Fan Fare

from Photographers Blog:

Hatching a plan to cover Lady Gaga’s egg

I've covered all of the big Los Angeles based award shows and multiple Grammy Award shows, but I've never seen something like this. Was Babylon 5 making a comeback? Nope - just Gaga being Gaga.

I started to set up my equipment at my assigned spot on the 53rd annual Grammy Awards red carpet around 10:15am. My assignment was to cover red carpet arrivals with Lucy Nicholson photographing the show and Mario Anzuoni backstage photographing winners with their awards. Arrivals began at 12pm and lasted until 5pm. At about 10:45am we had a visit from an organizer saying that 1pm would be a bad time for a bathroom break. We started to ask questions and the answers were vague such as variations of "believe me you will want to be here, trust me." We began to deduct through cryptic messages that it was regarding Lady Gaga's arrival as that was everyone's best guess and it made sense after covering her in the past.

As more photographers started to show up, the word circulated about the 1pm slot and we were told that the red carpet would be cleared for "something". Words with question marks floating around included a vessel, a cocoon, a carriage, an enclosure. Eventually the cryptic Lady Gaga talk ceased and all of us photographers were told that her enclosure would stop in the center of the backdrop, she would be inside and she would not come out of it to pose for photos. Would we even be able to see her? What is it? How large is it? We weren't sure. Photographers were trying to come up with ideas of what was possible. Would she walk with a transparent cage around her? Would she be encased in a glass dome? Was it something attached to her? People were asking everyone to try to gather a clue on what to expect. For some reason I started to envision her inside a huge hamster ball or some sort of plastic balloon like how some gift basket companies package stuffed animal gifts.

My main concern was not really what it would be, but how big it would be so that I could be prepared with the correct lens. The enclosure would be about 10 feet from us and if it was large I had to be ready with a wide angle lens. I was asking if it was vertical, was it horizontal, was she standing, was it about her height, was it larger than the backdrop, etc, but I couldn't get a concrete answer. We weren't allowed to walk around to get different angles, which is standard at award shows and other red carpet events. Only those with red carpet roaming access can move around on the carpet, which is usually reserved for the event's official photographers. I had to shoot from my fixed position and I needed to be as creative as I could be from that position - as prepared as I could be to adapt to wherever something happened on the red carpet. What I could see from my position was all the opportunity I would get to capture a strong image.

I was using three cameras. Two Canon Mark IV bodies one with a 24-105mm f/4 and another with a 70-200mm f/2.8. The third body was a Canon 5d Mark II with a 17-35mm f/2.8 which I mounted on a magic arm clamped right in front of me. With a pocket wizard that camera could be triggered wirelessly when I used another one of my cameras to get two shots from two different lenses at the same time. Since I was unsure about what would happen with Lady Gaga, I made sure my remote camera lens was set very wide in case this cocoon/enclosure was bigger than expected and since the 5d Mark II is a full frame camera (The Mark IV has a 1.3x crop factor) it utilized the full wide ability of the lens.

12:55pm came, we were all set. But where was she? 1pm passed, and still no Gaga. 1:15pm - no Gaga. 1:30pm - no Gaga. On various occasions the red carpet area was cleared and musicians and talent stopped posing to keep the area clear. Each time after what appeared to be a false alarm, they resumed posing. Then finally around 1:45pm, we received the official word that she was on her way down the carpet. I turned on the transmitter attached to the camera with the 24-105mm on it. We leaned out from our spots to see an egg-like object surrounded by a crowd seeming to float down the carpet above the heads. All the photographers were trying to lean over the wooden wall in front of us to get an angle, with each blocking the next behind them. I leaned out and was able to get a glimpse of the egg object with my 70-200mm and shoot some frames of it way down the carpet.

Taylor Swift wins Grammys, loses music critics

Taylor Swift’s record label has come out in defense of the young pop/country star after her  less-than-stellar performance at the Grammy awards on Sunday had music critics shooting poisoned arrows at her vocal talents.

Swift, 20, took four Grammys on Sunday, including the coveted album of the year for the smash hit “Fearless”, which was also the biggest selling album of 2009. But her haul was somewhat overshadowed by her live Grammy duet with veteran rock singer Stevie Nicks, which The Washington Post called “incredibly wretched” and Ann Powers of The Los Angeles Times described as “tinny and rhythmically flat footed.”

Over to Scott Borchetta, president and CEO of Swift’s record label Big Machine Records in Nashville. “Maybe she’s not the best technical singer, but she is the best emotional singer,” Borchetta told The Tennessean.com. “No one is perfect on any given day. Maybe in that moment, we didn’t have the best night, but in the same breath, maybe we did.”

