September 5, 2014

Hi everybody. I changed things up a little. You have to follow this blog through my website: www.briannice.com. I discontinued this website. It's kind of confusing but trust me - Hey! I think I've heard that somewhere before… I still do both blogs, present and past. It's just through my website: www.briannice.com. Hit the follow button again to stay up to date.

August 8, 2014

Hey you guys! I changed my website www.briannice.com. So if you want to follow my blog, you'll have to go there and hit the Google plus button from that site to get updates when new blogs are published.

Sorry about the change, but it's all good.

Love you, B. Nice

Chapter 138 - June 10, 2014

Hi everybody. Here's the blog where I talk about stories from the past. Things I used to think about when I was on my back for a couple of years. Let's call this blog "Photo Assistants, Animals, Cooking, Children & Labor." It's actually good for me to do this blog because it helps me remember the good times and the not so good times. Anyway, here we go.

Let's talk about Photo Assistants. I mentioned it before but I'll tell you a couple of stories. I was the worst photo assistant in the world. I remember we went down to Washington D.C. for a photo shoot with the Senators' wives. I had one job and that was to bring the stands down there. Well, after a few beers and joking around, I realized that when we got to the Capitol Building, I left the stands at the airport. The photographer I was working for was extremely pissed off. So I got in the rental car and I drove as fast as I could to the airport. I left the car running and door open and ran into the baggage claim and saw them back there. I ran outside to the car, threw my bag in. Ran past the police who were curious about the car. I shut the door, rolled down the window and screamed, "I gotta get to the Capitol Building right now!" and peeled out. I went through a yield sign and immediately got into a car accident. After checking on the occupant of the vehicle I hit, I wanted to make sure they were OK, I sped off, tearing out on my way to the Capitol Building. I made it there just in time. They were getting ready for the photo shoot. I'm not sure I should have told you that story, but you see what I mean, I wasn't a very good photo assistant.

But I've got some good ones of people I hired. Like the guy that screamed at my client. And the assistant who served the client piping hot coffee. The assistant who brought his parrot to the studio. I'll let you use your imagination. The stories go on and on.

Anyway, speaking of photo assistants, let's go on to my next category and that would be Animals. I got to see a lot of wildlife on my shoots. I saw dolphins, whales, mountain lions, penguins, elephants, wild camels, horses. It goes on and on. I was pretty lucky.

One thing I really miss right now is cooking. I love to cook. I learned how to cook from a photographer I worked for and my mother. When my mother cooks, I hang out with her. I guess I still cook, it's just in a different way.

I was gonna tell you some stories about children. It was actually gonna be about my childhood. Man, I can't believe I survived my childhood. Let's freak my friend out because she has a 14 year old and an 11 year old. Both boys. Let's see, one time I almost fell off a ship in the middle of the ocean. I was 11. I used to walk the train tracks and throw rocks at trains. Very intelligent. I used to like to put tape on the feet of the cat and put music on. I used to like to burn stuff. But that's pretty common for a kid. I used to like to go on long hikes. I had a dirt bike I used to ride around on, without a helmet, in my shorts, nothing else. I'll tell you a few more things, but I'm gonna give my friend here a break.

Let's move on to my last category and that would be labor. You see, I had a lot of different jobs. I was a bartender, a waiter who quickly got fired, I was a driver for a hotel. Don't ever mistake a power brake for a clutch. The passenger won't appreciate it. I was a bellboy at a hotel. I rented out boats during the summer. I worked on a farm in the summer. I found out pickle trucks do go 100 mph very well. Anyway, I had a lot of different jobs. I'll leave it at that.

We'll copy some cartoons, you know, some drawings from my journal. They're basically records of what I did in the past. I hope you have a good week. Here's a link to my present. Love, B. Nice

Chapter 137 - June 3, 2014

Welcome to the past. This is the blog where I talk about the past. I kind of fixed things up. I put in pictures from the past and I took the past blog and put in pictures from the present. Am I making sense? Anyway, I messed things up. But I'll go on. I'll talk about the past. Speaking of Past, I want to say hi to my friend Bugs and his wife and family. They're in Australia.

