Ok, I’m back with another note regarding the campaign that I assisted on last week.

Tonight, I’m giving the WordPress iPhone app a trial run. (I think) I can post a picture from my phone, and it gave me an idea that sparked Part 2 of the story which I think you’ll agree has a sort of completed circle vibe to it. ( if that doesn’t make sense, hopefully it will by the time you read the story and if not, hopefully, I will come up with a more sensible analogy for you by then.)

During the four day shoot, I snapped a number of photos on my iphone - in all honesty, I wished I’d had a P & S in my hand, for more control (ie manual settings) however, the job was assisting not shooting, and I was travelling as light as possible.

Anyway, I was flipping through the pictures while on the train today, and one of them is the one below. (that must have been taken while the phone was en route to my pocket)

The orange colored device is called a Vagabond II Portable Power System. This job was my first experience with them. The Vagabond is essentially a battery (cell) with a built in Inverter which provides AC power - outlets - from which you can power a laptop or re-charge a battery, or, in this case, power the lights we were using.

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This posting is a little late to the party, but if you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance that it will be of interest to you.

Newsweek DOP Simon Barnett has assembled a “Dream Team” of photographers to cover the Beijing Games for the magazine - and in an inspired and original way they are covering the Olympics from a very unique perspective (an increasingly rare feat). The “Dream Team” as Mr. Barnett has deemed them, consists of three former Allsport colleagues of mine, Vincent Laforet, Donald Miralle and Mike Powell. When I first began working with Allsport (now a part of Getty Images), these four were staff members, whom I got to know and admire.

In the planning for Newsweek’s Olympic coverage, it was decided to create an “open book”, a behind the scenes, photographers POV coverage of the games. They’ve been blogging and posting their selection of photographs and telling stories of their trials & tribulations, successes and failures. It is a wonderfully honest look at life as a photographer, 3 photographers, as they cover the biggest, most organized event in the world.

For a bit on the story behind the blog please see this interview with Simon Barnett by Rob Haggart’s A Photo Editor blog here.

This is a link to the Newsweek blog Visions of China: A 2008 Olympics Picture Blog

Just so you know, the front page is the most recent posting, so you’ll have to skip to the end if you want to read their tales from the start, which I strongly recommend.

For those of you that may think that being a photographer is easy, I hope you’ll read some of the journal entries from Donald, Vince and Mike as well as the notes from Simon, Beth and the other Newsweek editors - it will be a real eye opener.

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But it sure can be fun.

I don’t assist very often, but every once in a while a project comes along that is too good to pass up.

Unfortunately, while there were no non-disclosure agreements involved, I’m not going to be “that guy” that spills the beans.. so I’m going to tell this tale a la The Usual Suspects.. piece by piece… starting with the end.

This was a shoot for the November issue of a major magazine, and, like I said, to be involved was too good to miss, and, the moral of the story is that while I can’t recall a more grueling four days in recent memory, I had a blast, I met a lot of great people, and I learned a lot. Sometimes stepping away from the camera, and getting a different perspective on things, can both educate and inspire.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work for, with, or beside many very talented and successful photographers, from my first mentor, Brian O’Mahoney (without whom I would probably not be a photographer), to my first internship with Bob Nash and my time as a first assistant to Pat O’Connor. I have experienced everything “from the Thrill of Victory to the Agony of Defeat” as the introduction to Wide World of Sports used to say. In the course of telling this story, I intend to share some tips on assisting - from preparation to paying attention - how an assistant can go a long way to help make (or break) an assignment. From start to finish, this will be an informative crash course in being a positive contributor to any photo shoot.

Anyway, I can’t give it away right now, but I promise, it’s going to be very, VERY cool.. and I’ll tell you many stories - the Good, the Bad and, yes, even the Ugly - and I will share some tips and tricks as I unfold this story.

I hope you’ll enjoy this series of posts - if there’s something you’d like to know, feel free to ask - I’ll answer any questions you may have.

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In the mean time, the Victor Bailey shoot, for his upcoming CD, finally happened - Victor’s my neighbor and he’s a very cool customer.. no surprise given his status in the jazz and session industry. We shot in and around his apartment - Kena Sage was along, keeping his wardrobe on point - and we got a lot done, in just a couple of hours, on Wednesday afternoon. I’ll be posting the final CD artwork when it’s done but in the mean time, here’s one of the photos that I liked…

Victor Bailey by M David Leeds © 2008