In the 80’s I use to shoot the Grammy parties for A&M records at Spago’s on the sunset strip (great food!!!). I use to love to walk up to the front door as all the paparazzi gave me dirty looks-they were jealous as I was the only photographer let inside.
I shot a lot of A&M Record stars that night: Sting, Janet Jackson, Suzanne Vega, Al Green, Iggy Pop, Quincy Jones, Herb Albert, Billy Crystal… it made for a very Hollywood party! As I was setting up, the head of PR for A&M came over and told me to follow “this new gal” around. A&M had just signed her and were expecting great things.
Her name was Paula Abdul.
It was a typical party; the only thing that was different from all the others I shot was the reaction from the celebrities. I noticed that people were bothered by the strobe light a little more then usual. A strobe will put out the amount of light that is needed guided by a sensor. I didn’t give this a second thought, maybe I should have. After a hard night of shooting and partying, I dropped the film off at the lab around 1am and returned home.
The dreaded phone call:
I was awakened at 6am by the telephone it was the lab:
“David, the test snip was about 4-stops overexposed-there is hardly any image on the film”
My first thought: NOT GOOD.
“I will test another roll…”
Second thought: REALLY NOT GOOD…where are my shoes? I started to panic…running out the door down to the lab.
When I got there, the technician ran the film about 30 seconds in the developer.
I’m thinking: BETTER…breathing is now returning to normal
I had the shots copied, getting more detail in the film and the prized pictures of Paula Abdul-MUCH BETTER- delivered the film to the client.
SUCCSESS! What a night…or morning?
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