Katy Perry: FOLLOW UP!

The Katy Perry interview and story is now available to read at the London Times Online, or by clicking this post.  The article pretty accurately sums up the day and Ms. Harris' ability to capture the basic essence of Katy as well as detail her backstory is impeccable.  Bravo, and for the rest of you, I hope you enjoy the artice.

...reporting live from the FOX 5 Launch Party!

Tonight was the official Launch Party of the new FOX 5 Channel in San Diego (formerly the CW) at the wonderful San Diego Hall of Champions in amazing Balboa Park and man was it a blast. In years prior when there was a Fall preview or other such event, it was either at the station or at the Wave House in OB. Great times were had to be sure, but this venue was definitely a departure in the right direction. Right off the bat the ambience was great and the music provided by Massey Productions was makin' people shake their thing a little.Saw some familiar faces and some new faces from the station. The people who work behind the scenes who make the machine run smooth. I don't get to see you guys enough because when I do I have a great time. After catching up with Will Givens and Sandi Banister, the guests began to make their way in to the venue, and what better way to make an entrance than with the San Diego Charger Girls! Lets just say that this was not one of the more difficult parts of my job. The Charger Girls were all very personable and we had a laugh or two! They even stuck around and performed a short dance routine to kick off the night right!

After a brief video and a few short words from Scott Heath, Ray Schonbock, and Ed Wilson some of the on air talent began to trickle in. First to make it in was Arthel Neville looking fabulous. Girl, I don't know what kinda voodoo you are doin' but you look great as always. Glad to have you in San Diego, alongside Chrissy Russo who does the weather in the mornings.

By the way Chrissy, I thought I recognized you from my business trips on Continental. Things were running pretty smooth and I was getting some great shots when I peered over to the front door and spied trouble making its way in. Kyle Hunter, Kendis Gibson and principal party girl Kathleen Bade were ready to get down!

Kyle Hunter, gotta tell you bro, your hair looks great in HD. For those of you who don't know Kyle, click this link to get a look of him early in his career when his hair wasn't as awesome as it is now. P.S. Kyle, how hard is the weather in San Diego? "Right now its 77 degrees, and lets check out forecast for the next YEAR. Oh look, mostly sunny with a high of 77 degrees." Hope you like it in San Diego and keep up the great weather!

Kendis, Kendis, Kendis.

I KNOW you like the weather better here than in Atlanta. Although it looked like you were pretty thirsty tonight at the party, if you know what I mean... Ahem. Your secret is safe with me bro....FOR A PRICE! Just kidding, you can have the photos for your Myspace and Facebook.

Ah, Kathleen Bade.

You could tell the kids were at home because she was ready for Dancing with the Stars with those dance moves! By the way, I am curious, does it suck to be so attractive that you are the envy of all the other news channels in San Diego or do you just love it? It was great to see you and I am glad to see you back on the air.
Thank you FOX 5 for inviting me to photograph your event. Everyone at the station is so cool that I could never come up with enough adjectives to compliment you guys!

To view all of the photos from tonights event go CLICK HERE or go to www.rmrphoto.com !

Kobe Beef Burgers & The Katy Perry Shoot

Had a fun-tastic time helping out my buddy Sandy Huffaker at the Katy Perry Shoot. This is where I really feel at home. The modelling shoots, the makeup, hairdressers, diva 'tudes and non-stop texting. I love it! Actually Katy Perry was very sweet and a very real person. Gorgeous too- what a body! The sun was a little troublesome, but nothing that my good old scrim couldn't fix!
The clouds were out early and that was great for decreasing the shadows but apparently you can never apply enough makeup. C'mon lady, the poor girl is already pretty, how much frickin more eyeliner does she need? ANSWER: Not that frickin' much. And definitely not between every 5 shots.
Highlight of the day? When her people picked up lunch! First I was gonna just pick up a BLT, but hell, why not a KOBE BEEF burger?!
Had the opportunity to meet a delightfully interesting "alien of extraordinary ability" (inside joke). Sophie Harris was a journalist from London who was writing a piece on Katy's success in the UK for the London Times. Loved her vibrant energy and her travel experiences. Hope I have the opportunity to work and see her again. Sophie, you have an open invitation here in SD. We'll save a fish taco for you!

Andre & Jen in La Jolla

Had a great time Shooting with Andre and Jen at the shores of La Jolla Cove. They had some fantastic shots and weren't afraid to get dirty, wet and cold for the right photographs. They were young and edgy and we had a blast doing it!

Afterwards we went down to Little Italy for lunch at Trattoria Fantastica. Thanks for the lunch guys!

I hope you enjoy this little slideshow. BTW I kept all of my "This is Sparta" jokes to myself after seeing Andre's abs!

