Undercover at a cover shoot

I was on the way to a shoot for Aim's Living Well magazine, the May/June 2011 cover, when I got a call from the tog:

Matt: "You are going to kill me"
Me: "WHAT DID YOU DO?!?"
Matt: "I forgot my camera at home"

To put the problem in perspective it was rush hour traffic time, and 'home' is in Hartebeespoort. We were in Roodepoort. Oops.

So Matt sweet talked his wife and convinced her to bring the camera, and along with that came their 3 kids. 3 kids who decided that being at daddy's office was the perfect chance for prank calling, each other. Each kid ran to a desk and started dialling a sibling's extension number.

"Hello Mrs Smith, you need to come fetch your child from school, he is being terribly naughty"
"Hello is that Mr Jones? This is the police and we are coming to arrest you"
"Hello Mrs Evans you have won a million Rand"

These weren't the actual conversations, I can't remember them all but they went along these lines.

One of the conversations I do remember clearly was made by the boss to his employee: "You stupid woman, you're fired!!"

At this point dad stepped in. "That's enough! You don't talk like that to anyone! You kids are being a nuisance and this stops right now". He had his angry face and stern voice which I'm sure works in most reprimanding situations but the kids just blinked a few times and carried on dialling each other. Why? Mom. She joined in on the fun. Good cop, bad cop.

But sometimes even the toughest cops can be lured to the dark side:
Dad with scary voice: "I know where you are and I'm coming to get you"
Youngest daughter in the next door office: *SHRIEK*
*Scary dad dials the next number* "I know where you are and I'm coming to get you"..... "It's my son, I'm getting burps. He doesn't scare as easily"

Believe it or not we did eventually get around to shooting the cover

I… just… can’t… do it Captain

Many people think that modeling is easy, after all how hard could it be to sit and look pretty? However, shoots are mentally and physically exhausting, for everyone involved. The photographer/ makeup artist/ stylist/ anyone present can’t help but act out the pose/expression required from the model:
Tog: ”Lift your chin”
*all chins in the room lift*
Tog: “Bend your knees”
*all knees in the room bend*
Tog: "Give me a smile"
*colgate smiles all around*
It’s a subconscious thing, and before you know it we've all had a face and body workout.
But sometimes we consciously make the model uncomfortable. Generally, the more uncomfortable a pose the more beautifully it photographs. And the photographer never gets it right with one click, never ever.Tog: "Beautiful, now hold it, hold it,*click*, one more, hold it, *click*, hold it, one more (for the record, it's never just one more, never ever!), hold it, hold it.


Model: "WHY AREN'T YOU TAKING THE PICTURE?!?"

Photographer: Matthew Rademan
Model: Celeste Mellett

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You want me to wear...that?

I was asked to be part of a shoot for the cover of Living Well magazine. The photographer, Matthew, explained the magazine's target market... he could have just shown us the outfits chosen for the shoot....take a look, a picture says a thousand words!
------->

Our lovely model (Theresa) and I looked at each other, blinked, and hoped Matt wouldn't take offence to our comments on the granny clothes. We pulled and pinned the outfits in all sorts of directions to try make them more flattering - maybe Theresa should eat more! I must confess that some of the outfits actually looked quite nice on her, yes I know Mrs Brown down the road is 'nice'.

I wasn't convinced that our target market would approve of the outfits but some of the ladies who work with Matt decided to sneak a peek and boy when they spotted the outfits it was like feeding time at the zoo! They called the other ladies to come have a look and started trying the outfits on. If we were selling those clothes we would have made a small fortune right there and then. It just goes to show that there really are different strokes for different folks.

Here's the cover, nice hey?

Photographer: Matthew Rademan - http://www.modelbase.co.za/11217
Model: Theresa - http://www.modelbase.co.za/12929


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