#good God i want some Lee's Famous Recipe | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

httpscomexe · 6 months

Text

Small Town Freaks Pt. 2

Summary: Lee Bodecker, the alias of Bucky Barnes after he’s gone lowkey to be a sheriff in a very small town in Massachusetts, slowly begins to have a liking for this girl who just turned 18. But by God does he need to train her.

This part has a lot of flashbacking really soooo... kinda dry

Parings: Lee Bodecker/Bucky Barnes x Reader (Mentions of Y/N)

Warnings: (Individual warnings) Trauma, lots of angst, abuse by stepmother, running away, using God's name in vain a few times, pet names, (Pumpkin) I think that's it. (There's a pasta recipe at the end) I promise it'll get spicy next chapter.

Word Count: 1477

Part one here if you're interested - Part 1

7 years ago…

Since my dad is ironman and famous and all that, I figured I should make him his favourite dish tonight.

Creamy cajun chicken pasta.

The first time you made his eyes were practically rolling to the back of his head. He loved it so much he started picking off of your plate and went for seconds, then thirds, and fourths, then even asked you to make more. You were genuinely surprised at how much he was able to eat. Of course, you laughed it off and refused to make a second batch, you were scared if you did he totally would’ve blown up.

But now that he’s married to Pepper Potts, literally the worst thing thats ever introduced itself into your life, your relationship with your dad hasn’t been so happy.

She’s always hated you. Always wanted you to just… disappear…

Of course, as much as you dreamed about running away, you just simply couldn’t run away. Or at least that’s what you told yourself.

“Ew, brat. Why are you home so early, aren’t you supposed to be at school?” Peppers mocking voice breaks the silence of me reading as some water boiled in the kitchen.

“I was let out early, it’s a half day today… I walked home.” Just keep your tone even and nice, and she won’t get all mad at you…

“Great, what are you making now? Something good hopefully…” She scoffed as if she was being funny. I got up to check on the water when I could hear the lid being taken off the pot.

“I’m making papas favourite-”

“God you’re so… not normal you know that?” This bitch cut me off.

“How’s that?”

“You’re 10 with the brain maturity of a 40 year old and you cook like you’ve done it for years. Only thing you do that’s normal for your age is you think you’re good at what you do.” She says it without hesitation and it makes you wanna backhand her… but you’re trying so hard to just behave and deal with it. “You gonna just ignore me or are you gonna do something like you always do?” Just… Breathe… “What’s wrong with you? Are you really ignoring me now?!” Fucking breathe Y/N. “God you’re such a slutty b-”

“Will you just leave me the fuck alone!” You cover your mouth quickly, you hate cursing but this bitch…

“Why you little-!” She pauses when she looks down and sees your dog. A husky you’ve had for years that was trained to protect you, and only you. The next thing you see out of the corner of your eye is Pepper grabbing the boiling water sitting on the stove. You think she’s about to dump the water on your puppy so you drop the hand towel you were holding to the floor in shock and are about to jump forward when Sunshine, your husky, jumps in front of you.

You don’t feel the boiling water searing your skin at first. Your main focus is on your dog whining in pain and sitting up from the floor you were now on to inspect her. She was whimpering slowly and her eyes were closing in front of you. Only then did the pain in your upper thigh start to register in your brain. Now hot tears were falling down your face. Most of them falling for Sunshine, the other few of them falling for the heating pain now encircling your entire right thigh.

Then without even thinking, you threw your 10 year old body at Pepper. You would��ve knocked her over if the counter wasn’t behind her. Instead you only shoved her against the corner of a counter which was sure to hit her spine. But of course, I’m the unluckiest person in the world.

“Hey!” Was your only warning before two large hands gripped onto your shoulders, pulling you back and turning you around. Then you see your dads face, written in anger. “What the hell has gotten into you Y/N!!” Now your tears only stream down your face even more. Your thigh was heated and throbbing in pain, your dog was lying lifeless on the floor, and Pepper was crying in pain and holding her spine as your dad shook you and just screamed in your face.

But you didn’t hear a single word of it.

Your ears were ringing.

Pain clouded your head and your knees felt weak from the pain on your thigh and you emotions were feeling really heavy from the pain of losing your bestest friend.

Suddenly you were breathing heavy. Your head was throbbing and only whimpers of pain and fear were coming from your throat.

Then everything went black…

Present day…

Fuck that hurt… You had your head leaned back against the cold cell wall. It was almost morning and Bodecker was going to let you go home. You could hear him snoring at his desk. He had fallen asleep a long time ago which gave you time to think about your past.

Your step mom, and your dad… But you haven't seen them since you were 10. You waited as long as you could for Bodecker to fall asleep before you looked down at your thigh to see the huge scar from the burn still on your skin. It wasn’t super obvious, but you could still see how your skin went from a light peachy colour, to some shade of tan.