San Diego Shots

So what do you do when a client calls up and they need specific pictures shot in a specific way in a very short time and for way less than your usual rate?

Well if you are a poor photographer who is trying to buy a house, you frickin' take the gig, that's what you do!

I have a long history with this particular client and I would like to continue to do business with them for much more time so sometimes you just gotta bend the rules. Even if it hurts ... alot.

One of the hardest parts about the whole thing was scouting the locations for each of the shots. Talk about the pain at the pump! Driving back and forth trying to find the best view really took a toll on the old odometer. On a positive note, I now have a mental file cabinet of some great places to shoot from! Mine ... ALL MINE!

The other hard part was that some of the shots required were to be of the same thing both daytime and nightime, and that required me not to move the camera, sometimes for hours at a time. That if course meant that I had to stay with the equipment.

This had to be the hardest landmark to shoot. I just could not find the right angle. Pretty much everywhere you shot this from either looked to small or too far away or too wide. Believe me when I tell you that planning this shot kept me up at night.

I would like to thank the undisclosed location from which I took this photograph from for not having me arrested for shooting from this spot at 4:30 in the morning until sunrise. And if anybody gives me any flak for taking this shot, please refer to the title of this frickin' blog!

Shooting the Del was fun, lugging my heavy equipment including tripod and spotlight across the sand and up to a lifeguard tower. This was made even more fun by the fact that it was windy and a little chilly and I had left a nice warm jacket in my car which was close enough to see and yet far enough away to be inaccessible.

Big shout out to Todd the lifeguard in Coronado for letting me shoot from his tower. Keep an eye out for the Green Flash bro!

By the way, the nerve of these people actually getting married on the beach! Can't they see I got a picture to take!

Frick!

Qualcomm was a shot that was added into the shoot list kinda last minute. Visually its vanilla, or I guess a better term would be pizza: Its plain, but its still good.

I remembered the jacked on this one. What I forgot was that when a tourist sees a guy with a camera and a tripod they have to take the picture from the same exact spot you are. Never mind that they have the rest of the entire beack in La Jolla to take the same picture.

I played with this one a little bit and used my spotlight to paint the rocks with light a little bit to give them texture.

If you ever want to be worried about scummy looking teenagers who curse entirely too much and dread haired skaters and meth heads missing a few teeth but strangely with enough money to get massive tattoos skulking about you while you take a picture, then i'll see you here at the OB Pier!

Alas, one of the few shots that was actually sans tourists. The Old Point Loma Lighthouse at any other time of day would be covered in that lovely marine layer. This is one of those places I think that looks way better in the fall.

Well after quite a few sleepless nights huddled next to my gear like a homeless photographer off of Imperial Ave downtown, I think I am going to get a good nights sleep tonight. Hope you enjoyed the shots and I look forward to your feedback!

Mixing business with pleasure...

AKA- Karaoke with Friends, Photogs and Clients.

It has been a stressful last few weeks at the old RMR Photo homestead, so to burn off a little steam I called up a few friends and some client/friends and my old photographer buddy Sandy Huffaker and we all headed to a local Mexican restaurant that had karaoke!

Let me start off by saying that I have no shame and that I will sing pretty much whatever you put in front of me.

A good time was had by all! We sang a little "Hit me with your best shot" and had some "Afternoon Delight" as well as visited Neil Diamond's "America" and had some fun with James Brown's "Sex Machine".

You might recognize this couple from my last post-

Greg and Catherine sang a great rendition of Afternoon Delight!

Then Sandy had his way with Neil Diamond. Poor Neil must be turning in his grave! Oh... he's not dead? Damn. He is old as dirt! But big PROPS to Sandy on a courageous effort! Next time we'll rock out some Black Sabbath or ABBA, I don't know...

FYI Sandy, you owe me big time for NOT posting the OTHER photos of you on stage. But fear not, I will be selling the shots on Corbis for stock.

Then the girls all got together for some Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! And boy did they! Boy, a couple of Shirley Temples and they were DONE!

After a couple of virgin Dacquiris I headed up on stage and performed my version of Sex Machine. I tried to do Old James some justice but was hampered by a busted knee and just being plain old and out of shape. I even tried to do the splits, afterwhich the paramedics told me I looked great doing until I actually started splitting... No really.

So here's a photo of yours truly under the house lights. Is it me or does everybody look better under these lights? TRUST ME. This is better for me. You should see how bad I look WITHOUT the lights!

As I had imagined, we closed that mother DOWN! So until next time...

Here is a short slide show of a great engagement shoot. Greg and Catherine were awesome and very playful during their shoot and we got many great pictures during the shoot. Enjoy!