The Location Managers Guild of America is an organization of Location Scouts and Managers, based in Los Angeles, but with members around the world. I was fortunate enough to have some of my photos included in the 2012 Calendar, on the cover and in the New York, Louisiana and New Mexico sections. Here are some pages from the calendar:

The goal was to find a high angle shot where we could see active CSX train tracks with a highway on one side and a river on the other. I scouted the CSX rail line from Syracuse down to the edge of NYC. I found the hero location on the Mohawk River, up above NYS Route 5, between Amsterdam and Schenectady. Sam Bayer directed, and the production company was HSI.

One of my favorite international scouting/casting jobs was for IBM in Senegal. I leapfrogged around the world for the director Lenny Dorfman and a crew from Radical Media. I flew into Dakar, Senegal in the middle of the night, after flights from JFK and Paris, and started scouting locations and casting friends, family and coaches of the captain of the Senegalese womans’ Olympic basketball team. A few days later, the crew flew in from NYC, and we quickly shot the spot in the streets and basketball courts of Dakar, in 100 degree heat and humidity. We had a blast! When we finished, I flew off to do the same thing in Montreal and Australia, while other people handled Ireland and Harlem.

I scouted the ’shorelines’ of NYC this summer for the Jimmy Choo Cruise 12 Collection. It was shot by Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer, and produced by Nice Productions.

For the Fall 2011 Nina Ricci campaign, I was asked to find a location that could double for Paris, in the NYC area. With the Tuileries Gardens in mind, I scouted a number of grand estates, looking for the wide white gravel paths that are so typically Parisian. The photographers were Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, and it was styled by Alex White. The shoot was produced by Nice Productions. We found Paris in Long Island.

I did a job this summer for Gap’s new campaign for its brand 1969. I scouted throughout the New York area, including the Catskills, for locations that would represent various places, like Portland, Oregon. The photographer was Cass Bird, and the producer Joy Asbury, of joyasburyproductions.com.

I had two photos published in the 2011 edition of Locations Magazine, the magazine of the Association of Film Commissioners International. One photo was of an abandoned grocery store in Great Barrington, MA, which was included in a feature called Main Street USA. The other was the front photo of the Locations in Pictures section, which includes photos by location scouts around the world. The photo is of a graphic NYC location, 12th Avenue under Riverside Drive. (The cover shot is by L.A. location scout extraordinaire, and my good friend, Geoff Juckes.)

Georgia May Jagger appeared in a story I worked on for the September 2010 issue of W. I scouted a classic Manhattan apartment in the legendary Apthorp building, whose residents have included Nora Ephron, Cyndi Lauper and Al Pacino. The photographer was Craig McDean, and it was styled by Alex White.

I had the pleasure of scouting a series of Fidelity spots for director Todd Field and producer Cory Berg of Trio Films. In this spot, we used New York City’s High Line as a location for the first time. Working with the gracious cooperation of the The High Line and the Standard Hotel, the production was completed successfully, without inconveniencing the public.

I recently scouted and managed some Degree deodorant commercials and Internet episodes in West Virginia. The ongoing series is called the Chain of Adventure, featuring Bear Grylls, star of the Discovery Channel’s Man Vs. Wild. Also appearing in the spots were several sports celebrities, including Mark Messier (hockey,) Mark Sanchez (football,) Kevin Durant (basketball,) and Tony Hawk (skateboarding.) I began scouting in the Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks, but I soon realized we had to shoot in West Virginia. In addition to impressive cliffs and a drop zone for a parachute/skateboard stunt, we needed massive, dam release whitewater in the fall, and I found all of these in the beautiful New River Gorge area.

French Vogue took a trip to the Hudson Valley to shoot “Un dimanche a la campagne” at this vast, lovely estate, which I’ve scouted for various projects. The photographer was Mikael Jansson, and the spread appeared in the November 2010 issue.

I scouted Red Hook, Brooklyn for Mert & Marcus, who channeled the spirit of Edward Hopper in this W spread in the September 2010 issue. Red Hook is rapidly gentrifying, but it still has a wonderful grittiness.

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In 2010 Volkswagen reintroduced the Golf into the U.S. market, and I scouted the NYC metropolitan area for the car’s brochure. It was shot by Oliver Paffrath, and produced by Jake Mills.

I was working in downtown Elizabeth, NJ when I gladly got the call to scout Cumberland Island for W. Cumberland is a barrier island off the coast of Georgia, once a private retreat of the Carnegie family, now largely administered by the National Park Service. The photographer was Mario Sorrenti, and it appeared in the August 2009 issue.

I had the wonderful opportunity and privilege to tour locations in Trinidad and Tobago as a guest of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company. I had scouted Tobago years ago for Bacardi, and its beaches still rank high among the Caribbean’s finest, but Trinidad was a revelation. The variety of architecture and landscapes really makes Trinidad and Tobago a location option that transcends Caribbean cliches.

This Ebay commercial by Traktor had me scout some of the most beautiful farm country, in Upstate New York’s Columbia County.

I had a wonderful time working with photographer Christian Weber and Louise Feldman of Proof Films on these ads for Lenovo notebook computers. I scouted Death Valley and Dumont Dunes, as well as airports and labs all around Los Angeles.

My scout for Tommy Hilfiger began at Lake Powell, but the low water levels and scraggly weeds found everywhere on newly exposed rock led me to look for alternative options in Monument Valley. The photographer was Dewey Nicks.

That’s me on frozen Fish Lake, the Yukon.

Riding a snowmobile in 20 below temperatures, I scouted frozen lakes in the Yukon for this Dewey Nicks shoot for Tommy Hilfiger. I researched various options in Alaska, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon because we had to shoot on a lake that would still be solidly frozen in April (!)

I worked with a team of great scouts on this Dodge spot with Brian Beletic of Smuggler.

Costa Rica is a tropical wonderland, where I’ve been fortunate enough to scout for two different jobs. This ad for Rolex was shot by Nadav Kander, and produced by Lynda Goldstein of Pix Producers.

This is one of my all-time favorite jobs, which took me from New Paltz to Buffalo, scouting and casting “real people” for a NY Lotto commercial. The director was Greg Kohs of Radical Media.

“IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS” from Greg Kohs on Vimeo.

The AFCI (Association of Film Commissioners International) publishes Locations Magazine once a year. This year they featured a photo I took in a Singapore Hindu temple while scouting for IBM. The photo appeared in a section called Locations : IN PICTURES.