When photographing celebrities, a big part of my job is to make them comfortable. I need to keep the shoot fun while subliminally reassuring them that I can get the job done. Otherwise, they’ll lose interest and it’ll show in my images. Even worse, they could leave before I’m done.
Things didn’t start out too well at my recent Kerrang Magazine cover shoot.
Jared Leto, Shannon Leto, and Tomo Milicevic, otherwise known as 30 Seconds To Mars, showed up at the photo studio right on time. These guys are pros. Jared Leto has acted in major motion pictures and been photographed hundreds of times. I really wanted to win them over quickly.
I had some music playing in the studio, but I immediately took some abuse from them for my musical choice. After trying to convince them that the new Toto album is, in fact, awesome, I gave them control of my iPod. Van Halen quickly changed the mood in the room.
You never know what might put someone off during a shoot. For example, I found out in advance that Jared is a vegetarian, so bringing in ham sandwiches for lunch would have been a bad thing.
Luckily, the guys were great to work with and by the end of the hour we were all hugs and high-fives.
Here are some of my images from the shoot, including the final magazine cover.
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/4, ISO 200)
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO 200)
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO 200)
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/10, ISO 200)
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO 200)