end of a series - Photo Shoot

Today Z had her first photo shoot.

At first I thought the photo shoot was going to be more fun (for me) than shooting the commercial. It takes about 50 - 70 people to shoot a commercial so when you are doing it inside a house it seems like anywhere you stand you are in danger of being bonked on the head with some lighting equipment.

But there were only about a dozen people involved in this photo shoot (Z and her fake mom, the photographer, the hairdresser, the wardrobe, the gopher guy and six producer types.) It was much more low-key at first but then it just kept going on and on...

So anyway this is how it goes:

There is this tiny little white closet (seriously a tiny closet) with three sides. The back is a green screen. In the front there is a hole than can slide up and down that the photographer puts his camera in.

Z and her fake mom go inside the box and sit on other boxes (actually more like crates.)

Hovering just outside the box are the hairdresser and the wardrobe lady. The hairdresser is actually needed. The photographer might call out "Hair!" and she has to slip into the room and spray and spritz.

Then there is the computer guy at the large screen computer displaying all the pictures that are being taken with only a few second delay. All the producers stand around the computer and "ooh" and "ahhh" and make suggestions like "Tell the mom her head needs to go more to the right." and "We would like Z to smile more."

The photographer is talking the whole time:
"Mmmm great",
"Yeah, great".
"Yeah, more like that",
"Move your hand to the right",
"Your right",
"More",
"More",
"Less"
"Yeah, right there."
"Z, smile more."
"Smile like you love your fake Mommy."
"Smile a little kitty smile." (What the hell is that supposed to mean?!?)
"Look into the camera."
"Touch your ears together" (Z and her fake mom, not both of Z's ears to each other.)

So this goes on for half an hour. Then we take a break. Then another half hour.

Now I am starting to wonder if Z's lack of a fake smile is messing up the shoot. Seriously though she doesn't really do fake smile well. She also doesn't really like having her picture taken for an hour and a half.

She was glad when it was over and the thing she enjoyed the most was playing ping-pong during the breaks.