Sono molto stanco
(photo: me-linda davies)
breakfast on the roof of the hotel.
freaked out a little, ALL pink manga dressed japanese pop-singer telling her i thought her outfit was sugoi
(sadly no photos: she said 'thankyou' and ran away)
walked across the road to roma levis store and set up our studio for the day in their front window.
had some SEVERAL technical difficulties.
highlights being:
the 5ft octa we ordered being an 8ft umbrella (biggest stills light i've ever seen) that could only just fit in our allocated space.
and the levis logo on the wall being made of shiny (reflective) stickers which read as invisible when flashed with lights.
things ALWAYS go wrong on shoots.
there is a difference between someone with a camera who calls themselves a photographer, and a professional photographer.
a professional photographer takes all the problems in their stride: works around issues without stress, so the client ALWAYS gets a high quality result and a relaxed shoot.
even though, under that smooth calm exterior the photographer might be doing some pretty impressive puzzle solving.
plans A-D proved unsuccessful.
plan E worked a treat.
but involved shooting the logo separately, retouching it and dropping it into every frame.
hard day at the office.
(photo: livia leoni)
however, we got some unexpectedly great results.
made a lot easier because ALL italian women are sexy ladies, who all seem to know how to pose/flirt with a camera.
with much 'molto bella' 'benne gracia' encouragement from yours truly, of course.
the other highlight of the day was the sweet shoppe opposite levis called 'jolly pop'
photographed 27 ladies and two group shots.
(photo: livia leoni)
finished as a cab was waiting to speed us to the airport for our flight to rome.
steak and risotto washed down with prosecco in the departure lounge.
to milano by midnight
arriving at the hotel, was not filled with joy to find it was a 3* shite-hole.
after a long day shooting, before another long day of shooting, a decent hotel is very important.
if i'm only going to get 5hrs sleep, they need to be five good ones.
not wanting to sound like a snob, but 3* is usually at least 1* too few.
amusingly when we were checking in, i misheard the hotel guy saying 'welcome to the best hotel in milano'
he was actually saying 'welcome to the best western hotel in milano'
further adding to my joy, i was told my room was a smoking room.
i used to smoke 60 cigarettes a day.
gave up on 1999 new year's eve.
i HATE smoking rooms.
i even used to hate them when i was smoking like a chimney.
they stink of smoke and the heavy chemicals they use to try and cover up the stench.
it's in the bedding and you wake up with a bad throat and feeling sick.
even makes me want to puke thinking about it.
so.
politely requested a room change.
but there were no non-smoking rooms to change to.
so
after being shown a number of different smoking rooms which all stank and which i repeatedly had to politely decline, and after a very heavy day shooting and in urgent need of sleep, i decided i should check out of the hotel and go somewhere else entirely.
this upset the man from the hotel.
then
and he totally lost the plot when i said it also made sense to pull my assistants out (who were saying their non smoking twin room also stank of bad cleaning chemicals) AND my client who had unfortunately made the mistake of thinking she should join us in our hotel because it was BOUND to be ok if i was staying there (who had also noticed her non-smoking room stank AND that it was covered in several types of bad grime/ cleaning products)
DOH
left with the angry hotel man shouting at us 'but i don't understand there is nothing room with the rooms. why? WHY? WHHHHHHHYYYYYY?'
secret agent kate rebooked us into a proper hotel.
and i got to retouch the last of the edits from rome before dropping some melatonin and passing out at 1am.
quote of the day to be replaced by 'melinda's quote of the day'
really needs to be heard in her dulcet essex accent.
"i don't know what that is...but i don't like it"
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