yesterday i worked for
dave. he rented out a studio in hollywood and held a casting call. i wound up an hour early because i didn't expect traffic to be so light. there was a good turnout: one hundred twenty-five actors/models showed up... almost at once. we were there from 9 to 5 but the majority showed up around 3. and of course there were about a dozen girls who showed up and said they had to be at work/another audition in twenty minutes and expected to be able to jump in line. i only allowed two or three to cut ahead because it really wasn't fair for all of the other people who had been waiting.
overall, it was an easy day. i love working for dave because he's so down-to-earth. at one point a model was asking dave which comp card or headshot he wanted and dave said something along the lines of "it doesn't matter, i know they're all retouched and like four years old anyway." hahaha, i couldn't believe he said that but i was so glad he did because it's true!! and although dave's blunt, he's a lot of fun and likes to talk, so the models instantly warm up to him. a lot of models were relieved once they saw dave shooting the people ahead of them. he had something positive and nice to say to everyone, even the people he knew he'd never hire.
i got lunch on melrose and the warm city of los angeles welcomed me by issuing me a parking voilation. that's right, my first parking ticket. :( i was too damn worried about the hours on the NO PARKING signs and almost getting sideswiped by a truck to notice that there were meters. (PLUS i'm from jersey... we don't pay to park!!) but i should have figured there's no such thing as free parking in LA. luckily for me, dave is such a nice guy he let me keep the $30 that was left over from lunch to pay for the ticket.
of the one hundred twenty-five people dave shot, he's going to choose fifteen to shoot for his stock images. up until the shoot, i'll be helping with office work and once it's time for the shoot, i'll be his second assistant. AND Spike TV wants dave to do eight photoshoots a year now, so he's going to let me do all the preliminary work like contacting agencies and models and booking locations for those shoots!! so i'm really excited to be getting involved with the entire process.
rick and aldrin were waiting for me at the apartment. when i got there, we ran to costco, got some grub and then i cut aldrin's hair!! it's short!! and it came out pretty good. i just have to even out the sides with a pair of clippers. here are some photos of the drastic transformation:
BEFORE
AFTER
soooo then i checked my email and noticed i had an email from
john hildebrand's representative asking if i would be interested in helping out with a shoot tomorrow. and so i did. i think i got john confused with another photographer because i expected him to be older, light-haired, married with children. to my surprise, he was like the bam margera of the photo world: he's young, has a rocker-ish style, a pseudo mohawk and LONG doe-like eyelashes. his friends are either starting their own clothing line or production/party company and most of his shots include girls in bikinis.
anyways, the shoot is part of an ongoing project for a swimsuit calendar to raise money for
Surfrider, a nonprofit organization that protects our coasts, and might possibly raise money for
Heal the Bay. in other words, nobody got paid-- the shoot was strictly volunteer. there was also another assistant, a
Brook's student who graduates in September with a degree in "oh-shit-i-shouldn't-have-went-to-Brooks." john went to Brooks as well, he graduated in 2001. the impression that i get from Brooks is that you don't need to go to Brooks and
here is why i hold such contempt for Brooks...
"I would like more information about the class action lawsuit against Brooks. My husband graduated from there over a year ago and has yet to work! We are facing over $100,000 in student loans and all he has to show for it so far is a $2,500 large format camera (that he obviously does not use!) We were told upon his entry that they had a 97% placement rate with a starting salary around $75,000. BIG LIE!!! He even attends their "job fairs" which promote placement into jobs such as...starbucks - no joke! $100,000 in student loans and they want him to work at starbucks!"and there's
more complaints where that came from!! the red-flag for me occured while i was attending college. i called Brooks to request more information and they called me within an hour. what school is THAT desperate for recruits?! perhaps i shouldn't talk too much trash about Brooks but look at where Brooks is sending its students... to work for Brooks graduates FOR FREE without giving the students any sort of course credit. hmmm. seems to me that Brooks is just fueling the unethical practice of established photographers getting away with "hiring" assistants as "interns" to work for free or next to nothing.
but anyway, the shoot was extremely laid-back. it consisted of two models, a make-up artist, john, his two friends, me and the other assistant. the location was AWESOME. it was on some guy's beachfront property in malibu. the layout was insane though... we had to carry equipment down (and back up) 107 steps... and through narrow pathways. (and of course the other assistant grabbed the lightest items). there was a sand pit, a sauna, a little shack to get changed in, a small blue-tiled bathroom and a surfboard bar... all right near the beach. definitely an ideal party location. i found it funny that, although we were together for four hours, none of the crew made it a point to learn each other's names. all of the guys just refered to me as "sweetie" or "sweetheart" because they had no idea.