That wasn’t even the most hurtful part of that memory though. You’ve never looked at huskies the same after seeing your little Sunshine, dead on the floor of the kitchen because she wanted to protect you. But part of you wish she hadn’t. If she wasn’t there to protect you, yes, your leg would have been ravished, but she’d be alive and maybe, just maybe… Your dad wouldn't have been mad at you and he would've left Pepper…

“Alright it’s about time for you to-” Bodekcers voice brought you quickly out of your thoughts. “Hey are you alright?” You didn’t look up at him but you could hear his keys opening the cell you were in. “Hey Pumpkin, talk to me.” You only brought your knees up to your face, hugging your legs to your chest and staying quiet. “Alright then.” You could hear him sitting next to you on the cold hard floor, then his arm wrapping around your shoulders and pulling you close.

“Today is my 18th birthday…” You whisper through sniffles.

“So why’re you crying then?”

“Because it’s officially been 8 years since I’ve seen my dad.” Your voice cracked embarrassingly as you spoke and he rubbed circle on your back, keeping you close.

“I assume you’ve been living with friends?”

“No… I have my own place.” Why am I telling him all of this? I should not be sharing this much with him. Why do I trust him so much? I feel so drawn to him… “I’ve just been so broken and lonely for so long… It's hard to be in school sometimes cause I just simply can’t hold myself together an entire school day.” My crying stopped and you didn't even realize it until you feel Bodeckers arm leave your shoulder and he leaned forward as you sat up. Looking you directly in the eyes. You puffy, red, crying, embarrassing eyes.

“Why is there a huge burn on your thigh?” I could tell he didn't wanna bring it up based on the tone in his voice. But he’s been wanting to question it since the moment he saw it.

“It’s a long story, but my dad didn’t choose the best step mom for me…” I mumbled… He sighed so heavy I could feel his breath on my face, then every traumatic thought left my mind and all I could feel were butterflies in my stomach again.

“How about this? I have the next week off. How about you come over to my house, we watch some movies, hang out. You get to relax.” He pauses for a moment and sees you staring right back into his eyes. “You like cats? I have a cat. His name is Alpine, super sweet. I’ve got a huge house, all to myself. We can bake cookies since it’s almost christmas…” His voice trails off as he lists things you could do together. He sounded almost urgent in wanting to hang out with you. Like it was all that mattered to him… He makes me feel so… loved… “Do you?” Shit.

“Yes” I hope I answered right…

“So you do have a family to hang out with on holidays…?” Of fucking course I answered wrong.

“No I don't, I'm sorry… Oh my God… you lost me at Christmas cookies.” He smiles as I chuckle a little.

“So you’ll come home with me for this week then?”

“Yes…”

Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta - NatashasKitchen.com

#lee bodecker #bucky x reader #lee bodecker x reader #fanfic #pasta #tony stark #pepper potts #starks daughter

22 notes · View notes

docholligay · 3 years

Note

holligay rants/raves: big-name celebrity cooks and how they're perceived by people who don't typically follow cooking celebs

The state of “cooking shows” in general is sad at best and horrifying at worst, anyhow, but how the cooking show is now a game show that has everything to do with gimmick, and nothing to do with the earnest desire to teach technique, or learn technique, is not the subject of this essay, so I won’t go down that trail, but instead down the one of the celebrtiy chef.

If I ask you who your favorite chefs, and it’s Bobby Flay, Cat Cora, Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Masaharu Morimoto (The choice when people want to pretend they know a deep cut, or, god forbid, Anthony Bourdain, who I hope enough time has passed since his death that I’m allowed to point out he was so intensely mean-spirited that most of his appeal was built around being an extremely tall attractive white man, not “real.” (As David Chang found out when he, in an utterly annoying fashion, tried to follow in Bourdain’s grating footsteps, only to be told a fat Korean man can’t do that and frankly, THANK FUCK--perhaps Chang can still be saved) I assume you not only can’t cook, but you don’t follow food.

That is not to say that none of these people have enviable technique or good ideas, on the contrary I find myself turning to Jamie Oliver for a number of things, and most of these people have earned their keep in the larger food world before they were celebrities, but they aren’t famous FOR their food any longer, so much as for their personality. I don’t even dislike Bobby Flay, but can you realistically define elements of his style? What would you turn to Bobby Flay for? Are people largely aware that he made his name in Southwest-style cooking anymore?

People think these are “great’ cooks because the network finds them packagable in a way that say, Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, Clare Smyth, Edward Lee, Elena Arzak, Yotam Ottolenghi, Gabe Rucker etc etc etc never have been, and quite possibly aren’t interested in being, even though, money on the line, I would say all of them are better and quite possibly FAR better than many of the chefs posted above (Gordon Ramsay I’m not sure. His meat technique is so fucking solid, but my point stands) And certainly all of these are more INTERESTING chefs than the ones at the very top. EVen those who had very cutting edge and bright concepts in food have mostly been caught in a lackadaisical haze as a bunch of White Americans looking for a really great macaroni and cheese recipe have become their bread and butter.

And like, get that money girl, but let’s not pretend that having a television show, particularly not one focused on actual cooking technique, means that you are one of the greats, and let’s not act like going to Guy’s American Bar and Whatever is actually a food mecca anymore than going to my own restaurant would be.

