Hi everyone. Welcome to the blog where I talk about my past. I can't believe I still have stories to tell you. We always had great places to go and exciting people to meet. That's what I really miss. One time we were in a house in Napa Valley. It was a really amazing house. I don't know why people with a lot of money rent out their house. Maybe it's a tax break. I don't know, but this house was amazing. Anyway, I was standing there looking for a place to shoot when I noticed an amazing photograph above the fireplace. It was a photograph of a computer chip. It was really well done. I asked the owner about the photo, and he said, "Well, that's the first computer chip every made." And I said, "Really? Tell me more about it." And it turns out the guy was partners with a guy named Bill Gates. He designed the first computer chip with Bill Gates. Pretty cool, huh?
Another time I was in the Pacific, near Guam There was an amazing ship in port. The model came out in a retro '70s swimsuit. She looked amazing. So I asked her to go over and yell up to the captain. She asked if we could do a photo on the ship. Well, it turns out the captain also owned the ship. He brought us all aboard and took us out on a cruise. Open bar and everything. It was a great day.
So you see what I mean? It was always an adventure. We would always go with the flow. I have a couple of disasters but we won't talk about them.
It was always interesting meeting new people. One time I had a test photoshoot with a catalogue (they tested me out to see if they wanted to work with me). Anyway, I did the shoot. All went good, then I got a phone call from the creative director. I went to the catalogue main office and met the creative director. He had all my film laid out on his light box. He was going through the film. He turned to me and he said, "Why did you shoot when the girl's eyes were closed. Only shoot when she is not blinking." I said, "Oh yeah, OK, I'll shoot in between when she takes a breath too." I thought the guy was joking around. He just looked at me with a blank stare. The guy was freaking serious. You see what I gotta put up with? People I worked with for the most part were really cool, but this guy was a real tool.
I'll tell you one other story. I was shooting in a house in the Hamptons in New York. I was looking for a place to shoot. Now imagine this: on a photoshoot when the models are getting their hair and makeup done, there's a lot of gossip going around. You know they're talking about food, people, jobs, life. You know, gossip. Anyway, let's go back to me scouting, looking around for a place to shoot. I really liked the light in the hallway of this house we were working at. But I noticed I had to move a table that was in the way. I looked down at the table and there was a silver box and around the box there were photos. Family photos and I looked closer and the whole 6 foot table was filled with photographs. And they had one thing in common: It was one guy. At the end I looked at the box and lifted the cover and there was the guy. It was all ashes and bone. It kind of freaked me out. So I carefully shut the box and ran into the van and said, "You guys, you can't believe what I just saw." I told them and then the ashes became the topic of the day. We didn't shoot in the hall, but we shot in other rooms around the house. After lunch, we decided to shoot outside. Well, I set the model up to shoot, then I said to everyone, "Excuse me, I have to use the bathroom." so I left the set, went into the house, went to the fireplace I saw previously, grabbed some ashes out of the fireplace, put them in my hand and closed my hand. I went outside and stood behind the model and looked for a good position where I would be backlit into a dark background so I would have maximum effect, and I said, "Why don't we shoot over here," and pointed my finger and opened my hand and all the ashes fell out of my hand and all over the model. She freaked out and stood behind the hair dresser screaming. The hairdresser said, "Oh my god, you didn't." I got in trouble. Hey, I thought it was funny. I was sure the guy in the box would have thought it was funny. He had an impish grin in all the photos.
That's it for today. I hope you guys have a good week. Here's my link to the blog about the present. Love, B. Nice
P.S. Hey Sharon, out there, next time should I tell the story about the cat and the sports bag? Remember that?