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06/09/2007 08:25:16 PM · #1 |
OK - I have been asked several times as to what my work is like and how I go about shooting etc - So I have decided that for those of you interested you can have a little look through this post. This is a small diary type thing for my picture taking in the month of May.
It actually surprised me after looking through the pics what i actually do!
Some of you may find the "Paparazzi" pictures not much fun etc - Well I am sorry. I am being totally honest in this post and it's part of what I do. If I can go shopping for milk on a Monday and bump into a celeb, take a few snaps and sell them.....Well so be it. I don't want to get into the whole Paparazzi debate but we are a necessary evil - I cannot tell you the amount of times celebs have turned up at certain restaurants to be photographed because they haven't been in the mags recently or celebs who get paid to have "Pap" shots taken..... I have been called all sorts of things before and I love the way I am supposed to be the scum bag! It makes me laugh..... Who are the ones doing the drugs, going to rehab showing off their rude bits beating up wives and girlfriends - Even getting involved in murder cases..... All I know is it's not me!
So here we go.....
May 1st I got a call that Rove Mc manus was doing an interview for TV and could I go down and get a few shots of him - He is a famous Australian talk show host and a great guy to work with. I was still feeling a little hung over from the day before but that how it goes - I can never plan for anything as I go when the phone goes...
I had less than 5 minutes with him (As most shoots are for the paper) and had to get a couple of shots of him outside the very boring office block. I used as in all these pics my Nikon D2 X - For this particular shot  I used a small Chimera soft box that attaches to my Nikon flash and I use a small extension cord so I can use the flash off to the side to get some shape to the pics.
I was then packing up my camera gear and noticed that he was walking across the road for the TV cameras - He was waiting a long time on the side of the road when he decided he would just walk across the road before the signal - Bad move! Several cars were coming round the corner and nearly hit him - Luckily I had my 70-200 on and snapped a couple of shots of the incident - Of course that's what made the paper! Also New Weekly bought the pic too. 
Then that evening there was a red carpet event for the opening of a new store for Napoleon   - A few celebs turned up but as usual it was a load of hype for not much! I have photographed the Oscars 3 times now and refuse to do it anymore - It takes up the whole day and I find the results pretty unsatisfactory.
Had a day off - Then on May 3rd got to shoot Rhett Giles - An Auzzy actor who has been in Lost and on other TV shows. He was really cool. I had half an hour with him which is like a day in comparison to other celebs.  He had always wanted to do a shot of himself lookng through his hands so I did this one. It is a bit of a cliche but I think it works quite well. I on the other hand had wanted to get a snap of someone sitting on a post box in LA (A lot of the time the papers want to show that the person in the pic is in Hollywood/LA so I am always trying to think up ideas of showing that without using the naff Hollywood sign) I had asked another celeb the week before (Will not name them but it was a little too un glam for them!) Luckily though Rhett was up for it and I think the pic worked out really well  Amazingly a yellow US school bus was coming down the road so I waited for that and it just made the shot say America!
Took me quite a while to edit all the pics and get them "Paper ready".
For some technical here....
I use Macs for all my computer needs - Most papers and mags use Macs on the picture desk - I have also managed to convert 2 journalists to them as well - I am quite a novice at Photoshop and just normally use the basics such as levels and sharpness etc I am always in awe of the great snappers here at DPC who have amazing Photoshop skills - It is one thing I am really trying to learn. I only use 4G cards as I lose them all the time and I only shoot jpeg at high quality - I know people are shocked at this often but for work flow etc it makes more sense - Plus I can do magazine work and front page pictures that blow up and show no signs of loss of quality.