Doc, where is the vitriol for Julia Child, for Emeril, et al? Well, you see my little ducklings, the difference here is in the fact that an earlier class of celebrity chef attempted to teach technique. You cannot watch Julia Child and not be a little tempted to try her techniques next time you’re in the kitchen, and I very much appreciate her “we all fuck up” keeping her errors on the air style. Emeril made cooking entertaining, but his show was him, cooking, which is why you’ll hear me have less rage toward the likes of Ina Garten (who has some excellent cookbooks for entertaining) or even Giada DeLaurentis, whose cooking style I don’t care for but at the very least she is cooking.

And it’s not like the cult of personality over skill is a unique problem that the cooking world has, but I’ve watched it get worse and worse over the years to the point where a lot of times, there’s not even real discussions of technical merit when it comes to cooking. It’s all flash and no pan, and I would LOVE to help people get into food, but it involves things most Americans (and most of my followers are American) aren’t willing to do: Read, experiment, go to a restaurant and order something you might not like, cook, all these things that would deepen your experience of food far more than going to Mesa.

Cooking is a skill, and it genuinely does me some sadness to see what could be a really great tool for teaching people how do things gamified or turned into something that people passively experience. Get into your kitchens are try something!

#katrani #Eight Days 2020 #Holligay Rants and Raves

26 notes · View notes

rocknutsvibe · 7 years

Text

2016: On The Cusp Of A Rock Awakening

OK, so we lost a lot of great musicians in 2016, and world events were unsettling to say the least. But all things considered, it was a pretty good year for music, with some older artists hitting late-inning home runs and some newer acts seemingly approaching greatness. I really get the sense that Rock is in an exciting period of transition, with so many artists both young and old willing to take risks in the search for new sounds and new approaches. I honestly believe that we are on the cusp of a new Rock awakening. Here are my selections for Top 10 Albums of 2016.

10. The Claypool Lennon Delirium – Monolith Of Phobos

youtube

People sometimes forget that Sean Lennon inherited artistic genes from his mother too, one of the most famous avant-garde musicians who ever lived. With this in mind his musical partnership with mad genius Les Claypool seems like such a perfect fit. This album won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — it’s way out there sometimes — but to me it felt fresh and wild and unique. Lennon and Claypool seem to bring out the very best in each other’s oddly twisted personalities, flavoring their distinctly original take on classic proggy sounds with wit and whimsy. Claypool’s jaw-dropping virtuosity on the bass was no surprise, but Lennon’s lambent talents on guitar and vocals certainly were, and I really hope these guys keep making music together.

9. Rolling Stones – Blue And Lonesome

youtube

This is like one of those albums that NASA would put into a Voyager satellite to introduce extraterrestrial civilizations to human culture, except in this case it landed back on Earth in 2016. The album captures — for a new generation on this planet — the electrifying intensity of those early-sixties blues and R&B recordings, recorded live and hot and off the floor. But this ain’t the 1964 Stones cheekily imitating the old bluesmen, this is a band with the chops and the savvy to actually be the old bluesmen. Sometimes Jagger sounds like an old man and sometimes he sounds like he’s 25, but either way he and his mates are as authentic as it gets, and god knows there’s a hunger for authenticity out there.

8. case / lang / veirs – case / lang / veirs

youtube

Take three fiercely independent singer-songwriters who don’t know each other very well, put them in a room and tell them to write songs together, and you’ve got a prescription not only for bruised egos but quite possibly broken bones as well. Unless of course the singer-songwriters are women, in which case you’ve got a much better chance of co-operation and a successful collaboration. k.d. lang admired the work of Neko Case and Laura Veirs and suggested the three get together and create some new songs, not as a three-point harmony trio but more like a real band where each member’s individual strengths are given a chance to shine. The end result is one of the finest collections of songs released this year, where even the production and arrangements are well-conceived and beautifully implemented. See what a little co-operation can accomplish?

7. Bon Iver – 22, A Million

youtube

Up to this point Bon Iver was widely considered a balladeer, a singer-songwriter of deeply personal, atmospheric songs who used electronica mostly as a way to process his distinctive falsetto vocals. Folk electronica, if you will. But on this, his third album, Bon Iver takes folk electronica to new horizons with beats and kinetic energy, a huge and I think welcome departure from his drony balladeer thing. The album contains some beautiful acoustic guitar, piano and horns, but it also includes tracks like “10 (Deathbreast)” which has him spitting out spoken lyrics over a driving cascade of electronic beats, sounding more like Kanye West than a folk artist. In fact, West had sought out Bon Iver’s recording expertise for one of the rapper’s earlier albums, so I guess what goes around comes around. Rock happens when different musical genres come together, and this album sounds like something new being born.

