Restaurant Photography: Southern Roots, The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa, Autograph Collection, Point Clear, Alabama

I was grateful this month to do some fun work for Marriott Traveler!

I had an incredible day on property with Chef Cory Garrison in his kitchen at the Grand Resort Hotel & Spa Autograph Collection in Point Clear, AL. He and his crew are doing incredible things in their new restaurant, Southern Roots.

Behind the scenes of air-to-air photography fun over Fairhope, AL

I took a personal day this past weekend to tag along with my buddy Sheldon on one of his projects.  Sheldon is currently working on a documentary for college about private aviators and their uncanny passion for flying.  Parts of this documentary require air-to-air photography and video footage, and Saturday was Sheldon's day to shoot it.  The location was picturesque Fairhope, Alabama. How do you shoot good footage of another airplane in flight?

You remove the door of the airplane, obviously.  A sixty mile-hour wind is the perfect wake-up call for early in the morning.  It cools you off, blows your hair back and inflates your clothing to Schwarzeneggerian proportions.

It was Sheldon's project, so naturally he took the primary position by the open door, as you will see below.  I sat in the backseat and photographed Sheldon videoing another plane, and also used the flight time to capture some nice landscape shots of the beautiful countryside in and around Fairhope.

The 5am wakeup call aside, it was a heckuva fun way to spend the morning.  I was only disappointed that we weren't in Fairhope at lunch to hit up the Biscuit King & Willie's Smokin' BBQ, which happens to have the best smoked brisket I have ever had anywhere...but there's always next time.

And now, photos!

And, as a bonus for all my techie friends, a little gratuitous gear porn featuring Sheldon's 7D and video rig...