May 4th was a shoot with Victorian State Premier Steve Bracks and Governor Arnold Shwarzenegger -  Pics were pretty boring and generic - Boring Downtown LA office building and no one on one shoot so we all had to do it in a room with other press - Shake the hands meet and greet stuff 
May 7th I got a call that Australian singer Delta Goodren was in town - I had photographed her before and knew she stayed at a certain hotel in town so that morning I went and "Doorstepped" the hotel in the hope of seeing her - Luckily for me she was at the same hotel and I got these shots which sold quite well to the mags and papers  She was with her partner Brian McFadden (A brit ex boy band singer) 
The next morning I was having a meeting with a journalist and exchanging some feature ideas when Anne Heche turned up and sat next to me....What was I to do?   I got a great set of them both laughing etc - Now a lot of you have seen those TV programs where the Paps are running down the road with flashes blazing and the celebs getting angry - I am not one of those guys! I sit across the road with my 4x4 and blacked out windows and do it from a discrete distance - That way you also get better pics! The pics paid for breakfast!
The phone goes at 3am - Cheers. London always rings when they want and start the conversation by saying "I didn't wake you did I?"
Got to get to Mexico City in the morning. I hate LAX airport with a vengeance - I always get a security check cause my camera gear is falling out of it's bag and my flights are always booked a couple of hours before flying. By the way any press guys who fly Southwest - You can pre-board - Not that I flew Southwest but I was able to get first class on Air Mexicana so the trip down wasn't too bad. Basically Kylie Minogue had been seen with a married man out of the country and we had to go and front up the woman he was married to and get pics so we could say Kylie was just seeing a friend...  I took this from across the street without her knowing so that I had a picture in the bag then walked up to her and asked for a picture - She agreed and was getting out the car when another photographer from a rival paper ran up and started taking pics of her in the window with flash - It scared her and she just drove inside - He ruined my op for a pic but luckily taking the pic before hand saved me - It ran in the paper.
We found out also that the guy had an ex-girlfriend and I had to get her pic too -  - I was in Mexico City for 5 days and had a great time - Went to several places and ended up on the coast at a mansion overlooking the coast for the last night with another interview. They were wonderful people and I have some great memories there.
There is a lot of sitting around on these type of jobs - I was probably in the car for 8 hours at one point just sitting outside the house. Mexico City is an amazing place to drive by the way - I loved just beeping everyone with the horn - It's what everyone does!
May 15th had a call to get some pics of a guy in San Diego for a job regarding back handed payments to the government - We got to the address and found it was a gated community but a few words to the security guard about looking for a house to buy and we were in - As you can imagine the guy was non too pleased about seeing us (Me and the reporter) and called the same security guard to get us kicked out! I came away with a boring GV of the house - 
They wanted me to return the next day to get pics of the guy but the phone had already gone and so I had to get on another job....
I had to get to Toronto as soon as possible - It's a pretty awful trip from LA and I had to change in Texas - So i flew all night and landed the next afternoon - Met with a reporter who was at the airport and drove straight to the job.
Canada has very lax rules when it comes to animals - In fact it has pretty much no rules - It's very hard for someone to be prosecuted for animal cruelty - We had a call that a red kangaroo was being kept in squalid conditions at a so called zoo and the paper wanted to rescue him and get pictures of Shirley McElroy the owner. We got to the address and found the zoo wasn't open for another 2 weeks. We knocked the door and got no response - We tried next door but the people wanted nothing to do with us. So we waited..... and waited.... We were a long way down the road but were still able to see the house - A car left so we followed. Took some pictures of a woman when she got out and then went and knocked another door further down the road to see if anyone knew who the woman was - Luckily the guy who answered had been to school with this woman and knew her all his life - I showed him the picture on my laptop and he said it wasn't Mrs McElroy - Blast - So we waited again..... I drove by again and was able to see some animals from the road side in bad looking cages - In fact we saw a very sorry looking lion - Yet more interest for the story -  He was caged in the rusty fencing with paint flaking shed as a home. So i took some snaps and we headed off to the hotel to re-think. On our way I noticed an unmarked police car drive by and I thought here we go.... Well he followed us for about 2 miles and just before we got onto the freeway we had 4 police cars pull up onto us with lights and sirens blasting! It was so "Cops". I had to show about 3000 forms of ID and tell them everything we were doing. They held us for nearly half an hour but of course there was nothing they could do as we hadn't done anything illegal what so ever. They told us the woman from the house had called - We told them everything we were doing and that we would be returning later in the day to knock the door again. They said that was fine and left.
