they shoot horses don't they?

One of our recurring themes in Genlux magazine is shooting horses in our fashion stories.

Personally I'm frightened of them (childhood trauma), but they are such massive, beautiful animals that you can always count on them to make a great photograph. So what better place to shoot horses than at the racetrack. So we head to Santa Anita Park with photographer Yoshi Ohara and his band of minions in tow. Stylist Amy Mach who is great at pulling luxury brands. This time: Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, Givenchy, Ferragamo, Balmain, and Barbara Bui—who sent in a beautiful jacket...all the way from Paris. The model is this stunning Icelandic/Indian beauty from Vision Models, Angela Jonsson.  Here's a sneak peek at the 10-page story that will be in our Genlux Summer issue!

Okay, so the shot I decide to show you doesn't have a horse in it. Well, not true. This is the left side of a spread. The horses are on the right hand page. Angela Jonsson / VIsion Models in Dolce & Gabbana satin lace print dress, $5775, Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, 310-275-4211; Mercura Mercura NYC pop art sunglasses, mercuranyc.com DKNY pump, $225, dkny.com

Love this Tracey Morris photograph of Natalia Bonifacci we shot at El Mirage Lake, California. Notice the perfect shadow under her feet showing Natalia's airborne. 

Genlux photograph we shot back in Winter of 2012 by Ari Abramczyk

beautiful does not always equal bright.

It's true. Not ALL of the beautiful women that we've featured in Genlux have been witty, articulate or interesting. 

So it's a breath of fresh air to feature ones who are not only gorgeous but have something to say. Even better, those who spend a good amount of time giving back through their philanthropic efforts. Should I name of few of the keepers? Okay, well, over the last few years, we've had the chance to photograph Carla Sands, Cheryl Saban, Cornelia Guest, Kathy Hilton, Lisa Vanderpump, and today, we're at the beautiful home of Donna Antebi, one of LA's queens of philanthropy. Tracey Morris is photographing her wearing Donna Karan, Valentino and other great fashion styled by celeb stylist Angel Terrazas. 

Donna is one of the brightest, business-minded women I've ever met. She's super analytical and has a proclivity for breaking down and solving personal and business challenges. She's part of many tech and start-ups and is well versed on a wide range of topics—and to such a depth—she'll make your head spin. For example, I got a lesson on hemp and all of its positive attributes—even tasted hemp seeds for the first time. (No, Mom, not the THC variety!) They taste kind of like sunflower seeds but with a more granular texture. Did you know hemp is refined into products like oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, pulp, paper and fuel? Donna could write a book on the subject. She also spun me like a mixer on other interesting topics like Donald Sterling, the missing Malaysian jet, and the Sultan of Brunei and his new law to make homosexuality punishable by death—by public stoning. Lots of fuel for debate. 

Donna let us know she found her dream home. No, not the behemoth one that we're currently sitting in. She has her eyes set on a grander one. (Because who could possibly be satisfied living on a hundred acre property atop Bel-Air that has a driveway a third of a mile. : ) Oh, that Donna. 

Donna Antebi wearing Donna Karan at her Bel Air home overlooking Los Angeles

Donna has her eyes set on a new home in Bel-Air so has placed her sprawling estate on the market for $25 million. I found these shots of the home on Zillow. 

Anyone looking for a home in Bel Air? Donna's is available for $25 million. The private driveway leading to the home from the main street is a third of a mile. Imagine how many cars you can park in that driveway? 

The infinity pool snakes through the backyard and right into the house. When taking a swim, you can backstroke right under a bridge and up to the family room bar. It's crazy! 

No this isn't the house. This is a two-story doll house on the Antebi property.

Modern works of art seems to be the theme of the Antebi home. 

you're kidding...that's NOT nicole kidman

I just picked up my favorite magazine, British Harpers and found this ad for Jimmy Choo featuring Nicole Kidman? Yes, there is a question mark at the end of the sentence because unless it told me in small type in the bottom left hand corner of the ad that it WAS Nicole Kidman, there's no way in hell I'd say, 'Hey, that's Nicole Kidman.' 

Nicole Kidman? Are you "Kid"ding me? Can someone open the elevator doors stuck on her face?

There's a tool in photoshop that allows us to "horizontally" scale an image—thereby thinning the body, legs and face of any human. The challenge with this particular tool is the need to be discerning when using it on faces because not all parts of the face look good when "thinned". Case in point is this photograph. The legs look amazing. The body looks great. The hair is brilliantly styled. The booties are genius.

Even the slouchy pose is cool and relaxed. But the face needs to be "rethought." So, how would I have handled the face? Here's my result below. Well, even though mine still doesn't resemble Nicole, it looks more like a pretty face than one caught in an elevator door. 

My solution? I "unthinned" her face. Rotated her left eye. Fixed her nostrils. 

The other thing that Jimmy needs to lose is the bad '90s logo treatment. When we first started using photoshop in around 1997 we couldn't get enough of "chroming" out all of our logos. But in a few years, the time came to put away that tool, and now, Jimmy, you need to do the same. Hey, you're not the only one. Gucci does it too! Just go with straight simple logo treatment for a clean, elegant look! 

really? I can have any magazines i want? really?

I love magazines. I always have.

I'm not sure when my obsession with them grew, but whenever I'm around a newsstand, there's always been that "happy" feeling that surges through my little brain. So today, when I went over to one of the top international magazine distributors in LA who wants to distribute Genlux and was told I could have ANY magazines I wanted, I stood frozen for a second. Wait. Did you just say ANY? ANY?

I knew that some of these fashion magazines are more like reference books. Like ones called showdetails from Milan and Paris. These huge monsters are $125 each. They have all of the designers and large shots of their collections. So I grabbed a pair of those. I picked up a copy of DONNA COLLEZIONI, from Italy, Exhibition Magazine from Paris, ZoomOnFashion from Italy, AcnePaper, french revue de modes, and ItalianVogue. They said I could have more, but, as it was, I literally needed help carrying them all to my car. 

Now let's talk about EXHIBITION. This INSANE magazine is in a league of its own. First of all it's about 13 inches by 17 inches. Huge! And the printing is crazy beautiful. They have genius shooters like Glen Luchford, Luigi and Daniele Iango, Boris Ovini and others. When I say the printing is beautiful, it almost made me cry it was so stunning. These black and white images below are printed as perfectly in the magazine as on your screen. You HAVE to see them large in EXHIBITION. Like a whole 'nother experience. 

Luigi & Daniele + Iango photograph of Anna Ewers for Exhibition Magazine. Styling by Sissy Vian (Management + Artists). Hair by Luigi Murenu. Make up by Fulvia Farolfi (ArtList Paris). 

Luigi & Daniele + Iango photograph of Natasha Poly for Exhibition Magazine. Styling by Patti Wilson  (Management + Artists). Hair by Luigi Murenu. Make up by Kabuki (ArtList Paris).