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My friend and great photographer Michael Muller worked on a TV show about sharks. You may have seen some of his shark posters around LA. He’s very dedicated to the ocean and the environment. I’m sure the show will be awesome. Check it out. -Shepard
Shark Shoot: Fiji on December 18th on the Travel Channel at 9pm EST (check local listings).
For more info on Michael Muller and his production company, STRAWHOUSE Productions, click here.
Elite celeb photographer, Mike Muller travels the globe shooting some of the biggest celebrities on the planet. Mike’s fearless passion drives him to capture a more elusive subject, the world’s real celebrities: animals. In this special, Mike seeks eight different species of sharks all converging in Fiji. Mike and his crew are high tech “MacGyver’s”, building big toys to get the perfect shot! They are bringing the Hollywood Photo Studio 70 feet underwater to capture these one-of-a-kind photos. The stakes are high; Mike and his crew risk it all to capture images that will shatter all of our misconceptions about the elusive shark.
Series Description
SHARK SHOOT: FIJI
Hollywood photographer Michael Muller goes on the adventure of a lifetime – up close and personal with the world’s wildest animals in the world’s wildest places. Through Mike’s unique, irreverent, unprecedented point of view, you’ll see animals, places, and people in an entirely new way. He’s in constant demand as one of the top Hollywood photographers, creating famous portraits of stars like Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey, Jr. But Mike is more interested in a different kind of elusive subject for his camera. In fact, Mike wants us to get to know the real celebrities on this planet – and he’ll do whatever it takes to show us how passionate he is about his cause.
Together with his eclectic group of friends and fellow adventurers, Mike creates all kinds of specialized rigs, shooting platforms and lighting apparatuses to get the job done. These contraptions allow him to get as close as humanly possible to his unpredictable and extremely dangerous subjects – making it possible for Mike to swim with great white sharks, run alongside cheetahs on the attack, plunge into active volcanoes, dive with polar bears hunting seals, fly into the heart of a killer storm, or put himself between a mama grizzly bear and her cubs.
In a nutshell, if we’ve ever been told NOT to do something – that’s exactly how Mike plans to do it. Why? Because Mike has the determination, imagination and mad skills to do what others aren’t willing, or able, or brave enough to do. Mike’s goal is to convince the world that there’s more to these amazing creatures than typically meets the eye – but he needs to get the perfect shots to prove it.
Every mission means another location and a whole new set of challenges. Mike’s busy work schedule means that they only have a limited amount of time to come up with a strategy, build their rigs, travel to the location, set up their equipment, get the perfect shot and get back in time for Mike’s next assignment. Balancing his Hollywood career with his passion for high adventure and protecting animals is what keeps Mike’s life interesting, and always on the edge. SHARK SHOOT is an adventure series that takes the audience to some of the most exotic locations in the world for a unique perspective on animals, places, people and our place in the world. Mike Muller and his friends combine intriguing challenges, exploration of exotic environments and the thrill of the hunt with a quest to help us experience – and therefore appreciate – the natural world in an entirely new and deeper way.
Talent Description
Celebrity Photographer and host MICHAEL MULLER spent much of his youth living abroad and traveling the world with his family. When Mike was 15 years old, he returned to the US and began taking pictures at competitive snowboarding events. Within a year, his first photographs were published. Mike tried to make it in art school at the Otis Parsons School of Design, but after one short semester, he found himself an art school dropout. Michael then embarked on a journey of self-education. By the time he was 22, he was photographing some of the most prestigious names in the entertainment and fashion industry. Mike’s work has graced the covers and pages of magazines, including Vanity Fair, Elle, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, Flaunt, The New York Times, ESPN The Magazine, Filter, Esquire, Interview and Time Magazine. Mike has worked on advertising campaigns for SPEEDO, NIKE, BILLABONG, DITA EYEWEAR, RANGE ROVER, DODGE, FILA, and VON ZIPPER. Michael documented MARVEL Studios the feature film, IRONMAN, as well as X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, HANCOCK, MAX PAYNE, ENTOURAGE, 24, CRASH, THE BEAST in addition to many other film and television projects. He recently completed an extensive diving expedition in the Galapagos Islands for the Swiss watchmaker, IWC, that is helping support The Charles Darwin Foundation and UNESCO. BIG SHOT © 2010/2011 – BASE Productions Inc. Page 2 Michael has also started a charity, called KIDS CLICKING KIDS. KCK brings photography to children in hospitals, many who have never taken a photograph before. “Watching children smile and laugh from taking photos, even while some are in great pain, has been one the most rewarding experiences of my career,” says Muller. After more than a decade and a half of living and working in New York and Paris, at the age of 38, Michael once again calls Los Angeles his home. Michael is married and has three daughters.