You know, when I was shooting in the past I used to pay close attention to light. It's so important to look at your subject. I mean take a step back and really look. Lighting is so important. So many people just go on shooting without really looking. Anyway, that's my opinion. I used to do that all the time, look at the light and the subject. I guess I still do. It's automatic. I remember, I used to get up really early to get sunrise then I'd take a long break in the middle of the day (which used to piss off the client) and then I'd go back to work in the evening to get the good light. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I would sometimes go windsurfing in the middle of the day. But we won't talk about that. (That would really really piss off the client.) The point I'm getting at is, you've got to shoot with really good light if you want to make a really good picture. It adds another element to the photograph.

The other thing I used to think about was location. Remember, location, location, location. It's actually really important. It sets the mood for the whole photo. At least that was my excuse to go to the Bahamas. But really, it's important to shoot in a magical place where everyone is happy. A place where someone looks at the photo and wishes they were there. You sure as hell can't get that from a studio shot.

My friend here was reading back to me what I wrote, and I forgot to mention something. I was in New Mexico shooting a commercial job. We got up at 4 am to drive an hour and a half to the location for sunrise. I got the feeling I was a bit extreme when the creative director came out and said to me, "This is insane! What are we doing here?" We kept doing that for about a week. We even called room service on the way back after sunset. Maybe it was extreme. Good photos though.

I feel like an old fart talking about the past. But one other thing that's so important about creating a good photo. You have to pay attention to hair and makeup. It can make or break a fashion photo. Especially hair. You have to have a good hair dresser. But you know what? keep it simple. Anyway, I'm gonna leave it there. I'm gonna include some pictures on my trip I did across America. They are recent photos. I don't do fashion anymore. I don't think anyone would understand me right now. I could do comedy shoots. Anyway, here are some photos and here's a link to my blog where I talk about the present. The drawings are from the past. Everything is mixed up, but you know what? What isn't these days. Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

Chapter 136 - May 27, 2014

Hi you guys. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. You know, things I thought of when I was in a bad way. You know, it was Memorial Day weekend this past weekend. One year I had to work on Memorial Day weekend. We were in Jacksonville, Florida. I had rented a house right on the beach. It was great. I was looking through the lens and I saw the model mouth, "Oh my God!" I looked over in back of me and there was a Blue Angel F-18 right above the beach. We were right next to the air show for Memorial Day. What an afternoon. We hardly got anything done because we had the best seats in the best house watching the air show. The planes were right next to us all day long. What a day. It was loud but it was a great day. It was amazing.

You know, one of my favorite places to shoot was Hawaii. I loved getting jobs in Hawaii. I didn't care what we were doing as long as I could bring my surf board. It was a beautiful place to visit. I remember one day though. I was shooting at a house right on the beach. It's hard to describe but it felt sad there. The people that worked at the house seemed sad to me. I was like, "Why are you guys so sad? It's got a weird vibe here," and the cook at the house told me, "Well, the owner of the house used to swim back and forth in front of the house every morning. Every morning until she got eaten by a tiger shark." I thought, well, that's a good reason to be sad. I've got tons of stories like that, but all in all, Hawaii was a great place to shoot.

There was one area on the big Island I loved. You could duplicate Fall really easy. The location was way up high on the volcano. The clouds would come in and we were just below the clouds. It was beautiful. The owner of the home told me something funny. The owner spent a lot of money to bring his father over to Hawaii. The owner was from Scotland. When the father got there he said, in a scottish accent, "You fuckin brought me halfway round the world to be in the same place!"

I did want to mention one thing. It's really strange leaving the house. When you're out of your element. you know, your day to day routine, it throws you for a loop. I went to my old neighborhood the other day and it has totally changed. It's as if I've been in a time machine. I still feel like my first operation was a couple of months ago, but it was like five years ago. I guess it's a good reason for behaving like a young idiot. My friend here, who's writing this for me said I've been using that excuse forever. Anyway, I don't really feel like blogging more so we'll leave it at that. I'll include some photos I've been doing. They're not from the past, but the present. Have a good week. Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

P.S. Here's a link to my blog about the present.

