I'm going to name this blog "Women of Power." You know, in my business, there was a lot of exploitation of women. In what business isn't there? Anyway, I saw a lot of exploitation. However, I also saw a lot of women exploit men. I remember there was this one woman who was doing your average "modeling" work. She said to me, "I'm going to get rid of my agent and hire a PR guy." She reinvented herself, and they came up with a plan. She became one of the world's top models. I saw her bring men of power to their knees.
There was another time when I was an assistant photographer. A girl came in with some family polaroids. The guy I was working for recognized her talent and booked her on a big editorial. The guy had an eye for talent, and he was an amazing cook. Sorry, I went off on a bit of a tangent there, but I did learn a lot from him.
Anyway, back to women of power. There was this one time in Australia I had to shoot a commercial of a girl riding a horse in the ocean. I don't know if you've ever put a horse in the ocean before, but it's not easy. I said to the girl, "Have you ever ridden a horse before?" And she said, "No worries, Mate. What do you want me to do?" I said just ride the horse slowly towards me and I'll get a few shots. She went all the way to the end of the beach and came at me like 40 miles per hour. There was water going everywhere. She scared the shit out of me cause she was heading right towards me. At the last second she turned the horse away from me just by inches. The horses right foot barely missed my right foot. It would have killed me for sure if it had hit me. She stopped the horse. The horse reared up a little, and she said, "Like that mate?" I said, "Oh my god, where are you from?" She said, "Oh, just outback you know. On a sheep farm. I grew up riding." Once again, I checked my shorts.
Another time I was shooting in Miami. My assistant was hungover. Gee, how unusual. Anyway, he left some very expensive equipment on the beach. Some dude in a pick up truck stole all the equipment. Well, the assitant stylist ran down the beach and stole the equipment back. I bought a bottle of champagne and deducted the cost from the assistants day rate. I've got lots of stories like this. The point is, you don't want to mess around with these women. They are pretty powerful.
One of the last shoots I did, I was in Brazil. The woman from the fashion magazine and her assistant had to drive overnight to get a flight. Well, our local guide said, "No way! You can't drive on these roads at night. There are bandits." I was in a bad part of Brazil. She just said, "We'll be all right." And I saw her and her assistant drive off into the night. See what I mean. Don't mess around with these women.
You know, I'd often think about stories like this when I was in a bad way. Hell, I had 4 years to think about things. I just check in once in a while with this blog. It's about stuff from the past. To see the new blog, you know, stuff of the present, click on the link above. It'll take you to the new blog. Talk to you later. Love, B. Nice
No comments:
Post a Comment