6. The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect

youtube

Alex Turner has talent, charisma, and a willingness to take artistic chances, a great combination for any musician. As swaggering front man for the Arctic Monkeys, Turner gained fame for his wickedly clever power pop, but as a partner in The Last Shadow Puppets he takes that wicked cleverness on a completely different tack. The Rock elements are still there, but the defining sound on this album is a standout orchestra section arranged by the brilliant Canadian violinist and producer Owen Pallett. It gives the album a very Euro feel as the band pays discreet homage to the various pop styles that make use of strings – ‘50s doo-wop, ‘60s soul, ‘70s disco, ‘80s spy movies – as well as some really original arrangements that can easily stand on their own. I don’t understand why this album wasn’t a huge hit.

5. The Tragically Hip – Man Machine Poem

youtube

With this album The Hip completes their transformation from literate, edgy roadhouse Rockers to literate, mature Rock gurus, comfortable in their wisdom yet searching for truth more rigorously than ever. After 30 years together the Hip keeps growing as a band, boldly adding new textures and instrumentation and themes and emotions to their kit bag, while at the same time keeping their kick-ass edge as sharp as it ever was. If, as seems likely, this is to be the band’s last album due to Gord Downie’s serious health issues, then by god what a way to go, and what an inspiring lesson in personal and artistic growth for the rest of us.

4. Warpaint – Heads Up

youtube

There are some pretty sophisticated Rock sensibilities at work here on the L.A. quartet’s third album. Originally an atmospheric/chill type outfit, Warpaint displays a subtle but still striking versatility on this album, skillfully and seamlessly weaving analog and electronic instrumentation together as well as anybody has ever done it. One minute bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa are laying down big fat beats, the next minute guitarist Theresa Wayman is serving up soaring or spiky licks over an electronic bed. Emily Kokal’s plaintive lead vocals may not be the strongest, but the band’s three-point harmonies are outstanding and lay at the heart of Warpaint’s sonic signature. This is definitely a band to watch.

3. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression

youtube

So the story goes that Iggy Pop finally had enough of the rat race and wanted to drop out after recording one last album. Ever the showman, Iggy decides that if he’s going out, he’s going out in style, so he turns to Josh Homme for help. How could this not be a recipe for a great album? These are two Rock giants coming together. Homme, one of a handful of artists destined to carry the torch for Rock & Roll deep into the new century, brought his unique gifts of edgy songcraft together with Iggy’s brutally frank street truths, sprinkled it with a little anti-materialist populism, and helped create a bold and original statement, not just for Iggy, but I really think for the ages. Homme deserves a co-credit on the album, but he’s too generous a soul to want it. Meanwhile Iggy keeps dreaming “about getting away to a new life / where there’s not so much fucking knowledge”, and I have to admit that does sound appealing.

2. Esperanza Spalding – Emily’s D+Evolution

youtube

I’ve always subscribed to the theory that the greatest artists are the ones that push the envelope so far until they discover new territory. Well Esperanza Spalding is one brilliant artist and with this album she has found musical ground where nobody has stood before, and that is saying something. Sure, the lithe vocals, explosive bass lines and complicated jazz time signatures are all still there, but this time around she brings thundering and soaring guitars into the mix, making the album sound at times more like prog than jazz. Think Joni Mitchell meets Frank Zappa and Shuggie Otis, or maybe St. Vincent with the angular corners rounded out. On top of all this, Emily’s D+Evolution is a concept album where Spalding’s alter ego wrestles wordily with powerful thoughts on love, gender, race and class in the 21st Century. This is a dense, rich album that delivers increasing rewards with every listen.

1. David Bowie – Blackstar

youtube

There will never be another album like this one, just as sure as there will never be another David Bowie. It’s an album about Bowie’s life and about his death, and it is loaded with riches. I was never all that big on droning medieval melodies, but I now love the five minutes of it on the title track because “at the center of it all” lies the shimmering beauty of the middle section. Kudos to my colleague Jordan for pointing out the “whore” of the raucous second track is quite likely Bowie’s cancer. “Lazarus” still makes me weep sometimes because I can’t get the haunting video out of my head, but it has sure given me some insights into death that were never quite available to me before. “Sue” is cinema verite in modern jazz wrapping, while “Dollar Days” and “I Can’t Give Everything Away” are as beautiful as anything Bowie has ever made. How long will it be before this album starts showing up on greatest of all-time lists?

Honorable Mentions

Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger Wilco – Schmilco Charles Bradley – Changes Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate Andrew Bird – Are You Serious Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Denial Anderson Paak – Malibu

Photo- Esperanza Spalding; credit: By JBreeschoten (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://ift.tt/HKkdTz)], via Wikimedia Commons

from Rocknuts http://ift.tt/2hP4HcQ via IFTTT

#Rocknuts #rock #music

1 note · View note

photomaniacs · 7 years

Photo

An Interview with Photographer Richard McLaren http://ift.tt/2vp7qVk

What do President Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Tina Turner, Halle Berry, Gwyneth Paltrow, Pierce Brosnan, Jon Bon Jovi, Marc Anthony, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Eva Mendes, Orlando Bloom, Patrick Swayze and Heath Ledger have in common? The magical lens of Richard McLaren has captured them all. And this is only a small sampling of famous people who McLaren has photographed in his four decades in the industry.

