Time Ain't On My Side... No It Ain't

Sometimes life -- personal and professional -- gets in the way of blogging. Not that that's such a bad thing, I suppose.

On Monday, I had to be at a studio, in downtown L.A., with a call-time of 8:00 A.M. That meant, of course, I arrived around 9:30. I mean, c'mon! The first model is there at 8:00 A.M. and she goes into makeup. That's assuming she's not late and the MUA is also not late. Even if she arrives on time, she's not going to be out of make-up until 0930 at the earliest. Why do I have to be there the same time as the model? For the stale bagels and shitty coffee? (Okay. Maybe the bagels weren't stale.) Anyway, I can set-up my lights in about 15-20 minutes and be ready to shoot. As it turned out, the first model wasn't ready to grace my viewfinder till a bit after 10:00 and I was ready for her. Nope! The production day was not slowed because of JimmyD's tardiness!

And just so you know, I didn't simply NOT show up at my designated call-time because I didn't feel like doing so, which I didn't. I'm not THAT cavalier about it. I had an excuse... a pre-planned excuse... a legitimate excuse: Traffic heading into downtown L.A. at that time of day -- on a weekday -- is ridiculous. It's beyond ridiculous. It's absurd. I can't believe so many masochists make that trek every day! I would have had to leave at 6:00 A.M. to get there at 8 even though it's a drive that, in a perfect world, should only take about 30 minutes. Besides, is the sun even up at six in the morning? I have no clue as I'm not either.

I knew it was going to be a long day and it was. We didn't "wrap" until almost eleven at night. It was a video shoot with me capturing stills. The studio was cool. A lot of music videos are shot there. But the problem was I was limited in terms of where I could shoot (i.e., while they were shooting video) where my strobe flashes wouldn't spill onto the video. I hate when that happens! Don't they realize my stills are more important than... well, than anything else?

No.

I guess they don't.

But that's okay. I'm flexible. I can adapt to difficult environments and make-do. Sometimes the job requires being a pretty girl shooting ninja. That means you have to blend in and be low-key -- stealthy -- to get the job done.

The pic at the top is Gwen. She wasn't the first girl I shot on Monday. In fact, she was the last. I'll post more from Monday's shoot in subsequent updates. Images captured with Canon 5D, w/28-135 IS USM zoom, ISO 100, f/5.6 @ 125th. Three lights were utilized: Mola Beauty Dish for the main with two strip-boxes working from either side behind her. I might have drove the color saturation a little too hard on the first one. Oh well. Here's another.