Hi I'm Tamara Lackey! On this part two
episode of reDefine Show for AdoramaTV, I
speak with musician and celebrity
photographer Drew Gurian, and he
discusses what he's thinking about, well
before he steps into his shoot. All the
little things he has to set up, when he
has very little time to shoot a portrait.
Check it out.
I think finding new clients and
building those relationships, it's a
combination of lots of different things.
It's for me, it's, it's meeting people in
person, and maybe connecting with them on
some level. It's following up with emails
and sending out promos, and being active
in the photo community, and seeing people
at photo events here and there, and
people do remember you in time. So it's
very difficult for me to say that's the
one thing that got me that job.
Sometimes but very rarely.
It's funny my son is 13,
he's a drummer, yes, he's really, really,
talented. He can pick up music so fast, and
sing every lyric whatsoever there is, and
I was showing him your site, and he saw
Ed Sheeran. Yep! And he freaked out!
He's like Oooo.. love him so much.
Cause Ed Sheeran, he's a
musician's musician..
Sure, sure! How do you
get into those kind of shoots, like how
does that get set up for you. Um or do
you set it up? Yeah well, there's many
different facets of it. Ed Sheeran I
photographed for The Associated Press.
Yeah, shot him in under one minute was
think, it was a 45 sec shoot.
It was one of those tiny ones! Yeah.
How many shots did you get off. I
think was 16, because I only noticed that
because I was teaching here yesterday,
and I actually showing my class the
contact sheet, if you will the photo
mechanics so they get to see... here's the
entire shoot! It's important for people
to see it. It is. So I showed them the set up..
which like you wouldn't believe!
I can, I can maybe show that.How long does it
take you to set up?
Hey the email I got from
my photo editor for this shoot was
essentially ..'would you like to shoot
Ed Sheeran' tomorrow like 12:15 at this
hotel in midtown Manhattan? You'll have
no space or time to set up any photos,
and you'll have only a couple of minutes?'
With that.. it was something like that!
Yeah and like as a photographer, like as
a photographer, who has some experience
behind them, the better part of you, me,
wants to say no. Like you're setting me
up for like a disastrous type of
situation, and you do have to realize
that any photos that go out in the world,
your name is on them! Yeah. That's very
important, to always be conscious of.
Right with that said.. I was you know, I've
gotten pretty good at working very
quickly, and in less than advantageous
situations. Right! And I did say yes, and
it ended up being a successful shoot, but
we were shooting on a video set. Yeah. T
There was a documentary being shot of him, he
had a whole crew with him, here his video
crew that he had with him, had the whole
room full of video lighting, and it was a whole set,
and I literally had a half a piece of
seamless paper gaff tape to the back of
a piece of foam core, like a shiny board
that that his video crew was using, as a
you know a big piece of foam core, and
that was it! And my assistant was hand
holding like a 3ft Octa Bank
right over him. And it was a shoot where
the in the photo, Ed is holding a paper
airplane, he was pointing it right
towards the end, making eye contact, and
it was one of those situations where I
knew I would have such little time with
him, but I also wanted it to appear as
though I had some sort of connection
with him! Which is a very, very difficult
thing to do. Especially when you're
dealing with people of that stature, who
maybe have egos. Who when there's
publicists around... all that stuff! None of
that is working in your favor for you, so
the night before I sat down with my
roommate at the time, and I was just
trying to come up with ideas with her of
like. what can I like bring onto this
shoot that is like, you know, cute and
quirky, and cool, but like not too out
there, that he's like definitely going to not
say no to. I won't pose with a naked baby...
And paper airplanes just was something
that came to mind, and I like made like
five or six paper airplanes, had him in a
folder, put them in like the laptop
sleeve of my bag, and pulled them out on,
on the shoot, and had a couple of
photos of him, just sitting in this chair.
The video setup was already there,
and then I pulled him in front of this
backdrop, took just a couple of frames just of
him. There was like, they were completely
like emotionless and boring photos, and
then I just said 'Hey, I just I want to
hand you this plane, and I just want you
to like play into the lens for me, and do
something fun and he just gave me like
this dead stare with the lens. Then I
also have some frames where he's profile
to the lens and throwing the airplane,
and they didn't work out, so we're around a half
piece of seamless, and it just, there
wasn't enough room, or time! But yeah I
got off, I think like 16 frames total and
then he just shook my hand and left. So that's
the reality of some of these shoots that
a lot of people don't realize! What's
funny about that, is that you just shared
an example of a shot you tried, and the
way you delivered this was like, I tried
it didn't work out, and move on... whereas a
lot of this is kind of tying into people
when you have
insecurities about your work, and you're
feeling like what you produced is tied
to how good you are all the time.
Recognizing that even people at the top
of their game, doing a ton of work, will
have those things that don't work off.
It's a kind of norm thing, if you want to
try something new you're going to have a
lot of things that don't work out! Yeah.
And I think that that can get missed
sometimes, the realization that if you're
not failing that means you're not ever
trying something new, and I think you
could speak to this, and I can and Joe can.
Whenever any of us are in a workshop
scenario, or any type of public setting or
even online, and you're you're showing
the in and outs of a particular shoot,
and you're showing photos that don't
work out. Yeah that's so valuable to
people, cuz they're like, 'oh I just like,
assumed everything you did is great'.. but
no, no, nobody's work is great across the
board. Most of our work sucks, that's the
truth, very little of what we shoot will
hopefully ever see the light of day, and
the reason that's that's the absolute
truth! Good photos are hard to come by.
Yeah they really are. And people who say that
in a workshop, like oh good that's, that's
a terrible shot, thank you for showing me
that! Of course! You're welcome!
