St. Regis Longboat Key Resort, Florida Photography

 

 

 

Breathtaking Aerial Ballerina

One of the highlights of shooting images on an assignment in South Florida,  is the absolute stellar natural light and beauty that is seen just about everywhere.

I had the privilege of documenting the unveiling ceremony of the magnificent St. Regis Longboat Key Resort this past Friday August 16th, 2024.

Hands down the most beautiful resort I’ve ever seen. Coupled with paying homage to the late John Ringling, Sarasota’s iconic Ringling Circus history.

Following the speeches, a kabuki curtain dropped from the 18ft floor to ceiling windows unveiling the resort’s breathtaking views of private white sand beach meeting the endless blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico while an aerialist performed.

The unveiling of an aerial ballerina. The crowd was blown away!
Entry area and beautiful wraparound custom bar

As drinks & hors d’oeuvres were served by St. Regis Butlers, Anthony Capuano,

President and CEO of Marriott International, Bob Kharazmi, Managing Director of Marriott International Luxury Operations Brands U.S. & Canada, Chuck Whittall, Founder and CEO of Unicorp National Developments

and Winfred van Workum, General Manager of The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort welcomed guests into the Great Hall for remarks.

Onsite aquarium

Guests were captivated as the event concluded with the St. Regis ritual of champagne sabering before being led on property tours and sampling cuisines of the many restaurants.

Multiple swimming pools including an onsite aquarium with a backdrop of the beautiful Gulf Coast sea.

View from “Oshen” restaurant, combining the umami-rich flavors of Japanese cooking with the bold spice of Peruvian cuisine.

Cold plunges, hot tubs, pools, saunas, steam rooms, massages, etc.

The hotel rooms and suites, Grand Oval Ballroom are all so tastefully decorated to sooth ones soul. But …The SPA blew me away! Talk about LUXURY!

Infinity Pool off of spa, facing the Gulf Sea

My colleague Juliana Dennis, publisher of GolfCoast Magazine allowed me the honor to document such a special property and view such incredible beauty.

Thank you, Juliana and “Hats off” on your gorgeous magazine!

Juliana Dennis & Kristen Jensen

Health and Wellness Photography

wellness

I did a shoot with Shira Adler who is the owner of Diva Mama. She has a lot of energy and she’s a great person – I loved working with her. She released a line of aromatherapy sprays called “Diva Mama Aromatherapy Sprays” that come in four different scents: Clear, Center, Nurture and Inspire.  I was lucky enough to snag a few bottles and not only do they give me energy, but they smell great! These sprays are available on her website if you want to give them a try.

Capturing the New Look of SoNo


I worked with my girlfriend Stephanie Pelletier, who runs SoNo Design District, to promote all the cool stores and restaurants in South Norwalk. We went to SoNo to shoot and on one of our stops went to the most amazing Indian restaurant on Washington Street. I took this of Gopinath Nair, the owner of Coromandel Indian Bistro. He prepared some delicious food for us, I can’t wait to go back!

Shooting a Documentary

On August 4th, my production company filmed six extraordinary men that swam around Manhattan to raise awareness and funding for research towards a cure for Multiple Myeloma. If you would like to see a clip of what we shot, you can view it here.

The implications of any medical breakthroughs for the disease will likely be applicable to many other forms of cancer. Meaning, it is pivotal to the cancer community that Multiple Myeloma research is perpetually funded. The research at Mt. Sinai Hospital is currently on hold until the next federal grant is accessible. Our goal then, is to raise the funding needed to sustain research during this gap period.

I was shooting a bit of HD video with my LUMIX. I plan on giving a presentation this year again for Panasonic at the Javits Center around late October. The subject will be  on how to shoot and produce video with your mirror-less camera. I love shooting video on these as well with my Canon 7D…it brings another service that I can provide for my clients. Print/video packages are what I am shooting a lot of right now and I’m having a blast!

This photo of me above was taken by the brilliant photographer: John Fortunato

A Fresh New Start

I stumbled across this photo last week and it’s one of my all time favorites of Noah and our closest friend, Glenn. I shot this on Glenn’s camera in 2003 which seems ages ago because Noah has grown so much since. Glenn is 6’5 and Noah is expected to be the same. Finding it inspired me to start a new gallery in my home of my favorite black and whites. I plan on hanging nine 12×12 black frames with 10×10 black and whites of my favorite photos, including this one.

Speaking of new galleries and new things, this summer felt like a new start for me because I spent ten days throwing things out that I haven’t used in a year and giving things away that I no longer need. I feel about a gazillion pounds lighter after giving away tons of stuff that wasn’t needed by me anymore, but that someone else could use. Now I have a clean palette in my house for my new gallery idea.

This summer has been baseball everyday for Noah. And for me, I’m back to playing tennis and running. My close friends know I took about 18 months off, but this summer was all about a fresh start and that outlook helped get me back into activities I enjoy. I hope everyone has been having a great summer, even though it always goes by so fast. Anyone have fun plans for Labor Day??

My mother

Leslie (aka Mutie) visited me the past month from Seattle and we had a ball. First we redecorated my entire house. ….I mean every single room. Then mom came to one of my recent fashion shoots for a beauty portrait. What do you think? No bad for 72, huh?

Bond….James Bond

Here is a secret about me. When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up and be James Bond.

And I felt like I got to capture that fantasy when owner, Michael Chinnici of Photo Workshop Adventures invited me to join him and the crew a few weeks back to launch another photo workshop. I LOVED every minute. It was sexy, scary and thrilling all at once. If you want to have fun, take awesome photos and fly over one of the greatest cities on earth…sign up for a workshop, now!

http://www.photoworkshopadventures.com/Home.html

Photo Workshop Adventures is where it’s at!  Michael, where are we going next? I not only can teach/shoot NYC workshops but Tuscany and Tanzania sound pretty awesome, too…right?