McLaren, who had already been around the world twice by age 18, has photographed for top publications throughout the globe, including Vogue, InStyle, GQ, Vanity Fair, Elle, Rolling Stone, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Esquire and more. NASCAR, Ford, The National Guard, Chevrolet, Gulfstream, Rolls Royce, and Sketchers are some of the commercial clients who have also relied on McLaren’s artistry.

Movie studios trust McLaren. When he is provided access to the talent for a day, he tends to do 15 to 20 different set-ups, which means a lot of really fast shooting. This allows the studio to have enough material to send out and promote the movie.

Pierce Brosnan

Phil Mistry: How long have you worked in photography?

Richard McLaren: I have been taking pictures for 35 years, closer to 40 years.

How did you get started?

I started my career when I was about 16 or 17 when I had come out of school and went into work for Scope Features, a photo print news agency which had all the top photographers in London, England on their books. So I used to assist them, all over the world on different assignments from music to fashion to advertising campaigns. I stayed at this agency for about seven or eight years and became a freelance photographer after that.

Heath Ledger

What brought you from London to Los Angeles?

I used to shoot all big-name celebrities. I used to come to America with my photo team and my wife and kids, and we rented a house in Beverly Hills. We used to spend six months in the year in Los Angeles. We would work five-six weeks at a time and then come back after about a month. And then I thought we might as well move here. So in January 2000, I moved the whole family to Los Angeles.

So were you into photography in school?

Oh, yeah. In school, we used to shoot 16mm documentaries, and there was a film club at school.

I have heard that your first job involved putting oil on naked ladies. Is that true?

As I mentioned earlier, I was 16 when I joined the agency in London. There was a studio attached to the agency, and there was one photographer who did all the glamor shots. On my first day, he asked me to rub oil onto naked ladies.

At home that evening my mother asked me how my first day at the job was. I said, “Great, I rubbed oil on two naked ladies, ” and she said, “You’re not going back there tomorrow.” And my brothers said, “Oh, we’ll go in there for you.” My mother is now 96, God bless her, and if I mention it, she still remembers the story and laughs over it.

Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth together after 23 years

In 2006 David Lee Roth and the Van Halen brothers, two icons of the music industry reunited, and you witnessed it?

Yes, David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen’s hadn’t seen each other for 23 years [since disbanding after their classic 1984 album]. When I turned up, Eddie Van Halen was getting his makeup done, and David Lee Roth’s walked by and they looked at each other and sort of nodded. I told my assistant, “Give me the camera,” as they may have a fight. And then Van Halen said to me, “I would like to do a picture with David?”

The picture of the two of them together that I did ran in Rolling Stone [on the website], and I got thousands upon thousands of hits and turned out to be a historical picture. But then something interesting happened. We shot on a Wednesday, and his manager called me on Friday and asked me not to release the pictures as Van Halen was going into rehab. So the pictures just appeared on the Rolling Stone site.

Tina Turner

Tina Turner did not know how to swim. How did you get her to go into the pool chest deep?

Her manager knew that I could do just one shoot and get them a ton of publicity. Tina had an infinity pool in the south of France, and yes she couldn’t swim, but I managed to get her in the water. It was a funny shoot as I didn’t bring any swimwear with me and I was in the pool in my underpants. My guys were holding the lights in the water, and I was shooting on a 4 x 5 film camera. She was terrified of the water, and one of my assistants was underwater holding her legs.

It worked out to be a very successful picture as we got 40 or 50 covers from the selected frame. I was very into doing pictures that would cause a stir, get a lot of attention and generate publicity—and that was what I was known for.

Jean-Claude Van Damme

How did you get Jean-Claude Van Damme to strip naked and pose with lions?

He was out in South Africa doing a movie, and his manager asked me if I would go out there and do a shoot. My friend has a lion farm in South Africa, and I organized some lion cubs. Ultimately Van Damme, who had a great body and loved himself, was naked and holding up two cubs by the scruff of their necks and that picture ran around the world to promote the movie.

Can things go wrong with celebrities and lions?

They were only lion cubs. However, things went wrong in a different way. I asked a Dubai sheik whether I could shoot in his suite at the hotel in South Africa and he agreed. We shot with six lion cubs, and they ended up ripping the cushions and furniture in the $25,000-per-night suite!

Andrew Zimmern Bizarre Foods poster

Andrew Zimmern Bizarre Foods shoot

Any other disasters ever happened on your shoots?

Sure… I was shooting photos for Paulina Rubio, the Latin singer and actress. It was for a shoe company, and I had pictured her naked on a horse with just her shoes. The daylight studio that the client chose was four floors up, so we got the horse in the freight elevator. The horse wasn’t scared but as soon as we got in the studio he did the biggest pee and it stank. Yes, we had to spend 30 minutes mopping it all up before we could continue.

The picture went up in Mexico City on a huge billboard. However, they had to take it down in 24 hours as numerous drivers kept staring at the poster and crashed their cars!

Nelson Mandela

How did you end up shooting Nelson Mandela?