Yeah exactly!
So moving on in terms of what you're
doing from here, given all the things
you've done, how you progressed, what's
next like? What do you want to be doing?
So I spent the last couple of years,
because of a handful of the clients that I
was working for, I was fortunate to be
able to build up a really strong
portfolio of primarily celebrity
portraits, which I thought was really
cool, and I'm happy to have that, but I
want to say I've stopped caring about
that, but a lot of those portraits that
I've shot have been for clients, that,
that, where you don't necessarily have
the time or the production value, to
produce say like advertising level work.
So I've started pairing a lot of that
work back, and out of my portfolio, and
via some other clients, and via some
personal shoots, trying to produce some
work that, some of it is lifestyle work,
that's, that's really, really loose, and
commercially oriented, I would say, and
just working on some some more portrait
work that's, you know, not necessarily
building a set, but something that's a
bit larger production work, where you
have really good styling, where you have
the right team, and that's the ideal, to
me, is yeah, working on bigger productions
as a whole, and some of that to me is you
know, taking a type of photography that
I've done a lot of over the years, which
is I mean, music industry work, I started
with live music, and a lot of behind the
scenes work with bands, so I have a huge
archive of candid work with bands,
backstage on tour, and recording studios,
all of that stuff, which is cool, but
that's not, and it's great editorially
speaking, but not really commercially
viable. So and that is important to me. I
mean you could say oh.. that's like
selling out, but no it's like figuring
out how to make a living... That's the truth
made pure and simple. So to me it's
shooting lifestyle work, and I kind of
hate the word lifestyle, because it's
like. Never used again. It's not like it
was somebody drinking a coke, but, but to
me it's like shooting something that is
very natural looking but is produced, and
I get to shoot it in a very similar way
that I would shoot say a band backstage,
so I get to be really journalistic, and
very loose, which is very different from
shooting like a produced studio portrait,
which can be pretty staged, so it's nice
to kind of mix those two, and I really
enjoy shooting it, and on top of that..
Yeah, it is more commercially viable for
say advertising work, or doing work for
an apparel brand.. something like that..
So yeah, just looking at bigger editorial
magazines, you know, all Hollywood
Reporter's and Vanity Fair's and that sort
of thing, and, and, advertising work in
general. So I just I shoot a lot, and of
course just always developing new work,
and experimenting, which you have to do.
Yeah, I mean, I don't, I can't say I have a
pretty defined vision at this point, but
it's, it's, still definitely growing and
developing. So tell me a little bit about
the stories, the talk you gave here on
stories. Sure so I did a talk
yesterday downstairs, a seminar, Nikon
sponsored. Yeah yesterday! Yes wow, it's
been a long time..Four days ago! I did a
talk yesterday called 'The quick and
simple portrait', which is essentially you
know on the surface, it sounds like a
lighting class, and it is a lighting
class, but it's a lot more than, it's not
I'm not doing a live shooting, I'm not
like diving in and saying... these are your
flash settings, or anything like that.
It's more of like, you know here's a
handful of real-world scenarios, that I
utilize, and also here's the stories
behind their shoots, and here's the, the
process which I find to be incredibly
important, and as valuable or more
valuable than like.. where you put a
softbox. This is about connecting with
people, and trying to shoot something
that's not always super staged looking.
I mean something that kind of goes beyond
that. So I think that's really important
for people to see. It's interesting
because I think that generally speaking
you don't see authentic expression
nearly as much as you think you would, in
the more highly produced pieces. Agreed.
You know, and kind of bringing that
together, I think is it's really cool and
striking, and not as norm, yeah, as, and, and,
so that process of the interaction, and
the making them comfortable, and the
setting all up. Like walk us through a
simple one. It's, it's difficult, I mean it
really comes down to some of it for me,
is, it's just pure and simply doing a lot
of research beforehand. For instance I
photographed Luke Bryan for Rolling
Stone, a country star, I had maybe 10
minutes with him backstage, shooting
portraits, and it was sort of a day in
the life on tour that I was looking for
him, so I was shooting, so I, I did
a portrait scenario's backstage, I did a fan
meet and greet and the live show, ok. So
part of connecting with the people is
whoever the talent may be, is, is doing
your research, you know? Maybe a bit about
them. I spoke to a disc jockey that I
know in a country station, I'd spoken to
a friend who went the same college as
him. I knew that his you know, new single
had just gotten a number one. I knew that
he got a new puppy, I knew what frat he
was in and where he went to school. I wanted
things to talk about with him, and also
researching how people had been
photographed. I find to be really
important.I then. That's interesting. What,
how have they been photographed to date.
How they been photographed, that importance,
not only like, what types of lighting may
be good or bad for them. Mm-hm.
As well as like, what they might be up
for! If they're going to be really rigid, or
if they're going to be someone who's up for
something fun, and loose, and that's
helpful. Of course you want to challenge
yourself and do something really
interesting, but that's not for everybody.
Right, so yeah, it's just shooting people
in a way that does them
best as possible. I love that, and then so
you're in there, you take the portraits
you've set it up, and then your
production.
What's your production process
afterwards. Editorial it's, it's pretty
quick turnaround next day, something like
that. Sometimes was retouching a bit,
which turn around, you know will be a bit
longer than that. But yeah for
editorially magazines and whatnot, it's
it's, it's pretty quick. Yeah that's very
cool. Yeah. Where do people go to find out
more about you and what you do, and how
awesome you are?
Sure my website is just drewgurian.com
last name is G U R I A N, or just @DrewGurian
on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
all those other places!
Absolutely! thanks so much Drew.
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