Steve Giralt

With Lance Armstrong in the news for having broken his collar bone in 4 pieces bike riding in Spain, I figured this is a great time to share my story about my broken collar bone.

On Sep 2nd of last year I was out on a training ride for the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon which was Sep 14 in Sag harbor in long island, when I suddenly crashed and flew over the handlebars of my bicycle at 26 MPH. To this day I’m not sure exactly what I hit in the road which made me flip, maybe a rock, or branch, who knows. All I do know is that it hurt like hell and after being driven to Southampton hospital by a stranger who scraped me off the pavement, I had broken my collar bone and fractured some ribs. I was released later that day and went home with my Triathlon dreams shattered and a bottle of Vicadin. The doctor told me to checkup with a orthopedic specialist within 2 weeks to see how the bone was healing and that it would heal by itself with me just keeping my arm in a sling.

After doing some research, I decided that Dr. Andrew Feldman, aka the “Jock Doc”  was the guy I wanted to see. It took 2 weeks to get an lovely Wednesday appointment, but it was worth the wait. The second they did new xrays, I mean the second they came out of the machine, they knew I needed Surgery to fix my collar bone, it was in many pieces. I has surgery on Friday at St. Vincents hospital where Dr. Feldman operated on me. In the surgical report, my diagnosis was that I had a “Severely comminuted 6-part mid-shaft displaced clavicle fracture with muscular impingement.” In other words, really really broken clavicle! After a night in the hospital I was on my way home.

The first 2 weeks post-op I did absolutely nothing exercise related. I did walk around the city as needed and I did go right back to work Tuesday after my Friday surgery but I was highly drugged. After 2 weeks I got my stitches out and new xrays where everything looked like it was still in place. I then started physical therapy, at first very very basic just passive movements and stretching the shoulder which was now made of cement and no longer wanted to move. After about 4 weeks I felt good enough to do some stationary bicycle at the gym, and even some eliptical trainer with no arm movements. At 6 weeks I was finally allowed to be without the sling and start doing some active physical therapy. I think around here I started to do some running again, just short 2-3 mile runs. At 12 weeks I got back on the bike when visiting my parents in Miami and felt great! I did like 140 miles the week I was in Miami. Then at week 14 I started swimming again which was pretty weak for a whil, until about week 16-18 where I started to feel better in the Pool. On March 15th, just about 6 months from Surgery, I competed in my first Olympic Triathlon in Miami and my swim was solid!

So, I wish Lance teh best of luck trying to do the Tour de France this year in May, and he’s trying to do another race which is in 7 weeks. He may just be able to do it, but it may be tough because his injury was similar to mine. And that is my story.

Last Fall I did this photoshoot for Chesterfield Eyewear in New Jersey. We shot at Fosterfields Living Historical Farm in NJ which was a great location. It’s basically a farm museum with animals and barns and all those things you don’t see very often living in NYC. The Agency for the shoot was for Morello+Company design based in NJ. Tony Morello and Carl Horosz were on set for the agency and were an absolute pleasure to work with. It was a busy day but we all were really happy with the outcome.

Hair and makeup styling was done by Sarah Montiel and Fashion styling by Jessica Zindren. Thanks guys!

I have started a new personal project based on photographing my facebook friends. So far I’ve photographed at 55 friends in my studio. Basically, my friends get a free portrait taken by me, in exchange, they have to put the picture up as their profile picture for at least 1 month. They have to wear only black or white clothing, and then I photograph them. The project has been a lot of fun. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point where I shoot all 700+ of my facebook friends, but we’ll see how far it goes. Enjoy the photos! I will post more soon!

I recently did this shoot for Strawberry frog for Stacy’s Pita chips. It was a challenging shoot but at the same time a lot of fun. We had to make a rotating table in order to rotate the top in 5 degree steps to make a smooth rotation. Trying to get the bowls centered on the table was quite the challenge! To view the website, go to www.stacyschips.com.

The Prop stylist on the shoot was  Jolanda Burkhard, and the food stylist was Margarette Adams.

Last Fall I went to Maine to photograph this story for Good Housekeeping. The article is names “Siblings of a sort”. It’s a story about 3 families that are related by invetro fertilization. It’s a really interesting article discussing the way these kids are brothers and sisters but have different families. It was a lot of fun hanging out with all the kids and taking lots and lots of pictures of them.

The story was written by Amana Robb. It is in the current issue of Good Housekeeping which is published by Hearst.

In January I Photographed Ingrid Hoffmann for the cover of Natural Health Magazine. She was wonderful to work with and her food was just as tasty. It’s on the newstands now so check it out!

Carrie Smith, Kay Douglas, and Tom Voss were on set for the magazine. Food stylist was Roscoe Betsill, Fashion stylist was Katy Robbins, Prop stylist was Meghan Guthrie, Hair was done by Haime Munoz, and Makeup was done by Amy Kernaban. It was a great team, and we produced a great shoot.