We had lunch and then went back to the house - There were about 7 cars in the drive this time and we thought that the woman had called in some friends to deal with us! We drove by and waited down the road again. Then the local TV turned up and started filming us! This often happens in small areas of America - They can never understand that we as international press have been sent to cover a local story. I spotted several people on the lawn of the house and as I drove up one woman started running away - That had to be her I thought - I managed to get a couple of frames of her as she ran into the house  then I realized that there was a wedding going on - The bride ran up to the car and started swearing and shouting at us. Some people may find this awful but the condition these animals were in and the way they were kept I had no problem taking pics. I went back to our friendly neighbor and showed him the pic on my laptop of the woman running up the stairs and he confirmed it was the Zoo owner Shirley McElroy - Just in time. The paper was on deadline and was holding the page for me to get the picture in. I rushed back to the hotel and sent the pic. Nothing special but it made a huge page in the paper and a great story. It also got the Canadian government to have a look and we got the zoo shut down - Zoo closes We get the governments attention We then started digging and found a dealer of animals in Canada and he told us of another kangaroo that had recently been sold at auction and who the owner was - We couldn't believe it. So we got in contact with this guy and he agreed to show us the kangaroo -  We told him the truth that we were reporters etc Again it was a sad sight to see - He had clearly moved the animals into the pen before we got there as the grass hadn't been trodden down or lived on. My goal again was to get pics of the animals being kept in small cages etc - He had many exotic animals some of which were kept in children's play houses etc. All very sad - He even had a toddler leash on the kangaroo  and told us that he sometimes took the roo into town and to McDonalds to feed him fries - Nice one mate!  Poor roo story
I was in Canada for 5 days and on the last day managed to crash a Disney wrap party at a local pub and got free booze all night - Quality!
Also managed to bang off a couple of personal snaps - One of which made for the Username challenge. 
This was also taken in Canada - 
May 20th
Just got back to LA just in time for another call to go and try and get a photo/interview with Eddie McGuire - An Australian Channel 9 CEO who had been involved in some controversy  - Was in the bar having a drink when I spotted him - Luckily for me he decided to walk to a local restaurant and I could grab a couple of snaps of him. He was very good and understood I needed the pics - No silly games here.
May 21st
I am on a plane to Arizona to photograph a guy who gets rid of Killer Bee's! I land at 10am get over to the place he will be - Get suited up and attack a nest - it was an amazing thing to do - I stank of smoke and honey etc and luckily didn't get stung but I can't tell you how amazing it is to have bee's attacking you at your face and the noise is so loud when they are on you!  I still haven't edited this feature yet - It can hold for a while. On the way back home later that afternoon I set off the security alarm at the airport when they tested my camera gear - Me smelling of burnt wood didn't help ease the situation and I was taken away for questioning by security but all was OK when I explained the situation and showed a few snaps!  Me and a few of the bees!!!
May 22nd
I get a call very early - "Can you get to Barbados for tomorrow" Still blurry eyed I got online and booked some tickets to Barbados - John Prescott the deputy Prime Minister of England was making a visit and the paper wanted to know why because he was due to resign a few weeks later...
Luckily again for me I got an up grade to first class which makes all the difference on a flight like that - Especially when you land and have to work!
Again there was a lot of waiting at the airport for him to be flown in from Jamaica but when he did arrive he was whisked off the tarmac with a police escort and I never saw him. I was with another photographer who was working for a daily paper so the competition was on. Luckily for me I was staying at the same hotel as the Dept PM and managed to get some snaps of him walking to him car. 
