No more Workshops!

Today is the day of Greg Price’s workshop in NJ. London and I are staying with her boyfriend’s parents in Northport Long Island. It’s about a two hour drive to the workshop. London gets up, gets in the shower….I think we are ready to leave…she says,

“I’m not going! No, no, no….nothing you can say Tracy will make me go…Here, take the keys, take my car….if you want to go, just go.”

I didn’t want to drive by myself and London offered to drive me, but then what would she do? I knew she really did not want to go to this workshop. I wish I had taken her up on that drive, or possibly have just stayed at home too…

I leave a little after 10am and get to the workshop a little after 12pm. Phew, only a few minutes late! They should be happy to see me though...I showed up!

I’m thinking there must be a small group of photographers at a set waiting for me. But no, they are all over the place! The whole studio is completely disorganized. It was crazy! No one gave me any direction, so I went straight to the dressing room and began putting on a sexy outfit. I met some of the other girls and we all figured out that we were on our own and had to just do whatever. Wow, not what I was expecting from a workshop that is held twice every month!

There must have been 25 or more photographers running around and only 5 models showed up. We would put on an outfit and then go to a set and have the photographers crowd around and shoot us. Since there weren’t many models, and half of us would be in the dressing room at any given time, the mass of photographers would usually crowd around one model. I swear, I felt like an animal at a zoo!

“Tracy, over here! Look here! Smile here! Don’t smile! Smile. Look over here! Tracy. Tracy. Sit up, lay down, put your feet up, Tracy, look at me, over here, 1-2-3, 1-2-3”

…the photographers would count out loud so you would know who was shooting and who would be taking the flash…but it didn’t work too well. It was a pure turkey shoot!

I was hoping for some group rotations, assigned sets, an actual workshop where the photographers could learn about lighting and stuff. But no, it was just a mass of people thrown in a studio and left to do whatever they want. I still worked hard though. I smiled all day, I went through a variety of outfits, poses, facial expressions…I tried my best to connect with each photographer and not get overwhelmed by the pure ridiculousness of it all. I kept up my energy and remained bubbly and approachable.

The incentive was that after the workshop, there were six private one-on-one sessions photographers could hire us for. I filled up all my slots and was excited to make some extra cash.The photographers that hired me for the private sessions were all wonderful and I enjoyed those shoots. It was quite relieving to work with just one camera! But again, there was complete disorganization. The sessions didn’t start on time and no one knew where anyone was. The photographers didn’t get the studio sets they reserved… I was so ready to get through this and get home! The private sessions should have only lasted until 7:30pm at the latest. But I didn’t get done until 9:30pm!

Luckily, the sessions I had were great and I should be getting some wonderful images from them. I’m particularly looking forward to the images from Mark Thomason, a well-known, talented photographer with a wonderful British accent and Marcus Simpson, a newcomer to shooting models, but he had gorgeous Indian fabrics, a fan to blow them and my hair all around me, and beautiful soft lighting. The images should be gorgeous!

So, by the time I get paid, sign model releases and pack up my wardrobe that had exploded all over the dressing room, it was 10:30pm and a heavy rain storm was taking place. I run out to the car, call London to let her know I was on my way back and off I went. I should be back and in bed by midnight, I thought. There can’t be much traffic this late on a Sunday night. Ha! Was I ever wrong!