure to leave your comments down below thumbs up that's like right yeah thumbs up means like subscribe hit the bell here hit the bell there you go is that where the bell is it hit the bell and leave us a comment let let us did I say that already oh there you go see so thanks again guys uh and uh if you want maybe we should do this occasionally I like it yeah well we don't know when this is going to end so we'll see yeah I'll see we'll we'll see when you can pencil me in again perfect all right well thanks for watching guys and until next time uh stay tailored