One Reality Show Shooting Another Ready for a Pitch

Another production shoot last night and the Hollywood Guys were, once again, there with their crew. Like Sunday's shoot, their crew outnumbered our crew. As I did last Sunday, I shot both stills and video and, once again, endured the joys of Lance, the world's clumsiest and most brain-dead (Hungarian) production assistant.

On another reality show front, I returned home late last night to find an email from Peter, my writer's agent/manager. It started out by saying he, Peter, figured I might be thinking he had forgotten about the Pretty Girl Shooters show (I didn't, just figured he was busy) but, instead, he was working it. In fact, he pitched the basic concept to the development honcho at a production company specializing in reality TV and the guy says he's more than a little interested, will be yakking it up internally, and will (sometime soon) be having Peter and I come in for a full pitch. That's way better news than the old, no news is good news thing!

Early last month, I completely rewrote the treatment for the Pretty Girl Shooters idea and sent it off to Peter. With the holidays and all, I didn't hear anything back from him until last night. BTW, this show idea isn't a vanity concept for yours truly. As written, I wouldn't be a cast member. Hopefully, I'll be a producer instead. The show (as written) would be cast with, well, with people just like many of you, this blog's readers. (Assuming your a hobby photographer, i.e., a pretty girl shooting hobby photographer.) Keep your fingers crossed.

As usual, last night's shoot started out as a fiasco with just about everything going wrong. For one, the female performer flaked. We weren't informed she was flaking, of course, until nearly an hour after her call time. Took another hour or so to book a replacement. (Rachel, seen above.)

A litany of excuses was provided by the originally-booked model. Her excuses ranged from the male performer being on her "No" list, her boyfriend having "issues" that prevented her from participating, a car problem, and some BS about a health matter. It seems we were suppose to take our pick of her excuses and accept whichever we liked best. We also had some confrontation with the guy who helped us book the location: Once again, the same auto body shop we shot at on Sunday.

Ya see, during Sunday's shoot, we cracked the windshield on a car being repaired in the shop and dented the hood. We also messed up the new primer on a vintage '66 Caddy that was about to be repainted. Some cash changed hands and the damage problem was put to bed. Hey! Wha'd'ya gonna do? Shit happens.

As mentioned, the pretty girl at the top is Rachel. I shot Rachel (with the Hollywood Guys' shooters shooting me shooting her) with my Canon 5D and my trusty utility lens, the Canon 28-135 IS USM, hanging off the front of it. I've mentioned it before but if anyone is thinking about purchasing some all-around utility glass for their Canon dSLR, and aren't looking to spend too much on one, I recommend this lens. It's sharp, focuses quickly and covers a wide range of focal lengths. If you're shooting with a small-sensor body, the 28-135 will crop your images to, what looks like, a 45mm to 200mm lens, rendering it somewhat less utilitarian.

Rachel captured in standard glam/tease mode at ISO 100, f/8 @ 125. As usual for this kind of stuff, three lights in a triangular configuration: Main light in front and a couple of edge lights coming from behind, either side of the model. How about those posts through the nipples? Ouch! They had'a hurt when they first went in.