I’ve shot Kari not once, but twice before. Suffice it to say that I always enjoy working with her. This was a bit different though, because she and Nick (her very handsome boyfriend) needed to have some new headshots done for their numerous acting gigs.
A major shift from just a few years ago, acting headshots tend to be in color these days. I still preferred black and white.
This is Alisha.
Actress, model and long-time friend of mine, she came to me with a request to shoot pictures of her acting crew. They’re all headed on a cruise to perform a play! How cool is that?!
I do have a question though… If the ship tilts significantly to one side or the other, is it customary to shift the performance in the opposite direction to keep people from getting motion sick?
Hmm…
Anyway, onto the headshots of all the beautiful/handsome people. Everyone except Alisha was getting the star treatment, because… Uh…
Because all the actors are playing actors in the play.
Most. Redundant. Sentence. EVAR!!
But so, all the actors needed headshots to print out and actually use during the play, so what it means is that they needed to be in character for their headshots.
Jeremy plays Hugh Lockwood, Veronica Vicious’s lackey husband.
Mary plays Glo Star, the desperately untalented actress trying to reach the top of the food chain.
Tony plays Brent, director and host of the awards show.
Tonia plays Ravishing B. Yuety, the up-and-coming ingenue.
Heidi plays Veronica Vicious, the talented but mean actress.
And Alisha plays Sally White, Veronica’s stalker…
And here’s a few of Sally White’s stalking exploits involving the highly irritable Veronica Vicious:
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this myself… But a fellow filmmaker, Eric Escobar from PrepShootPost, suggested to post some screenshots of Every Day the Same, so here are some of my favorites along with some commentary.
The camera’s video mode doesn’t have any kind of auto-focus to help you, but sometimes, missing focus makes the shot look gorgeous. This was one of those shots.
I love this shot because we were asked to stop filming by one of the Starbucks employees just moments before. Nobody had a clue that I kept shooting anyway! hahaha
I love this angle. There’s a strange but beautiful voyeuristic quality about it.
I’ve never seen anyone so sad about having to go to work! Sasha is a brilliant actress, I was lucky to have been able to work with her.
Ok, THIS is what I mean about the camera’s video capabilities. This was 100% IMPOSSIBLE on my old camera. Remember the one? It was stolen last year. Good! Blessing in disguise! But just look at this shot! Only her right eye is in focus. Even her LIPS are in soft focus!
Just because I wanted to have a shot somewhere that had ridiculously shallow depth of field.
Ahhhh going home and lookin’ fabulous!
This was THE image that captivated me almost two years ago when I came up with the concept for the film. It’s good to finally see it on screen and alive.
Another place we weren’t supposed to shoot. Kohl’s. Sasha and I laid out exactly what we needed to do before going in and were fully expecting to get kicked out. We didn’t, but we were in and out within about 40 seconds. By the time anyone had a clue, we were already outside and saying goodbye. Another huge advantage to the camera. It’s small enough a video camera not to attract any attention to itself. My old one was big enough to have gotten us kicked out before hitting record.
Another “I wanna show off how cool shallow depth of field in a movie looks” shot. Although with this shot I did also want to emphasize the moment she really gets home. Like “It’s official! The keys are up, world! Leave me alone!”
Pretty. She had a real conversation with a friend.
Sasha once again flexing her acting muscles. Seriously. Not having any other actors to feed off of throughout an entire project is very, VERY difficult to do convincingly.
Posted something similar a while back on my Facebook account. I just love the way the windows’ light flared in the camera.
Here’s most of August that I’ve been depriving you of.
Day 208/365
From Dustin & Cassie’s wedding. This was at the golf course in the morning before the wedding. We got kicked out of there… The place even called the cops on us!! I tell ya, it’s gonna be hard for any couple to beat the excitement of getting the cops called on us on the wedding day!
In fact, I’d like to ask that you please don’t make your wedding more exciting than that.
Then, true story, I went to the Great Clips to shoot pictures of the bride getting her hair done and got kicked out of there too!
Then I fell in a river in the amazon forest and a bunch of pirhanas ate my foot and half my chest. I look really interesting now.
Day 209/365
A headshot for a terrific actress and a personal friend of mine, Joylynne.
Day 210/365
Megan bridal shoot
Day 211/365
Marianne actually thinks showing THIS picture of her will hurt my wedding portfolio…
Day 212/365
My promos before they went out. (iPhone photo)
Day 213/365
The piano is in my basement now! Seems like I’m gradually moving all of my house down in my basement… Why don’t I live in an apartment? (iPhone photo)
Day 214/365
The uhh… The bride had a bigger piece of cake… Wouldn’t you agree?
