my day as a photographer's assistant

so today . . . i went on a photo shoot with diandra. she was taking head shots for my friend amy, who is an actress. we met her in the the bixby knolls area of long beach. the houses there are beautiful and the business district is interesting. we could probably have taken photos there all week and not run out of cool things to shoot.

we shot in alley ways . . .
we used the steps and retaining walls next to the sidewalk . . .and we even went into people's yards--we did ask permission first, and no one said no--even in bixby knolls!
it was fun to walk around the neighborhood with diandra as she scanned for the next spot to shoot. amy was a good sport to do whatever diandra asked her to do. there were wardrobe changes (one was in the street between two cars with diandra and i serving as the two missing walls,) yard invasions, goofy faces, and even some jumping up and down. if you want to see the resulting photos, check out diandra's photography blog in a few days.

of course, i couldn't walk around all afternoon with my camera in my pocket without taking any photos of my own. so i had some fun taking pictures of diandra taking pictures of amy. i had to do it with one hand, because my other arm was full of possible props and wardrobe options.

at one point, i went back to the car to drop off some of the stuff we were done with. i returned to find diandra and amy shooting in front of a red door. as i walked up to the house, i was struck by this image . . .
while i waited for them to finish up, i noticed some cool details in the garden . . .

so, even though it was gloomy saturday afternoon, i had a great time. it was nice to be out in the fresh, cool air, walking at a leisurely pace (instead of being dragged by psycho dogs) and looking for interesting visuals. i think maybe i want to be a photographer's assistant--at least, if the photographer is diandra . . .