I was shooting the Miss World pageant in South Africa when I met an associate of Mandela and requested her for an opportunity. There were 78 photography applications before me and I did not have much hope but then two days later she called me and asked to come over the next day.

It was the only time I’ve been nervous on a shoot and I have been with some of the most prestigious people in the world. Understanding what he had gone through, it was the pinnacle of my career.

Desmond Tutu

And Desmond Tutu?

At the same time that I was photographing Mandela, Desmond Tutu was scheduled to retire. The day he retired I got to go to the church, see him pray and did a series of portraits.

And you shot Winnie Mandela as well?

Yes, and also on the same trip without Mandela knowing, I photographed Winnie Mandela as well in Soweto. So I actually shot three iconic people in South Africa on a single trip.

National Guard

What’s in your camera bag?

Digital now although I am a film man, a pure film man! I’ve got 28 boxes of film cameras from 35mm, 645, 66, 67, 4×5, 8×10, whatever, I’ve got basically everything. But now, nobody wants film as such, which is a shame. I am a Canon man and I also shoot digital H2 Hasselblad as well with the IQ digital backs.

The problem with the digital cameras is that they are so d*mn sharp so that if you are shooting anyone older than 15, they look terrible because they show every line and every flaw in your skin. And you have to end up softening everything down. And when you have a big 27-inch preview monitor they say, “Do I look that bad?”

Gulfstream

In the film days, I had certain cameras and lenses that were soft with different qualities. I was then able to use the camera that would work correctly for the person I was shooting. But nowadays you don’t have an option, as the digital cameras are so sharp that they are scary.

I recently shot a veteran singer-songwriter who’s has had a career of 50 years. When the pictures come on the 40-inch monitor, whoa, you see every sore, every vein, everything. These are not the most flattering of cameras but clients like these cameras because they got great quality as you can do a postcard or put it on the side of the hotel and it still looks beautiful. I don’t particularly like it, I think they are too sharp, they are too critical but you have to deliver what the clients want.

But I got this beauty software, which is fantastic, as clients love the way it makes them look.

Colin Farrell

Can you make anybody look beautiful?

My forte in photography is lighting. I always make people look beautiful.

The problem with digital now is that you don’t have to be technically fantastic or brilliant or even good because you got all these computer experts that can tweak and change the color, soften it, make it look flattering on the skin or whatever.

Heather Graham, Polaroid Transfer

In the film days, you just got [the film] processed and that was WHAT IT WAS. Now you can pull a recipe on the computer so that when you shoot a picture, it comes in the way you wanted it to look. At the end of the day, it’s the end result that matters not what came out of the camera.

It’s [beauty software] amazing software for men or women. You can change the noses, you can change the lips, and you can change the eyes. You don’t have to have a retoucher with you anymore as you can just run this software, which takes roughly 3 minutes to work.

Emirates Airline, HQ Building, Dubai

Your Emirates image landed up covering the complete side of a building at the airport. Did you have to shoot it in a particular way, so that it could be enlarged this big?

No, we just shot that on the Hasselblad and they enlarged it to something crazy like 240 feet high. It ended up being the biggest Billboard ever done in Dubai

Do your photos get used without permission?

My photos go directly to the clients or magazines. But after they have used it they do end up on the Internet and there is not much you can do about it, whether they have scanned it from a magazine or whatever.

Dance Moms

Have you ever sued for unauthorized use?

No. But back in London, many years ago, there was a company I did shoot for and they were published in Esquire and someone scanned the images and was selling in a record store. Esquire went to court after them but then that company just closed down. So you end up spending 30 grand and get nothing. It may work out for big companies but for me, it doesn’t make sense as it costs thousands of dollars and you may not get any money back.

Patrick Swayze

When you photographed Patrick Swayze dancing in Pinewood Studios, a paparazzi shooter got the photos published before you could even process the film. How did that feel?

That shoot was actually at an airport hangar in Santa Monica and was for Mondo Uomo in Italy. I never saw any other photographer there but he must have been shooting from far with a 400-600mm lens and the next day the photos appeared in one of those rag magazines. The editor called me to protest but that was the only time it happened to me, after which I have been much more on the ball. If I have done big names, I have had security.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony got together for the first time for their album in a Miami house by the ocean. Paparazzi were coming by in boats but I just had a 12 feet high black curtain put around the location. If you are going to shoot near a public beach where paparazzi are going to be there, they are going to find you but you have to be alert.

Marc Anthony

Celebrities like Beyoncé are taking their own pictures and posting them to Instagram. Is this cutting out the professional photographer?

No. Social media has made it easier for celebrities to post pictures but they still need great photographers to shoot great photos.

How limited are the limited-edition prints you are selling on your site?

I’m doing 20×30 inch prints in an edition of 20 prints at the moment. I will see how the interest is and then maybe release another edition in a different size, like 30×40 or 16×20 inches.

Emirates Airline’s A319 private jet charter fleet, Dubai

Do you still shoot in anything other than digital?