The paper still wanted to know what he was doing though as his PR was keeping very quiet and as a man spending tax payers money we have a right to know what he was up to. Soooooooo I was told that I was to follow him. I jumped in a cab and got to use the great words "Follow that car!" Much to the delight of the taxi driver who thought it was all very James Bond - That is until we were pulled over by under cover police and I was taken into a field and told I could have been shot!!! We had been following for about 30 mins and were in a bit of cat and mouse chase as they tried to shake us off - I explained to the nice man from Scotland Yard who I was (He already knew but I had to go through the motions) He told me I was putting my life in danger and the drivers for following - I explained that I wouldn't have to follow if the PR would just give us a list of his appointments - He said he would have a word and told us not to follow any more...... Well he can't do that.
So I once again caught up with the Dept PM who had just finished off a very posh lunch at one of the most expensive restaurants on the island and followed him back to the hotel John Prescott paper cutting
I ended up staying for another 5 days - Missed several parties in LA for friends but got a pretty good tan! The hotel was also very nice and I had a pretty good view from my room 
The Dept PM finally had to give us a shot as his camp knew he couldn't just go around the island on a press tour without giving the press anything so they set up this very poor meet and greet in a Uni and gave us less than 30 seconds for the picture. Cheers 
It wasn't gloomy though - I managed a snap for the 4 elements challenge! 
Finally get back to LA on the 27th and am woken first thing by a tipster of mine that Mary Kate Olsen is having breakfast with her boyfriend - I tried to get another snapper to do it but couldn't so I reluctantly got out of bed and headed down to the restaurant just in time for her to leave and give the boyfriend a snog!    The pics sold well and were worth getting up for.
May 29th
Kimberly Busteed the Australian model who was representing her country for Miss Universe was stopping over in LA on the way back home for a few hours - I got the call to try and meet her at arrivals and get her pic. Of course International arrivals in LA is not an easy thing to watch - There are several ways out but luckily being as tall and beautiful as she was I saw her and got some snaps. Turned out they had less than 40 mins to get to another terminal and catch their plane back to AU. Soooooo as usual I had about 3 minutes with the girl and thanked her for her time by getting them into the 4x4 and running them around to the next terminal to catch their plane on time...
This again was taken using the D2 X and the small soft box off the camera.
Finally 30th May sees me on a plane to Oakland CA - I was told I was to photograph a tiger that can swim under water and can be photographed doing so - Dream job for me. It all worked out well and I was in and out of Oakland within 3 hours! The shots came out great and I got tons of published pics all over the world -  It made several front pages etc. I was also very pleased that I could get it into the DPC free challenge for May and I got my first blue Ribbon - What a great finish!     After the pics were published AP and Getty both went down to photograph the tiger - Luckily I got there first!
Finally May 31st see me in Compton photographing the Compton Cricket team - I wanted a nice LA backdrop to show the city and was lucky enough to find this one. The guys were really great and I added the cricket ball as an added bit of interest to jazz the shot up - Luckily it was the one the paper used so was well worth doing! I used a proper flash head and soft box on this one with Pocket Wizards to synch.
Wow reading this has opened my eyes! Thanks for reading if you got this far - I hope it gives a little insight to some as to what it's like when you take pics for a living - It's not all glam and it's very hard work. But DPC is great for me because it makes me go and take pictures when I am not working which is great because the last thing I want to do on my day off is take pictures!
Cheers
Jeff
Message edited by author 2007-06-09 21:01:53. |
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06/09/2007 08:38:26 PM · #2 |
Man I am only halfway through but this is great man! I love this shot. LMAO
Back after dinner for the rest of the read. :-)
Message edited by author 2007-06-09 20:40:50. |
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06/09/2007 08:39:17 PM · #3 |
| Jeff, if you send those very sad roo photos and some detail to WSPA I'm sure they'd be interested |
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06/09/2007 08:46:42 PM · #4 |
| ive got a quick question. i live in a city that has 2 Major Newspapers, and 4 Smaller ones... my question is, how do i take pictures for a newspaper, and how do i submit them? i have always wanted to do some journalism work, but i don't know where to start. |
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06/09/2007 08:47:42 PM · #5 |
Jeff...thanks for sharing your month. You certainly are a busy guy! I have no problem with the pap...the stars need them as much as you need the stars. Additionally, it allows you to continue to do what your passionate about...capturing the moment.
