A New York Portrait:: Melody

It was two days before I left for New York, and my phone rang.  "I need new headshots." The words came pouring sweetly through the receiver, the intonation of her voice made it much more of a question than a statement.  I knew what she meant.

We were going to be in the sprawling energetic city together, a sort-of annual, but mostly rare occasion for both of us to be there at the same time, especially since she traded the skyscrapers of that city for the golden sun rays of Los Angeles as her home.  Melody left for the hills of California, not even sure of how much she'd miss the noise that constantly dances the streets of Manhattan, for the noise of car horns honking and taxi drivers yelling under the muffle of warm sunsets while she brings a piece of Broadway to Santa Monica Boulevard.

After comparing schedules, we found the morning... the only few hours we both had free, to make the magic happen.  The day of the shoot we woke up to gorgeously misted gray skies resting on the shoulders of our hotel high rises... and rain.  Lots of rain with a chaser of humidity.  The kind that doesn't mix well with naturally curly locks.  I opened the door of her hotel room to find those locks being smoothed to cascading tendrils and calm blue eyes looking back at me, surrounded by stacks of papers and notes for her current project, now running back home.  Our pensive stare out the window lasted about 30 seconds before we decided to rock what we had... a hotel room with a window overlooking the bed and the rest of the hotel waiting for us to search out the light.

Rawr... Work. It. Out, Mel.

Her passion for life spills out into her work, her love, her friends.  And also? Her smile.

To see more of Melody's shoot and what we accomplished running around in our hotel for a couple of hours, CLICK HERE for the gallery slideshow!!