Behind the Glamour
"I'm beyond your peripheral vision..so you might want to turn your head" Ani Difranco-click.....your camera is silent. So why is it we think that  this is a glamorous life as a photographer. I am not trying to define this thing I do as  this illusion of something it ain’t. There are times when I have to pinch myself as to say “do you know who I just photograph”, but before you let your ego run wild. Remember this is a business for most of us. From the second you turn your lights on in the office of your studio or before that first cup of coffee.....waiting for those rings from art directors wanting to see your portfolio to the rep that says you need to get more shots of families in a park for your book that needs to be shown to the new client. Yeah! I get it now, before I can shoot those images of girls/guys running on a beach for my book, I have to take care of today’s real work; getting those estimates out, invoices into the data system, what supplies am I short of now, my assistant packing equipment for a catalog shoot for 4days in Miami, where’s my passport, did you book the models, my mother call’s about  your B’day(which I missed), how much extra equipment do you really need for this shoot, sorry that ain’t in the budget, weather check, raincoat even for Miami, and this can go on for hours.Here is the truth.... the smallest amount of time that I am really behind the camera is not so glamorous as I thought. It’s commutating with a vast amount of other people behind the stage I perform on. I do find the humor in what it is that at 125/sec. @ f/11 is so edged in your minds as to my work, but once the lights are turned off I just start my work. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy this love affair I have with the visual image. Nothing as sweet as feeling the click of your shutter, knowing that it’s one image that will define me today.But today is here and gone so perk up your spirits....it’s show time.
(p.s. take note of the passport for Miami)...............

Now on the other edge of the sword is me.

I have no assistant or gear to pack for tomorrows shoot, I answer to no one but me when it comes to what I am going to shoot and why. I have no agent and no one booking me for work. I am an island on to myself and the ocean around me is art. I wake up and think will I see it today, will something jump out at me or do I have to go on that journey to find the shot. The image that will define my work today and tomorrow. I cannot even get a bad comment on my work, so I live with my own opinions. Is it to red or to green, could I have got higher and fit more into the frame or would it have made my image not visible to the eye of the camera.

I do not envy anyone so involved in the industry that they do not have time for the art of it. Yet I long to have people say I want that vision Steven has for this project. Long to have my images in magazines and web sites that I didn’t even know about.

We are on different sides to the same coin you and I Alex. Looks, work, experience, age, and location, still we are connected by one defining force in our lives, ART.

Be an artist on your own time now and get your work done first is what you are being told to a point. As with me I am being asked, where is your work? Anyone can be an artist.

Life is truly funny isn’t it?

Im just stuck in the boonies so comment away

The title sounds like one of the VH-1 shows showing the dark side of modeling... LOL

AWESOME writing Alex. Riviting and true. But would you trade it for anything else? That challenge of always trying to redefine yourself yet maintaining that style you've developed over thousands maybe MILLIONS of exposures.

The sound of that shutter releasing the strobes firing I find so intoxicating. Makes me think I have arrived. Going on shoots is like getting away from the "office". Like a personal vacation.

But then I'm a wierd one. I like the business end of things as well. The guessing on what extras I might need or want. Making travel arrangements for myself and 8 models, and not to mention the staff... I LIVE for that as much as I live to get jiggy with the camera.

Steven good point that anyone can be an artist, just as anything can be considered art. THAT is such a wonderfully beautiful part of life. I might not like it but someone will.

But in my mind the business side of it is also an art form of its own. To bring an entire crew together to create one mutual work of art takes skill and talent.

Life is like the craft of photography - It's all about perception.  Ooooh maybe I will be qouted at like Brookes one day.... LMAO.