Day 215/365
Although the groom looks deeply concerned for his new wife, they actually had a lot of fun on that trampoline.
Day 216/365
I LOOOOOOVE this picture!!!! I’m fascinated with celloists and violinists at weddings. I’m seriously considering hanging it up somewhere.
Day 217/365
Swinging (iPhone photo)
Day 218/365
The neighborhood on my way to the mailbox… I was really lazy with that shot… (iPhone photo)
Day 219/365
Utah Business Magazine shoot
Day 220/365
Amanda’s bridal shoot
Day 221/365
Amy gets a few extra words from me.
I loved working with Amy. Her optimism and enthusiasm was unstoppable, contageous and inspiring.
All weddings experience hiccups. All of them. If you’re reading this and you’re getting married soon and thinking “Not mine!”, then my answer is, “Yes, yours too.” It’s just how it is. So since hiccups are inevitable, the question becomes about how you respond to those hiccups.
Amy’s wedding was no different. Her wedding day was almost moved to 9/11. Not exactly a bride’s first choice. Then on the wedding day, the best man couldn’t make it.
Amy responded to every hiccup throughout the day, big or small, with grace, patience, endless optimism and a smile on her face.
So yeah, I loved working with Amy. That second shot of her will tell you everything you need to know about her vibrant and endlessly optimistic personality.
Day 222/365
After a long-ish stretch of work, I decided to treat myself to Lewis Black’s excellent comedy in Wendover. The show was hilarious. I always wished I could have seen Carlin in Vegas before he died earlier this year. I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake with Lewis Black. (iPhone photo)
Day 223/365
Robby & Jessica
Day 224/365
I have a fascination with wires and skies (iPhone photo)
Day 225/365
I printed this 11×14 of a shot that I’d taken with my iPhone (iPhone photo – yes, that means it’s an iPhone photo of an iPhone photo)
Day 226/365
I took a very long walk that night (iPhone photo)
Day 227/365
For giving me the green card after such a long and difficult struggle, I gave back to my immigration attorney by doing a free model-style shoot of his beautiful daughter.
More catching up to do. I think I’ll be fully caught up now. Whew! That only took about… what? Seven years? Oh wait, no, I’ve only been doing this for 95 days…
On with the show:
Day 89/365
Natasha and I scouted some locations prior to a model shoot. We found an awesome little abandoned location in downtown Salt Lake. Here’s my favorite shot:
And then the model, Katerina. You may remember her from last month’s Salt Flats shoot:
Day 90/365
I was the designated photographer for our Easter family party:
Day 91/365
This is a really easy-to-make middle-eastern specialty called mana-eesh. I’m not sure that you’d spell it like that in english, but phonetically at least, it’s correct. Anyway, me likey the mana-eesh:
Day 92/365
This is my personal favorite sample wedding album. It’s an 8×8″. I just ordered a 12×12″ silk album about a week ago and I’m looking forward to showing that off to clients when it gets here.
Day 93/365
Sasha is a truly, truly terrific actress. I’m not just saying this; I know this for a fact. I’ve seen her in action at the local Actor’s Lounge which I used to have time to attend pretty regularly. Sasha impressed me so much from just the few scenes I’ve seen her perform, that I knew almost right away that I wanted her to have the biggest supporting role in an upcoming project I had cooking. That is, “upcoming” until my camera was stolen recently…
By the way, you might not believe it from seeing that third picture especially, but it was pouring down that day. Very ugly day to be shooting, but I tried to make it look and feel like summer.
Day 94/365
I really need to clean out my window well. I saw a mouse scurrying around using the tumbleweeds that got trapped in there as a means to get to the bottom of the well and back out.
Now, the normal reaction would be “ewww!!”, while my reaction was “Oooo!!”
In fact, I was on the phone with my realtor when I noticed the mouse, emails kept pouring in from other sources, chat windows kept flashing, my facebook kept popping up with new messages, and all I could think of was “I’m gonna need to switch lenses to get a half-decent shot.”
Day 95/365
Seems like a lazy shot to take, but I’ve been making a big marketing push for rajibarbir.com. Among other things I’ve been doing, I’m now listed on AltPick. In any case, I’ve been staring at that screen a lot lately.
