Recently I had the honor of photographing an old friend right before she gave birth. It was a lot of fun and she looked amazing while carrying at 8 month!  Dad even got into the fun for the shoot too.

Shortly after the maternity pictures were taken I got to photograph the little guy ( now just a few days old) that was inside during the first shoot. Both mom and son were great subjects.  The little guy only peed once on set!

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Joshua Prezant Photography was hired this week to photograph in a true Paradise hideaway: Bimini Bay, Bahamas.

When a client calls and says, “Get your passport ready.  We have a private plane on standby.”  You know you are in for an exciting shoot.  What I did not expect is how amazingly beautiful and peaceful it was going to be.

Vail Resorts, one of my new favorite clients, recently took over management of the Bimini Bay Resort and Marina and needed some marketing and PR photography for their new property.  Bimini is a quiet little paradise just 53 miles due east of Miami. The island is not that populated and meagerly developed. It is consider one of the world’s top big gaming fishing spots and is a regular hideaway for boaters from South Florida looking for a quick getaway.

The photo shoot could not have started out better.  A nice private plane with leather seats was waiting at the Tamiani International executive airport. With the majority of my clients, commercial airlines are the norm.  With that comes getting to the airport 3 plus hours with all my equipment ready to be checked and screened, making sure that some over zealous TSA or airline employee doesn’t  mishandle my equipment luggage and damage my gear. And in the old days the struggle to make sure that the 100 plus rolls of slide film you were carrying did not go through the X-ray machine and were hand checked…every last roll of film.  Then there is the waiting and the cramped seats.   But not on this flight.  Within 20 minutes we were descending through an amazing array of puffy clouds to reveal rich turquoise water of the coast off the plush green island of Bimini.  Not a terrible day at the office!

It was a great assignment for a great client.

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In a senate bill ( SB 1246) filed Monday by  Sen. Jim Norman, R- Tampa, photographing a farm without written permission  from the owner would be a first- degree felony.

To read more about this unconstitutional bill see the article by Bruce Ritchie in the Florida Tribune.

Please let your local political representative know how silly this bill is.  Last time I check anything photographed ( not using a “super telephoto lens”) from public property was fair game.

Dairy cows eat, rest, and bask in the sun Tuesday afternoon in Cooper City, FL on "farm land" on the North West corner of Sheridan Street and University Drive. As this was once a normal scene in West Broward County, it is becoming more rare with the huge growth in population that the county has seen in the last 15 years. It will not be before long that this land is filled with a strip shopping center or townhouses.

What do you get when you photograph a group of people that have been having their whole lives filmed for years……Great actors in a sad real life drama!

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Joshua Prezant Photography was contracted to take portraits and behind the scene photographs of the Entire Hogan Family as they entered into the 2nd season of VH1’s #1 reality show Hogan Knows Best being filmed in Miami Beach.

Little did I know that only a few months later the family that appeared happy and together, and in love in my images would turn into a huge mess….

Nick Bollea, Hogan’s son, was arrested and sentenced to 8 months of jail for charges of felony reckless driving stemming from a accident in Clearwater, Florida where he flipped his yellow Toyota on a wet road and collided with a palm tree, a crash so serious that his passenger John Graziano will need to be cared for in a nursing home for the rest of his life.

Terry ( hulk) and his wife of of over 24 years divorced in a very nasty and public battle that dragged on for almost 2 years.

Although I saw the stresses of being filmed 24-7 and having to always be “ON” I had no idea what was to come and that the marriage was about to end.

The family was wonderful to photograph. With  the help of my great assistant Noelle we were able to photograph several great family portraits as well as an array of individual portraits in a short amount of time. The crew doing the filming on the show were a pleasure to work with as well.  We were able to work smoothly and in synch with them to get the images we need while not interfering with the actual tapping of the show.  ***And no, you will not find Joshua Prezant in any of the episodes of the show.  I declined to sign a release to be featured in the show.

I wish the Hogan family well and hope that better, happier, and more loving time are are ahead for them all.

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One of the great things about my business is the fact that I get to meet wonderful people from all walks of life.  Young and old, rich and poor, outgoing and shy, and artistic and intellectual.  My team and I get a peek into a slice of life for these people and their worlds.

Paloma Teppa, owner, of Plant the Future, was one of these wonderful people that we get to meet.    Teppa is an Argentina born and Italian fine arts trained industrial artist and her medium is plants.  She uses live plants and flowers to create miniature sculptured gardens. Joshua Prezant Photography was commissioned by Miami Magazine to photograph Teppa at her store.  Teppa was a great subject that was willing to try any of the setups I have thought of.  One of these included her sitting on a piece of her work literally on top of a spiky cactus!!

Tear Sheet

Outtake

Shamesha loves children and tending to their needs makes her feel useful and fulfilled. She hopes to translate this love of children into a future as a caregiver. This bright young lady already volunteers part-time at a daycare center where she enjoys feeding babies, rocking them to sleep and teaching them the difference between right and wrong.

Her friends describe her as “talkative,” and she sees herself as cute and funny with an energetic imagination. In her spare time, Shamesha enjoys spending quiet time in the park or just singing along to her favorite rap, hip hop or Gospel track. Participating in sports is high on her list of favorite things to do. One of her short-term dreams? She hopes to be invited to a dance – one day soon. Loving and warm-hearted, Shamesha hopes to be adopted by a caring and understanding family that enjoys outdoor activities. Her desire for a stable home is so strong that this creative child wrote her own song about being adopted!

This child with special needs has set her mind on developing creative ways to manage her frustrations. It’s important to her to maintain a relationship with her birth family. A supportive environment for Shamesha will be one that provides balance and that enables her to become the shining light that she can be.

Since it’s inception I have been a contributor to the Miami Herat Gallery project.  Every year I have been honored to be asked to be part of a group of photographers from South Florida that come together to photograph some of the many children up for adoption in Miami.  This year I got to photograph a wonderful young lady named Shamesha (pictured above) that has been in and out of the “system” her whole life.  Hopefully she, along with the hundreds of other Miami-Dade foster children, will find a good loving home soon!

The Children’s Trust Miami Heart Gallery is a traveling, museum quality exhibit featuring portraits of children in Miami-Dade’s foster care system who are available for adoption. Child advocates and agencies across the nation have come together to create Heart Galleries, featuring children who dream of finding permanent homes with loving families.

From Maine to California and Florida to Washington state, these dedicated Heart Gallery planners have added their own touches, and through hard work and the generosity of their communities, they have helped these special children step out from the shadows into the light.

For more information and links to other Heart Galleries across the United States, visit www.heartgalleryofamerica.com or click on the section to the right for Heart Galleries throughout the US.

Exhibit at the FIU Frost Museum

Exhibit at the FIU Frost Museum