Yes, I do personal projects. I do portraits on wet-plate collodion [invented in 1851] on 16×20 inch cameras with brass lenses. I take the photos on black glass or aluminum and the photos are incredible. I love shooting on large format cameras like Linhof but nobody wants it anymore, which is a shame.

Recently you have been directing videos. How does it feel not to be behind the camera yourself?

I love shooting motion and I have got into it because the cameras we use are capable of shooting it now, so it’s opened up the business for the photographer. I like directing and I operate the camera as well, so I can do all basically. We do TV poster shoots for shows and nine times out of ten the client will ask for a video as well. And it works out cheaper for the client, as they don’t have to bring in different crews for stills and motion.

NASCAR drivers at Daytona

What cameras are you using to shoot video?

We shoot on the RED, ARRI Alexa and the Canons. When we shot the Emirates Airlines commercial, we shot the Canon on 4K and the quality is beautiful.

Do you pull stills from your 4K videos?

I don’t because I prefer to shoot stills with my still cameras unless it’s something you can’t get on your still camera. When you have someone running towards you, there is a greater chance of getting a perfect frame at 24 fps than with just 10 fps on a still camera.

Eva Mendes

What lighting do you use?

Profoto. That’s what I like. I’ll shoot Broncolor. I’ll shoot whatever is available but my go to is Profoto.

And what lighting do you use for videos?

We’ll just bring HMIs although we shoot a lot of daylight videos as well.

Emirates Airlines

Between still and video how much equipment do you have to carry to a shoot?

For the Emirates Airlines campaign, I took 3 tons of equipment to Dubai: 6 huge flat cases with the lighting, 12 camera cases and probably 10 bags of accessories. There were 80 people on the shoot that lasted for 12 days. I had 40 models, 7 assistants, 1 digital tech, hair and makeup stylists, art directors and ad agency people from Holland, clients, crew and local runners.

I shot 30 print campaigns and four motion commercials. And earlier it took 2 hours to clear all that equipment through customs at 1 AM in the morning at Dubai airport!

Pamela Anderson

You have said that photography is 90% personality and 10% photography. What do you mean?

For me it is. I’m not blowing my own trumpet but I feel I have a very good personality and can really converse with people whatever they are, homeless individuals or kings and queens. Sometimes I have a DJ on set to get a great atmosphere going and relax everybody.

I know a lot of creative directors who work with photographers who won’t say anything during a shoot. They will let the creative director direct and they will just press the button. Now I can’t do that, as I like to be in control of how the shot is going to look. Working with the creative director is very important but once the creative director starts talking they lose respect for the photographer because the photographer is letting someone else take control of the shoot.

I like to speak to the celebrity and tell them what we are trying to achieve. I will let them come and look at the monitor to review the images because most of them are very insecure. They are great in front of the motion camera but when they get in front of the still camera, there’s not too many of them comfortable to be there. So I try to make it fun for them to be there and get them in and out of the studio or location as quickly as possible and do what’s needed and not overshoot.

National Guard

You have said that you would like to shoot Nicole Kidman in Antarctica. Why Antarctica?

I love shooting in offbeat places. Celebrities are always shot in the studio or their beautiful homes, but rarely in great locations. If you look at the great photographs of movie stars from the 50s and 60s, there’s a jazz photographer called William Claxton. He did great images of Steve McQueen in various situations and you just don’t see those kinds of images anymore.

The pictures that are shot now are very safe, very easy and just what the magazine wants. I just think Nicole Kidman in Antarctica would be incredible, maybe fishing through a hole in the ice or something.

Jenny McCarthy

What attracts you about the photos of Stephen Klein and Peter Lindbergh?

Oh yeah, I love their stuff especially Klein’s work for Italian Vogue. I love the classic photographers, including Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Patrick Demarchelier. I’ve got probably 350 photography books from pinhole to modern day. Film was tough to shoot on, mostly black-and-white film. Color is easy but when you shoot black-and-white, you got to know your tones to get a great image.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Your black-and-white portrait of Gwyneth Paltrow is high in contrast with the middle tones washed out. Do you like that kind of tonality?

My best medium is black-and-white. Back in the day, there used to be six grades of printing paper from 0 to 5. I would always print on grade 5 so that the blacks were black and the whites were white and there were no gray tones. I got all my black-and-white prints hanging up in my house and all of them are printed real contrasty: jet-black blacks and white whites, there are no mid tones or grays in them at all. That’s how I like my black and whites.

How did you get the assignment on the book China: The New Long March?

A book publisher in Australia asked me if I would shoot for the book on China. They work with Chinese photographers and I was the only photographer from outside China. It was about re-tracing Mao Zedong’s long march. I don’t exactly remember but this book was the 75th year of the Long March. Each photographer had a section of China to shoot and I was in Chengdu and went up to the snow mountain.

Barry Manilow

What’s on your bucket list?

I want to travel more. I want to go to different parts of the world. There is an Indian festival called Holi where all the colorful powder is thrown over everybody. I love to go off and do these adventurous things. Maybe photograph Queen Elizabeth II!

