A new cover I shot came out this weekend, Chuck "iceman" Liddell for UFC magazine. I'm not a huge UFC fan, because whenever I have tried to watch it I always wince and turn away from the tv because the stuff they do looks SO painful. I end up looking at the wall more than the tele, so I just cant do it anymore. Those arm bends and stuff they do just freak me out....But, I guess alot of people can watch without wincing, because this sport is huge and getting bigger. Anyway, of course I had heard of Chuck when I got the call from Lisa, as he is one of the few huge marquee names in the sport. And the best part is the shoot was at Chucks house in San Luis Obispo, a town on the central cali coast that I love. The concept of the shoot was to have Chuck in a t shirt that the art director, Brant Louck, had made with a "rude boy" graphic of a little boy Chuck peeing on the name "ortiz" which is for Tito Ortiz, Chucks main career long nemesis and soon to be combatant once again. Shoots like this are always stressful for a few reasons. One, dealing with a mega star like Chuck is always a little tough as they have been around and done this kinda stuff a million times, which makes them bored easily and skeptical of your ideas. Two, I had to "build" a portable studio somewhere in his house, and I need a good bit of room to do it and you never know what you're walking into. And three, with a concept like this, which Chuck HADN'T been told about, you worry he will take one look at the shirt, tell you to f-off, kick you out of his house straight away, or throw you against the wall. But, like alot of things in life, you just go for it, use your perception and southern charm (mine) to feel it out, and cross your fingers. He loved the idea and had a good time with it, as he really does hate Tito Ortiz in a big way. And we moved furniture around to make room for the studio in his living room, but it was tight... The dog was his, and his name was "bean". And for the record, bean was a little punk ass, whenever i would pet him, he would snarl and growl but he's one of those little dogs thats just always fronting and irascible but never bites.