My life is not nearly as exciting...but, I am shooting movie stills for a short film being done next week. My excitement for the summer...I'll take it.
I really liked your free study March entry...one of my favs. Congrats on your blue!
Message edited by author 2007-06-09 21:58:56. |
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06/09/2007 08:48:53 PM · #6 |
DPP Disgrace... like Digital Post Processing Disgrace?
LOL |
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06/09/2007 09:03:23 PM · #7 |
yay Rove :) I have a soft spot for Mr McManus. Glad to see he was smiling :)
(for those that dont know, he lost his wife in November 06, she was a local girl to where i live) Huge loss for family and friends. Rove is tops!
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06/09/2007 09:10:13 PM · #8 |
| thanks for the write up. looks like it was allot of fun. |
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06/09/2007 09:54:24 PM · #9 |
| Sounds hectic, but lots of fun. Thanks for this insight. |
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06/09/2007 09:57:10 PM · #10 |
Awesome post. Great read.
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06/09/2007 10:01:49 PM · #11 |
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06/09/2007 10:48:46 PM · #12 |
| killer story, jeff! thanks for taking the time to write it up!! (and nice shots, as well.) |
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06/09/2007 11:42:01 PM · #13 |
great story, jeff! sounds like a lot of work and a lot of fun at the same time. thanks for sharing a bit of your life with us! :)
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06/09/2007 11:58:23 PM · #14 |
This was a great read. I had no idea how much work your job entailed, you know like having to fly to Barbados and all lol. Thanks for sharing - I enjoyed reading it and look forward to seeing more pics!
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06/10/2007 12:01:07 AM · #15 |
Thanks, this was fascinating to me. You could probably flesh this out and sell it as a magazine article (either a general interest magazine or a photog magazine) if you wouldn't run into problems with photo rights.
I'm afraid my idea of Paparazzi was basically formed by Tom Sizemore in the film of the same name (you must have loved that film, haha). This opened my eyes to another side of it which I'm glad to know exists. Promise I won't be so hard on the profession after this. Cheers,
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06/10/2007 12:06:41 AM · #16 |
| Very nice of you to share! And why didn't Getty just buy your shots of the tiger, huh? I'm sure that would have been nice! Thanks again - a wonderful read. |
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06/10/2007 12:10:25 AM · #17 |
| I am amazed at how many Aussies were involved in your month..top story mate!! |
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06/10/2007 12:37:20 AM · #18 |
| This is about the coolest thing I have read. Thanks a lot for sharing! |
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06/10/2007 12:45:56 AM · #19 |
| Awesome Jeff! Thanks for the read! |
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06/10/2007 12:47:00 AM · #20 |
| BTW...if you need a red headed assistant...you know where to find me...hehehehe!! |
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06/10/2007 01:12:10 AM · #21 |
Love, love, love the tiger shots! Those are simply incredible!
And how about that Mary Kate...? I swear, she has the skinniest legs I've ever seen!
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06/10/2007 04:34:07 AM · #22 |
| Thanks for the fascinating read you sure lead an exciting life! |
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06/10/2007 05:04:34 AM · #23 |
| fantatic read, great job you have ... me thinks :-) |
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06/10/2007 11:27:49 AM · #24 |
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
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06/10/2007 01:14:03 PM · #25 |
Are you working for one company or are you freelancing? If you are working for one company do they pay your a base salary or are you paid by the number of usable shots you take?
Great read, thanks alot |
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