Relationships are everything
It wasn't my portfolio that got me the job, it was years of friendship and random conversations. But the work did help. I ended up being able to photograph Snoop and his celebrity guests because a long-time good friend John moved to LA and ended up directing Snoop's YouTube show GGN. Our friendship began I believe at a weekly party called PST at a bar in the Mission District of SF. I don't remember if we were introduced or our conversation just happened naturally outside, both could be equally true. We ended up both staying in touch off and on for years. John was making music videos in the bay for a lot of hip-hop artists (back when making a video was a big deal and production). Eventually his career led him down to LA and connecting with Snoop. One day he reached out and asked if I wanted to come down and photograph portraits of Snoop and his guests for the show plus some behind the scenes. I don't have to tell you but I said YES, hella fast. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity he gave me with the shoot.
Get it in the can while you can.
While we were shooting the first day of images with Snoop and his guests, we took a lot of images of the guests alone and Snoop together with them. But by the end of the day I realized I hadn't shot any images of Snoop by himself. We were shooting everything at Snoop's compound, he has a huge building over by LAX that is his music studios, it also has a giant soundstage (this is where we were working), a basketball court, mini casino, and an amazing collection of lowriders and literal dog pound for his pups. The building is divided into two sections with the sound stage on one side and the music studio on the other. Once we were done, Snoop had gone over to the studio side to relax, smoke, and play some video games. I mentioned to my friend that I didn't get any shots of Snoop solo. Being an amazing human, he went over to the other side and brought Snoop back out. We spent about 5 mins shooting the solo shots, the whole time Snoop is quiet and smoking a blunt. I found out after that he had already settled in to relax and didn't want to come back out, thankfully my friend told him I had driven all the way down to LA from the bay to do the photos. Snoop was cool enough to come back out and take the photos after some coaxing from my homie.
Later I ended up posting a triptych of the photo on IG and Snoop shared it on his IG. The next time I saw him we talked about the image, I told him I shot it and we got on just fine after that.
Another thing that happened on the shoot was one of the celebrity guests came up and said I only got 3 looks, did 3 poses and said "are we done" and then walked off. But I was ready, my lighting was correct and I got what we needed while I could so it was fine.
The moral of the story is after that, if I wanted something in regards to a shot, I asked for it right away. I was a guest doing work on his set. They could have easily went with another photographer and he could have told me to go fuck myself on that first day but he didn't. Get every shot you can while the talent is on set, you never know if you will get a chance again after that. Odds are you won't.
Have an extra hands on deck, so you can hold the moment
I knew going into the shoot for Snoop I was going to need help. I could have set up and carried everything myself but that would have added a lot of extra bandwidth needed to the situation and would have taken away from my ability to be present and creative. So I called a friend in LA Halline and asked him to come help out. I didn't need him for much, mostly to help move a light during shooting or to change the backdrop. Luckily Snoop's soundstage had black curtain on runners above so we could just pull it in front of the white seamless. It made the process smoother.
Another thing that is helpful when you have another person there, they can stand in to make sure your lighting is correct, they can also be checking batteries, dumping cards, and any other small things that might need to get managed. All of this again freed me up to be present, shoot, and direct the talent while we were making the images
If you stay ready you ain't got to get ready
Last thing is having your life and gear set up in a way where you can move on something in a moment's notice is always advantageous. I was able to take the gig because of the way I had already structured my life. I didn't have to worry about scheduling time off or being dependent on some other factors. I was able to pack what I needed, get what I didn't have when I got to LA and make it happen because I was already set up for the opportunity. Also I only was the primary shooter for 2 of the 3 days but because I owned everything I needed I was able to spend one more day shooting behind the scenes on set and get a bunch of other great shots to make a well-rounded body of work. Luck = Opportunity + Preparation.
Final Words
I hope some of this is helpful to you in your photographic process. I wanted to share some of this because these might be invisible processes for me that aren't noticed by others. We see photographers' images that they create but often don't hear about what goes on behind the scenes. So maybe this will help some folks out with their own shoots and opportunities.
-Scott
What a wild experience that must have been. I’d have been super nervous but your takeaways from this would have been huge, as you mentioned. Thanks for sharing, stories like this are amazing. In my job I have the occasional run in with celebs, we’ve even made a Snoop Dogg mobile game but I unfortunately did not meet the man myself.