First time working with celebrity

[Sebastian]

And of course I choke.

Last Friday I drove up to Milwaukee to take production stills on the set of Bonnie Blair's latest TV public service announcement. If you're wondering who she is can read about her here.here.

I've never shot on a set before and having to work around everybody else made for a very challenging way to shoot. And when I was given a few minutes to take Bonnie's portrait I barely had the wits about me to take the shot I did.

We will be using the images to desig packaging for the PSA to send to TV stations. For the intented purpose I think they were fine, but in the grand scheme of things I know I could have done better. Chalk it up to learning I guess.

[another view]

Bonnie Blair? Sure, I remember her - champion speed skater, right? Heehee...

You did great - stress of getting the shots in a couple of minutes and working around all the vidiots can do that. Backgrounds are a little busy and maybe a little shallower DOF might have helped - but minor details, good work.

[Asylum Steve]

Seb,

You know I've always been honest with you, and I'd be lying if I told you these shots are really good. They're ok. But, you already know that, and in this case it's not just your insecurity, you're right. If you plan to have a career in "creative commercial photography", you can't dwell on this kind of disappointment. Simply try to learn from it and move on...

Any good portraiture, but especially celebrity portraiture, is extremely hard to do. It may be a cliche, but it's true that the good ones make look easy. It's not. And unless you're blessed with an amazing vision and charismatic people skills, getting good at it only comes from repetition and eliminating the mistakes that make the shots uneventful.

Shooting like this on location and under a time restriction is perhaps the ultimate pressure for a photographer. Trust me, that's another thing that gets easier with time.

Basically, you took a very average approach to photographing Ms. Blair. Looks like close to normal lens choice at eye level with a straight on pose looking right into the camera, also with a fairly deep DOF. Hopefully you'll come to use this as a last choice (remember my "police lineup technique???"), the SAFE shot you take in case nothing else comes out.

My experience has been these kinds of portraits are much better either wide, IOW a creative full body shot, or more of a close-up of the face. It's hard ot keep the in between stuff from looking dull...

Still, I think CHOKE is much too strong a word. You usually need a little bit of a spark to hit you when doing this kind of work, and this time it simply didn't happen...

[Spike]

You got to meet Bonnie Blair. She has always impressed me as a very humble champion. She was so good, yet so nice and down-to-earth. Bonnie is a class act.

Spike

[Speed]

Seb,

You know I've always been honest with you, and I'd be lying if I told you these shots are really good. They're ok. But, you already know that, and in this case it's not just your insecurity, you're right. If you plan to have a career in "creative commercial photography", you can't dwell on this kind of disappointment. Simply try to learn from it and move on...

Any good portraiture, but especially celebrity portraiture, is extremely hard to do. It may be a cliche, but it's true that the good ones make look easy. It's not. And unless you're blessed with an amazing vision and charismatic people skills, getting good at it only comes from repetition and eliminating the mistakes that make the shots uneventful.

Shooting like this on location and under a time restriction is perhaps the ultimate pressure for a photographer. Trust me, that's another thing that gets easier with time.

Basically, you took a very average approach to photographing Ms. Blair. Looks like close to normal lens choice at eye level with a straight on pose looking right into the camera, also with a fairly deep DOF. Hopefully you'll come to use this as a last choice (remember my "police lineup technique???"), the SAFE shot you take in case nothing else comes out.

My experience has been these kinds of portraits are much better either wide, IOW a creative full body shot, or more of a close-up of the face. It's hard ot keep the in between stuff from looking dull...

Still, I think CHOKE is much too strong a word. You usually need a little bit of a spark to hit you when doing this kind of work, and this time it simply didn't happen...

You can always count on Steve to give it to you straight! Not having been there, I can't really relate. (I'm still waiting for Elle McPherson to show up on my beach) ;-)

I agree with Steve, it's got to get easier with each session. Kind of like shooting weddings. (Why anyone would want to do that for a living is beyond me!) :-O

Keep at it buddy. You do quality work, and I'm sure your confidence will be much higher next time. And like someone already pointed out - you got to meet Bonnie Blair!

[natatbeach]

you did the best you could under all circumstances and well--- learning what not to do the next time--- sometimes is more valuable than having done it perfectly the first go...you'll be looking out for all sorts of things and your confidence will be much improved...and in the end it will be a fabulous pic with with your named stamped for all eternity.

Thnaks for posting things that you don't consider great...it helps those of us learning the ropes to learn and realize that it's o.k. to be human and not be the perfect photog.

[Sebastian]

Thanks everyone.

All is not lost. I did learn a lot, and I realize now that I could have done things very differently. Of course that's NOW, not THEN...

The shots will work just fine for packaging, much better than the screengrabs we tend to use sometimes. But I still wish I could go back and redo it.

[dsl712]

Not bad Sebastian. But the bigger problem is that it's not that interesting either. You played it safe and got a decent image. But the picture doesn't really draw out her personality.

Problem is that I would have done the same thing. I don't know what I would have done differently. I guess that is why we are here to learn.

Dennis