Wednesday, November 14, 2007

For Opener's


Where to begin....I'm going to work my way backwards, and start off with the past week or so....
Wednesday Night-
I was hired by my client to shoot the arrivals of a "Quiet & Laid back" screening for some Congressmen & women as well as Senators and Government types that would be in attendance for the new film, "Lions for Lambs". Little did I know, that upon my arrival at the Uptown Theatre in DC, I was met with about 50 security guys in dark suits, all whispering into their sleeves. My immediate thought was "Secret Service", maybe the 1st Lady was coming? Or the President? Turns out they were not Secret Service, but a private security firm out of NYC, because Tom Cruise and his wife Katie Holmes, plus actor/director Robert Redford were on the way....Having shot a million screenings/premieres over the past 25+ years, when I hear "Quiet & Laid Back", I showed up with one Nikon D2XS camera, one 18-200 lens, one SB-800 flash, plenty of cards, and one camera
battery. What's the lesson here? ALWAYS bring more equipment than you think you'll need, BE PREPARED. I immedietly called my friend Bill Auth, who was gracious enough to drop off an extra camera battery for me at the hotel where the after party was being held, so that my mind was more at ease, turns out I didn't need it...Thank you again Bill. Longer story short, Mr. Cruise & wife were no shows at the after party, and Mr. Redford did a walk through, and shook hands, smiled and bolted out. Long story short, it all worked out great, my client was happy, Reuters ran 3 images, and I FTP'd 75 images to my agency.
Saturday--
A client that I had a working relationship with years ago, had moved to NYC, and she's now a VP of Marketing for a major theatre chain. When she called and asked if I could shoot the interior of their new facility in Baltimore, of course I accepted. Saturday at 7am, I left my house, and drove up to a great new section of Baltimore, called HarborEast. This time, I was prepared, all my gear, including 3 Nikon SB-800's for lighting up a dark theatre, via the greatest wireless TTL system you can find, plus a FlashPoint Carbon Fibre tripod for stability. The results were right on. Another lesson learned...Stay in touch with your clients, and treat them with the same respect you'd like to be treated with, and one day you'll get that call.
Sunday--
I left my house at 6am on Sunday morning for I an assignment I had for the Blood-Horse magazine, who I cover the Triple Crown events and other races up and down the Mid-Atlantic region. The assignment was to shoot Steve Klesaris, and his wife Lil. Steve has trained so many winning horses over the years, and is based at Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, MD. Fair Hill is one of my favorite places to go shoot anything that has to do with the horse racing industry. It's a gorgeous facility, huge, with wildlife running rampant, and magnificent thoroughbred horses training on one of the two tracks. I highly recommend a drive up 95 to visit. I spent about an hour with Steve and Lil, finishing up with a quick portrait of them with Miracoulous Miss, their Breeders Cup winner this year.
Sunday Evening-
To say that I have been looking forward to this evening is putting it mildly...Bruce Springsteen & the E street Band were in town for the 1st of 2 nights. Now, we've probably seen 40-50 Bruce shows over the past (way too many years), and if you're a fan, there's this feeling you get the day of the show, the day can't go by fast enough. Margi & I had dinner with Jay, Ellen, Karen & Steve, and all we spoke about were the Bruce shows that we all had been to together over the years. .........The show was amazing-The E Street Band was sooooo tight
Take a look, shot with a Nikon Coolpix P50