saturday: lindsay arrived at 6:45 pm. rick and i picked her up at the airport then we went to santa monica and walked around the promenade. lindsay dropped $100 in about 20 minutes. (she's a bit of a shopaholic) she bought a cute dress though, hehe. i bought a kewl 80s-looking blue and black volcom sweater in urban outfitters for $9.99. SCORE!! we ate at the gaucho grill then headed to the pier and wandered around until our noses started running. then we headed back to the apartment and i gave lindsay a tour of our apartment and she got to meet the infamous miss gray (my cat). then we sang a belated happy birthday to lindsay and ate bday brownies i baked that morning and i gave lindsay her birthday presents. 
sunday: lindsay and i got up early and headed to hollywood. we drove up beachwood canyon and stopped at the hollywood sign. then we went to hollywood & highland and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. we took lots of photos. lindsay was wearing a summery blue bandanna-print tank top she purchased the night before and a random guy driving by on a bike said "nice shirt, but it would look better in red!" we assumed his comment was harmless, but in the back of our minds we thought, "oh crap, that could have been a gang reference." we shrugged it off until another guy passed us and said, "good color." so we ducked into a shop and lindsay bought a replacement shirt. then we walked around the open-air market; got our makeup done at napoleon; and ate lunch at pig n' whistle. we tried on wigs with all intentions of buying them, but then didn't buy them (which saved us over 85 bucks... mine would have been $35 and lindsay's would have been $50!!) then we headed to rodeo drive. while i was trying to decipher the fine print on the parking meter, a guy with a dog noticed my jersey plates and informed us we had just missed Bruce Springsteen coming out of Barney's. (i think it's funny people assume all new jerseyians like Bruce Springsteen). lindsay and i walked around and went in and out of shops. i found something for ricardo's birthday. when we got back to apartment, lindsay was ecstatic to see we had spinach and mozzarella raviolis from costco. we watched "the holiday" while eating dinner.
monday: woke up early again and headed to my favorite beach in malibu. stopped at the post office so i could mail a print to someone who purchased one from me on etsy. :) then we ran in a grocery store to buy some beach snacks and lindsay got starbucks. we sunbathed, took photos and chatted on the beach for 2 1/2 hours or so. then went back to the apartment, changed and got ready to go out. rick drove us to the santa monica promenade so lindsay could see the area during the day. we caught the sunset while freezing our toes off at the pier. then we ate at the cheesecake factory in beverly hills. when we got back to the apartment, we watched the hills and brutally made fun of everyone on the show.
tuesday: we got free jamba juice and dropped off lindsay's photos to be printed (98 of them, to be exact). then we took showers/got ready and headed to melrose. we saw Mischa Barton in wasteland -- one of my favorite shops there. i'm not particularly a fan of Mischa Barton but i'm glad lindsay got to see a celebrity and it was interesting (and a bit disturbing) to witness paparazzi stalking someone. they had their video camera lens pressed against the glass windows and waited outside to bombard her after she emerged from the store since they aren't allowed inside. Mischa was wearing a cute hippy-ish floral dress while trying on hideous fur vests but left the store wearing unflattering pink sweat pants (see the paprazzi's photos here). we bought a few things; ate lunch; then headed to CBS studios in studio city to watch the taping of "Secret Talents of the Stars." it's a reality show (already got canceled) that exposed secret talents of celebrities. John O'Hurley hosted accompanied by a celebrity judge panel (Debbie Reynolds, Brian McKnight and Gavine Polone). we got to see Sasha Cohen perform a contortionist act; Clint Black perform stand up comedy (he was so cute!!); George Takei sing a country song; and Mya perform a tap dance routine. we had prime seating among the wives and family of the mentioned celebrities and you should have seen the rocks on the womens' fingers!! holy goodness. lots of plastic surgery too. after the show, we made a special trip to pinkberry. if you're not fimiliar with pinkberry, there are only three flavors and it's waaaaay overrated. i sampled the green tea (awful sour taste) and opted for original, but i wasn't too crazy about that flavor either. lindsay got the coffee flavor with raspberries and loved it. 
wednesday: we stopped at denny's before heading to the airport; took more photos (of course); then lindsay went home. :( all and all an awesome visit -- the weather was well-behaved; we packed as much as we could into each day; and we beat traffic every time!! and now we have lots of new photos and memories. :)