Would that make you nervous?

No, no. I got nervous with only Mandela because he’s one of the biggest icons in the world. That’s the only time in my career that I’ve ever been nervous. You have protocols to follow and how you address her and that’s a bit nerve-racking, but the photography side wouldn’t bother me at all and I’m sure I’d make her look beautiful.

John Hurt

How did you get Halle Barry to do that risqué pose for the magazine covers?

It might have been for the X-Men movie that she was in. She was known in America but not really in Europe. This was for the FHM (For Him Magazine) and I talked to her manager and said I want to shoot her naked because I want to create a stir. And that shot went on to 22 FHM covers around the world. And it helped her get recognized in Europe!

How do you get celebrities to trust you?

The press representatives usually know who the photographers are and so do the celebrities. It’s easier now with digital as they come and look at the monitor and see the picture the instant you click the camera. I always make sure that the first picture is a beautiful, beautiful image and straightaway you have them in your pocket and they trust you.

Lagoon Jewels

Should photographers have an agent?

I’ve never really had an agent in the past. My ex-wife used to run my business and when we split up, I did my own thing. I go from jump to jump by word of mouth. I took on, Joanna Flores as my agent recently.

The problem with agents is that photographers rely on them to get work. When I’m not working, I’m in my office with my staff looking for a job and what the next thing is to do. Right now I have reached out to Air New Zealand, cruise ships including P&O Cruises, Discover Ireland, Alaska Airlines, Visit Britain and something very dear to my heart The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.

Doobie Brothers

Have you shot covers of magazines in the US?

I’ve done a couple of covers in America but the most of my covers when I used to shoot for them are European publications as they are more risqué. I can do nudes on the cover of German GQ and that’s acceptable. With the European magazines, they’re not so set in what they want whereas here if you shoot for Cosmopolitan, it has to be on a white background or a yellow background, the lighting has to be the same, etc. So every cover looks the same just that it has a different person. This is boring to me.

Linda Evangalista

How has celebrity photography changed in the last 35 years that you have been in it?

I think social media is hurting it a lot. The celebrities can now shoot their own pictures. If Ronaldo comes out with a new soccer boot and puts it up on his Facebook page, he gets 3 million hits or whatever! Social media has changed the way the celebrity thing works now which never used to be the case when I was actively shooting. Now with iPhones, it is more accessible for everybody. The paparazzi are videoing the celebrities and then it’s all over online.

Do you think still shooting will go away and everything will be on video?

No, there will always be a need for [still] photography in some sort.

Do you use social media to get work?

I’m not into social media. If you look at my Facebook page, I got about a thousand followers. I don’t really care about social media. I do it because my daughters ask me to. My office posts stuff. I’m not bothered about it. It doesn’t make or break me, and it doesn’t get me work. A lot of people rely on it to get work, but I don’t think it’s going to get me one job. I can use social media to say this is what I’ve recently done if you want to look at it.

Brush Company

Do you shoot selfies with celebrities?

No, never. I don’t have one picture of me with a celebrity. Not my scene. If a celebrity wants to do a picture with me, I do it. I don’t like having my pictures taken. I don’t think I look great in pictures.

Magazines are folding up, and in 10 years there might be very few left. How will that work for you?

In 10 years there won’t be any [printed] magazines. Everything will be online. I get 50 magazines delivered to me every month. It’s nice to flip through them, and you don’t get that same feeling when you do it online. I like to rip pages out and reference them, so I hope magazines never go away.

Jeff Gordon

So if you hadn’t made it as a photographer what would you have done?

A racecar driver! I don’t know, maybe because of the McLaren [British sports/racing car] name or whatever it was, but I always wanted to be a racing driver of some sort. That was my dream, and then I stumbled into photography by sheer chance. But I am a fanatical Formula 1 and motorsport fan and would have loved to be a racing driver.

Brooke Shields

You have been shooting for almost 40 years. Does the word retirement ever cross your mind?

No, not at all. I love the business too much. Every day I wake up I kick myself because I can’t believe I am in the business I am in. I get to travel the world extensively, and meet great people, from Nelson Mandela to Tina Turner to aborigines in Australia. I have an amazing life, and I am just a boy from London from a working-class family. You couldn’t even get these experiences if you are willing to pay for them. I feel I am blessed in life and it couldn’t be any better. Even now I get excited as every day you don’t know what you’re going to do next.

You can follow Richard McLaren and see more of his work on his website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Vimeo.

About the author: Phil Mistry is a photographer and teacher based in Atlanta, GA. He started one of the first digital camera classes in New York City at International Center of Photography in the 90s. He was the director and teacher for Sony/Popular Photography magazine’s Digital Days Workshops. You can reach him via email here.

Go to Source Author: <a href="http://ift.tt/2rSvwoU Mistry</a> If you’d like us to remove any content please send us a message here CHECK OUT THE TOP SELLING CAMERAS!

The post An Interview with Photographer Richard McLaren appeared first on CameraFreaks.

August 04, 2017 at 10:02PM

#photo photography art camera cameras

0 notes