Three Days Shooting

Whew! I'm beat! Just finished three long days shooting at a couple of location houses. I was working for some people from the UK. They were here producing for a late-night, European, cable show that was heavy on the T&A (with a good-natured "raunch" factor) and included a group of regular guys, also mostly from the U.K., hanging out with a group of babes who make their livings in front of cameras.

The chicks were both British and American and they spent the three days in varying degrees of dress and undress in front of the video cameras as well as my camera. There were some "field trips" also included in the production--to various tourist spots as well as nightclubs--but I wasn't part of that aspect of the show. I could have tagged along, to the nightclubs, just for fun, but after a twelve-hour production day my bed seemed like a more sensible and attractive choice. I ain't getting any younger, ya know?

The head guy, the producer, is Scottish so I've spent the last three days using my considerable skills speaking with a Scottish accent. I just wanted him to feel, uhh... you know, at home. I was going to surprise him with a bowl of haggis but I couldn't find a fast-food joint that made it to-go.

I didn't have an assistant which meant I schlepped my own gear each day. (Yeah, yeah, I know-- Poor Jimmy!) Fortunately, the second two days were at the same house so I left some of my gear there overnight between days two and three-- not my cameras and laptop, but my lighting gear. (Softboxes, monolights, stands, etc.)

The owner of the home we were at, i.e., for the second two days, is a musician. He has a pretty nice home, make that very expensive home, nestled in the hills between the San Fernando Valley and Beverly Hills. He looked familiar but I never asked him who he might be. Ordinarilly, I would ask but he seemed like he was a bit annoyed that no one knew who he was and, to his way of thinking, everyone should have known. That's plenty enough L.A. attitude to make me not ask... just to torture his ego a bit.

Mostly, I shot everything with two light sources: A monolight fitted into a 5' Octodome softbox and another, either in a Chimera strip box or a small umbrella.

Since the "guests" were also encouraged to shoot the girls with their cameras, everytime I shot them I had about a half-dozen or more guys crowded behind me also shooting. Plus two or three guys with video cameras! It was fairly claustrophobic and felt a little like a photo-gang-bang. Some of the guys told me they'll email me some behind-the-scenes pics of me shooting the girls. If they follow through, maybe I'll post some of them at some later date.

The lovely lady in the pics is Jayna. These were shot on a backyard deck at the house we were at for the second two days. I was hoping to shoot these during Golden Hour but, somehow, the model didn't end up on the deck until after the sun had set. I was a bit unhappy with the chain of events that led to missing the Golden Hour opportunity as the deck was oriented nicely to the setting sun, that is, with the sun perfectly aligned behind her, but that's show biz I guess.