“RNP the Blog”

My week in Phoenix was quite a ride. The Susie Castillo shoot went well, she was easy to work and thankfully lacked any of the ego that is sometimes associated with people in her position. Will be interesting to see where the next few years take her. I posted a few images from the shoot in the Recent Tears section on the website. 

The later part of the week was a struggle. I received a phone call with the news that my youngest daughter had been taken to the hospital. She had been sick for a couple days but had shown some signs of improvement the day before. Apparently the virus wasn’t quite finished with her. I had the rest of that day filled with photo shoots as well as the half of the next day before my flight back to Kansas City. I wasn’t exactly in the best mental state on the remaining shoots of the trip but I think I managed to keep it from effecting my work. Hopefully my clients feel the same way.

I made it back to Kansas City that following evening late at night and joined my wife at the hospital. Thankfully Malia was released that next evening and we have been taking it pretty easy at home since.

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Don’t worry Mom I am not moving back to Phoenix (particularly not at this time of the year) just heading back to my old stomping grounds in September (from the 11th to the 16th to be exact) to do a little something people like to call work. If any photo editors or art buyers need anything shot in Phoenix during that time I will have my full dog and pony show ready to roll.

I will be doing my second cover shoot for Savvy Magazine on this trip. My subject is Susie Castillo. Susie is probably best known from her time on the MTV show “TRL.” From what I have heard and scene of her I think it is going to be a fun shoot.

This will be my second cover shoot for the Savvy Magzine folks. Back in March I shot Miss America 2008 Kirsten Haglund:

I was talking to my parents after I was booked to shoot Kirsten and discovered that my father Larry Nicholson photographed Miss America (the 1966 version Deborah Bryant). I don’ t know how many father/son photographers can make that same claim but I thought it was an interesting bit of trivia.

I also find it interesting that Miss America which was really one of the first “reality shows” has lost some of its draw in a day and age where reality television is so prevalent. Perhaps the law of diminishing returns at play. Miss America was big back in the day (and it obviously still has a very loyal fan base but nothing like it used to). Apparently they even added a “reality show” portion to the program this past year which again I find ironic because the whole show itself is a reality show. They took Kirsten (a nineteen year old college student that dreams of making it on Broadway) and by crowning her Miss America she is suddenly on the cover of magazines and meeting influential people. It is the same basic premise that most talent based reality shows follow, creating a star by putting their talent and personality on television. The Miss America folks should have copyrighted that formula.

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While I am on the subject of my job….let me tell you about what is the most challenging aspect of my work. Direction. Generally I spend more time talking about what “direction” my clients want the shoot to go than actually shooting. Whether it is a photo editor of a magazine or an art director that needs an image to function as part of an ad campaign. The toughest decisions are all the little decisions that determine whether in the end a photo works or not. Of course whether or not that final photo works is all in the eye of the beholder, but I digress.

So what determines the direction of the image, everything. The talent or subject, wardrobe, the hair/makeup, the lighting, the setting, the posing, the expression, the angle the image is taken from, and the list goes on. Literally hundreds of decisions are made before the shutter is clicked for the time.

Some of the funniest things I have heard on a photo shoot have taken place as all of the people present on a shoot are trying to make decisions on all these little things. Always the biggest concern is if something is “too” (fill in the blank). Too sexy, too conservative, too LA, too girl next door, too happy, you name it and it is possible for it to be too much whatever it is.

I often find myself trying to read people’s minds and body language to determine if what we are doing is the direction they wanted to go. In some instances I am surprised that we wade through the waters of all the decisions and manage to produce anything that anybody likes because we have spent so much time talking about it and weeding it down to meet everyone’s needs that it ends up being shot with nice soft lighting with no shadows against a white background and the talent is wearing a blue shirt.

I always find it interesting that my industry has created a commerical look that is really far from reality yet we all accept it. For example you see all these ads at Petsmart with a perfectly groomed happy older man (also insert woman, couple, child) at a park with their beautifully groomed golden retriever (also insert lab, weirmariner) the light is glowing golden rays on both their happy faces. I spend a lot of time at the park (I have two kids under the age of three) and I have yet to see that scene in the real world. Generally people are in sweatpants with a couple plastic bags from Price Chopper hanging out of their back pocket trying to listen to their Ipod or talk on their cell phone while “Fluffy” is sniffing around like their is fresh meat covering the ground. But maybe that is just the part of town I live in.

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When I meet people for the first time one of the first questions I am asked is what I do for a living. When I tell people I am a photographer they always ask what I photograph.

When I tell them I am primarily a people photographer and that I shoot for commercial and editorial clients I generally get a blank stare. Unless they happen to work in a field that deals with photography in some vein or another they walk away having no idea exactly what it is that I do as a photographer.

Much like I have no idea when somebody tells me they are a lawyer and I ask them if they specialize in a certain area and they say “corporate law” and I smile politely and change the subject. Not because I have anything against lawyers who specialize in corporate law I just don’t have any knowledge of what they do exactly.

On the surface I should have a job that is interesting to talk about but I have found for whatever reason (beyond my own lack of communication skills) that for me the “so what do you do for a living” conversation is generally short and not so sweet.

If you are one of those people that I have had these conversation with please accept my apologies and know that I am working on my “so what do you do for a living” speech.

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