It’s not the first time that Swift’s vocal prowess has come under fire during the singer-songwriter’s rapid rise to the top and a marketing campaign that has put her just about everywhere in the last six months.  In the past, Swift’s managers have blamed some shaky moments on nerves and the technical constraints of  live performances, while pointing to a string of  sell-out concerts and her undoubted ability to connect with the angst of  young teens going through their first loves.

Veteran country star Naomi Judd also came out for “Team Taylor” , calling her multi-talented and a role model for her generation. “Smarts, manners and class. Why can’t fault-finders see that she is a sorely needed role model? We’re aware of how lyrics and musicians can influence our society. If America ever needed positive role models, it’s now,” Judd said.

But sudden fame also brings the risk of over-exposure.  Swift is now out to conquer new audiences with concerts in Japan and Australia. Australia wasn’t too fond of  Britney Spears and her lip-synching “Circus” concerts last year.

Music awards shows falling by the wayside

The indignity just keeps piling up for pop stars these days. Fans are either pirating their records, or just not bothering to listen to music anymore. The labels are cutting back wherever they can. And now there are fewer opportunities for pats on the back and shiny statuettes. 

Several key shows have quietly fallen by the wayside in recent years, including the Billboard Music Awards (last held in 2006) and the Soul Train Music Awards (last held in 2007). 

Others never really got going, such as British music newspaper NME’s attempt to export its popular show to America. The Stateside version of the NME Awards kicked off last year in Los Angeles with a Jane’s Addiction reunion (above), but 15 months later no plans have been announced for a sequel. 

A year ago, The Who were honored in Los Angeles during VH1′s 3rd annual “Rock Honors” tribute concert, a successor to sister network MTV’s “Icon” tributes, which ran for four years until 2004. VH1 says there will be no “Rock Honors” this year, but it is bringing back its “Divas” concert series in New York in September after a five-year hiatus. 

The three biggies are still a go: the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 13, the American Music Awards in November, and the Grammys on Jan. 31.

UPDATE-What went wrong between Chris Brown and Rihanna?

R & B supercouple Chris Brown and Rihanna suddenly found their relationship thrust into the headlines when Brown was arrested on suspicion of attacking a woman widely reported to be Rihanna.

While various celebrity web sites, citing sources near both Brown and Rihanna, reported details of an argument in Brown’s car in the wee hours of Sunday morning, the fact is that right now, nobody really knows exactly what happened except those two, and neither is talking to anyone but the police. And the police have been equally quiet.

Brown and Rihanna scrupulously avoided discussing their relationship in the past, which makes what went wrong even more of a mystery.

Last fall, shortly before a show in Australia, Rihanna was interviewed by Melbourne radio station Fox 101.9 and talked about Brown, but would not confirm they were anything more than friends. “We are very good friends, we are cool, we are best friends, we hang out all the time, and now we’re doing a tour together,” she told the station.

When asked about why she did not want to talk more about the relationship, the Barbados-born pop diva said that she had her reasons to be close-lipped. “I speak my mind and I don’t really have any regrets, even if I said something now and things change, things always change you know in life. People change,” she said. 

Brown also did not speak much about his relationship with Rihanna. But in 2007, he told Giant Magazine  that his former stepfather used to hit his mother. “He made me terrified all the time, terrified like I had to pee on myself. I remember one night he made her nose bleed. I was crying and thinking, ‘I’m just gonna go crazy on him one day…’ I hate him to this day,” he told the magazine.

Here’s the update. On Tuesday, celebrity news outlet Access Hollywood reported that Brown’s former stepfather, Donnelle Hawkins, denied Brown’s 2007 allegation.

Critics rate Grammy Awards a so-so show

The Grammy Awards on Sunday failed to elicit a chorus of praise from the critics, who tended to agree that the show was all over the musical map.

Brian McCollum, pop music critic for the Detroit Free Press,  called the show “one of the most sizzle-free Grammy events in recent memory, marked by tepid live performances, unmemorable acceptance speeches and low-key presenters with dud jokes.”

McCollum said the Grammys’ recent practice of not using a main host made the 3 1/2-hour show less watchable. 

“The maneuver keeps the gala moving briskly — and offers face time to a wider assortment of stars — but it also leaves the Grammy show without a real center. Late-night comedian Craig Ferguson’s brief but spirited slot as presenter was a quick reminder what a charismatic emcee can bring to the affair,” McCollum wrote.

Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times was not impressed with the show’s performances.

“… The producers continued to follow the ill-advised cross-genre/cross-generational programming that has dominated the last several telecasts. These may sound like intriguing ideas on paper, but in practice, they’re never as satisfying as hearing the individual artists on their own,” he wrote.

Ann Powers, music critic at the Los Angeles Times, also said the show was all over the place.