Chapter 135 - May 20, 2014

Hi everyone. Welcome to the past. I said it before, but I'll say it again, when I was just lying about, I used to think of stories like the following:

One time I was working in La Jolla, CA. They were having a wicked El Nino season. Anyway, some big waves were coming in. We were shooting right on the coast. At one point we stopped our shooting to watch some local surfers take on some big waves. Man these guys were crazy. They were catching big rides right by the cliffs and this one guy got pushed under near the cliffs. He basically disappeared right before our eyes. Now check this out. This is pretty far out. So the guy gets pushed underwater right? All of a sudden he finds himself in a cave under water. He comes to the surface in an underground cave. First thing he realizes is he's in an air pocket. He sees some steps so he carries his board up the steps. Mind you, he's all bloody and beaten up. He carries his board up the steps. He comes to a door. Knocks on the door (I'm not bull shitting. This is all for real). Like I said, he knocks on the door. Now imagine there's some people buying some shells in a store. They hear knocking on a door. They clear away some photos and there's a door behind some pictures. It was an old door. You know, like from the 40's. Anyway, the minute they get the old door open, there stands a surfer all covered in blood holding a surf board. Apparently it was an old door and an old passage from a previous store and that was where the shell shop was. Anyway after the people that were picking out the shells stopped screaming, the ambulance and police were called. The guy turned out to be all right but it was pretty far out. We used to see some pretty wild things when we were shooting. 

Once I was shooting in New Mexico in the desert when I saw a black plume of smoke appear right behind the model. Mind you, this was in the distance. Anyway, this black plume of smoke kind kept getting bigger and bigger. It turned out to be a major forest fire in the back ground. It was as if the whole hillside just burst into flames. Ash started falling all around us. Was a hell of a way to end a day of shooting. It was pretty amazing.

One time I was in Santa Barbara, CA. A major fire came over the hill. It was going fast with the Santa Ana winds. The fire started taking out houses, trees, anything in its way. My hotel had a front row seat to this event so I ran inside, grabbed a beer, sat down and watched Hell consume Santa Barbara. It was all entertaining until I heard some voices from the balcony next to mine. I heard a little kid say, "What about my toys?" And then I heard his mother reply, "Well, they can all be replaced. The important thing is, we're all safe." I guess they were evacuees from the fire. It was kind of a reality check. Anyway, I got to talking to them and sure enough, they were evacuees and they lost their house. Sad. But like the mother said, at least everyone was safe.

One other time I was shooting in Japan. Right near that famous mountain, Mount Fiji. Anyway, we were shooting in this mock village of a Bavarian town, and to top it all off, there was some drunk Australians playing oomph music in a small square in the village. It was all very bizarre. My friend here said it sounds like a dream, but it was more of a nightmare. A storm appeared in the background of the model and it started to grow and grow bigger and bigger. I said to my assistant, "Now imagine this," I said, "Look, run, here comes Godzilla, run quick." And then I delayed my voice so it looked like my voice was out of sync with my mouth. Well, my client didn't think it was funny. He said, "Work, Mr. Brian. You must not fool around. You must work."

Talk to you guys next week. Love, B. Nice

Oh yeah, I'll include the link to my other blog.

Chapter 134 - May 13, 2014

Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. Speaking of the past, this past Sunday was Mother's Day, so I'm gonna dedicate this blog to my mom. She saved my ass several times. Hell, if it weren't for her, I'd be in a nursing home. That's for sure. Anyway, thanks mom. I said it before, but I'll say it again. Thanks Mom.

I'm gonna start out with some pictures of my old house. You'll see why I get a little melancholy. It was a great house, but you know what, nothing lasts forever and sometimes things change, and you just gotta suck it up and move forward. Anyway, that's my little pep talk for the week.

I know I'm supposed to talk about the past, but, there's this damn bird outside my window and it wakes me up every morning at sunrise. For some reason it makes the exact sound of an alarm clock I had when I was building my house. I can picture it in my mind's eye. It was a black clock with a white face and green numbers. I always reach for the snooze button, but obviously, it's not there. I wake up expecting to go to work on my house and then I wake up and reality sets in. Damn bird.

You know, I've learned a lot through this whole experience, but really learning the word patience has come over and over. I have to be so patient. I remember when I used to be a photographer doing fashion, I had to be so patient as well. I had to deal with weather all the time. You know, like rain and wind. I'd have to make it look like a sunny day in the rain. Never easy.

I really don't have much to talk about this week. I'll include a cartoon. I used to do cartoons. They were a way of keeping my journals. Hell, I have a whole stack of them. Anyway, here is an example. Talk to you guys next week. Love, B. Nice

P.S. Here's a link to the other blog. Have a good week.