teen Photo Workshop

Worksheet: The Job: 20 pages Teen Fashion for Littlewoods Mail Order Catalogue.

The Brief: The Manager of the studios told me that he wanted the models to stand next to a stream or river, looking 'Sad", or thoughtful, you name it - just damm sad! - What a brief...

The Location: South West England. UK. The Models: Four Top Teenage Fashion Models, (average age 23 years old)!

The Crew: Photographer, (yours truly). Four Models. Two assistants and a driver.

The Transport: A mini-bus and a driver.

The Accommodation: A '4 star' Hotel - Three nights stop-over.

First day of the shoot and after standing four models by the river looking 'Sad', I was beginning to get a bit sad myself. Not to be put off, I did what I was asked and was even making good progress with the total number of shots we had to do, at the same time trying to keep my crew happy.

A fun shot of mine at the expence of the garment.

By now we were well into the second day and pretty much covered what we had been asked to do, with good time to spare.

By the way, this was always the way I worked, in so much that my crew, the Models and assistants would agree at the beginning to max' their cooperation with each other, to move
the job along. At this point I might add that I new my job well and I used some of the best Models and worked with assistants that I liked and more importantly most seem to like working with me.

Anyway, at this point, while moving from location to location, we came across a field of Hay which just been cut and stacked.

I said that's it. Stop the mini-bus. Even without me saying anything, everybody knew what was about happen. We dived straight in and quickly started to re-shoot some of the 'Sad' shots and replaced them with 'Fun' shots, jumping about, "Making Hay While The Sun Shines", returning the following day to finish off.

Back in London at the end of the second day, they had received the film for processing. I had intended for all the 'Sad' shots the Manager has asked for, to be processed first.

But there was a mix up and all the 'Fun' shots were processed first.

This is what I call two 'safe' shots, notice something the garments look grate, not to mention the sexy model! photos: © Roger Lewis 2005/8

The Manager was on the phone late that evening screaming at me, "Where's my looking 'Sad' shots by the water"

I told him that we had already shot them and we had worked so hard, that we had time for an alternative set of shots to show the client.

I could hear the relief in the Managers voice when he heard that and he said "thank God for that, because these shots are 'bloody' useless.

When we returned to London, I was there when the client from Manchester, UK. arrived to look at the "trannies".

I could here him saying, as he looked at the 'Sad' shots on the light box, "Hmm, quite nice, Hmm quite nice" and I could see a smug look on the Managers face as he looked relived.

The Manager quickly explained that he had 'arraigned' for me to shoot an alternative set of pictures. The client looked at me and winked...

The Manager never did question my judgment again and the client asked for me to shoot the next assignment... end of story...

Comment: Always listen to your client's requirements. but show some flair and introduce new ideas, but don't over do it, but do have fun with your' Teen Photo Workshop'.