Indulge me as I reminisce about a few more photos and aimlessly fill another blog page.
The pictures below are all scanned film images. Each of these portraits, except for the last one, were done in about five minutes because that’s usually all the time a photographer got.
The photo was done with one softbox to the left and Fuji Press 400 film.
Random hotel celebrity portrait story:
You could measure the celebrity status of an actor based on the location of the portrait. If it was at the Four Seasons Hotel then you knew the movie studio thought highly of that celebrity. But if it was at the downtown Holiday Inn, then, well, you know. I once did a photo shoot with a TV actor in a Second Cup coffee shop.
Musician portraits were different. They were done at various hotels, clubs, restaurants and record label offices. Celebrity status had nothing to do with anything.
This was shot with a softbox and some windows to the left and Fuji Press 800.
Random musician portrait story:
In November 1998, I went to photograph musician Brian Warner. He’s better known as Marilyn Manson. I waited in a room with a few PR people. And waited.
Without any announcement and without a sound, Manson walked into the room. Three steps into the room and he stopped. Completely stopped. Didn’t move whatsoever.
Now what?
A PR person nodded to me. So I shot a few pictures. He did not move. I shot a few more. He still did not move. I think he blinked a few times. Then he moved his arms, so I shot a few more frames. He turned toward a PR person who then immediately said, “Okay that’s it” and ushered me out of the room.
This was done in a bland hotel room using one sofbox high to the right and a bare flash bounced off the ceiling and through some glass doors to the left-rear. The glass doors were included in some photos but, in the end, they were too distracting. Kodak GPX 160 film.
Random hotel celebrity portrait story and sadly I don’t have the negs:
In the mid-90s, I went to the Westin Harbour Castle hotel in Toronto to photograph Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders. I was told to wait in the lobby and a publicist would come get me.
After waiting an hour or so, I got a phone call telling me to go up to a certain room. When I got there, the door was partially open. I knocked and heard a woman’s voice yell, “Come in.”
I pushed the door open to find an empty hotel room. So I waited. Maybe the person was in the bathroom?
After standing in silence for a bit, I heard a woman’s voice call, “I’m in the bedroom.”
Oh-oh. Now what was I supposed to do? Was I even in the right room?
A moment later, “Come in the bedroom.”
In the bedroom, Chrissie Hynde was sitting on the floor autographing a stack of CDs. She said her bandmate Martin Chambers would be back in a few minutes. So I sat with her, and photographed her, as she tore the cellophane wrap off each CD, signed the jewel case, stacked it to the left, and continued on.
Eventually Martin Chambers returned and we did photos in the bedroom. (The bedroom had a nice bank of windows).
Another photographer arrived an hour later to find Reeves asleep on the sofa. Apparently he wasn’t feeling well and was resting between interviews.
Lit with a softbox high to the left, a bare flash behind him and a reflector below him. Kodak 400 film.
Random hotel celebrity portrait story and sadly I don’t have the negs:
(Sixteen years shooting film and many negatives have been lost or damaged. Much of this was because the newspaper at which I worked didn’t care much about saving negatives. Twenty years, so far, of shooting digital and nothing has been lost or damaged.)
I went to Toronto’s Park Plaza Hotel to photograph actor Peter Ustinov in the early 1990s. The room door was open, (which was often the case for hotel interviews/photo shoots), so I peeked in first and then walked in. No one was there. I yelled, “Hello, photographer here.”
From a far room in this large hotel suite came Peter Ustinov. He welcomed me like an old friend.
Ustinov watched as I unpacked my camera gear. Immediately he started to improvise a silly Shakespearean soliloquy on cameras. He spoke about the (made-up) virtues of Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Minolta, Leica and Hasselblad. He didn’t just talk, he performed as if on a theatrical stage. Ustinov continued for several minutes as I frantically took pictures of him.
“Was that sufficient?” he asked.
I said yes, thanked him and left.
This was shot in front of a hand-painted background and lit with strip boxes on the right and rear-left, a reflector below, and a few spot lights (at the left, background and top). Shot on a Hasselblad with Kodak GPF 160 film.