Lighting Tech BLAKE FARRINGTON was born and raised in Northern California.He traveled overseas to experience new cultures and everything they had to offer: different languages, histories, music, art and people. In his twenties, Blake took up photography and worked for several news outlets as a freelancer. In the early 90s, he got an assignment that would change his life: covering the war in Bosnia. Blake covered the battles and then returned to document the aftermath. He was amazed that this was how a beautiful city and wonderful people could turn on each other. His acclaimed photos from that period are some of his most prized work. He next traveled to Africa to document HIV/AIDS issues in a small community in Eastern Uganda. Blake found Africa to be unlike any other place he had traveled to before. The communities were affable and pleasant, but at the same time, the daily living conditions were intense. While working there, Blake experienced civil unrest in the northern regions and began documenting conflicts and their impact on the local populations. He returned to Africa shortly thereafter to continue his work in the region. Currently, Blake is based in Los Angeles with his wife and son. Blake’s past experience as a documentarian evolved into more diverse photography projects, embracing all types of media. Blake is an avid outdoorsman and experienced survivalist. He’s also a certified Advanced, Rescue and Dry Suit Diver.
Lighting Tech LELAND WILLIAM HAYWARD was born into a showbiz family. His grandfather was a Broadway producer and grandmother was a Broadway actress. His father, William Heyward, was a film producer. His uncle was the actor, Dennis Hopper. His aunt wrote a book about his family, called “Haywire,” which was made into a TV mini series starring Jason Robards and Lee Remick. He worked as an actor on various films and TV shows – and a ton of commercials. But at heart, he’s an adrenaline junkie who prefers to explore remote regions of the world photographing incredible animals, people and places. He’s an experienced lighting engineer and cable-pro who is an invaluable member of Mike’s long term photography team.
Technical Engineer RICKY RIDECOS (Team Linguist & Mr. GPS) was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He received his first camera when he was 13 years old. He immediately began documenting his family going about their daily life. He would spend hours photographing his parents. It didn’t matter if it was his father polishing his trumpet or mother wiping down the kitchen counter. He had caught the shutterbug. Ricky finally decided that his future was in America. It took him a year to get a job in photography. Not only did he have to learn how to speak a new language, but as a photographer, he also had to learn the name of every piece of specialized equipment. Since then, Ricky’s work has taken him all over the world. He’s worked with hundreds of directors, photographers and artists in countless countries. His work has given him a wide variety of experiences, from a high fashion spread in the middle of a desert sandstorm to photo shoots 30 feet underwater with 10,000-watt lights. His favorite part of photography is how it presents different sets of unpredictable challenges, requiring him to act on his instincts and experience.
Rig Master KEITH LEMAN of Polish descent was hatched in 1972, and is an experienced rig master, lighting tech, and director of photography on projects all around the world. He is inspired by commonsense and the way beams of sun can bounce off windows at certain hours of the day. He prides himself onturning the mundane into magical. His favorite place is sitting on his dolly, reminding us that people to often forget about light.
Episode Description:
Hollywood photographer, Mike Muller, and his crew of explorers travel to Fiji and take a Hollywood high-tech studio underwater to capture photos of 8 species of sharks.
