January 14, 2008
At the beginning of The Shot, VH1's series about the “next great fashion photographer,” Dean Zulich appeared destined for reality show villain status. His aggressive demeanor was off-putting and his strong sense of self seemed to veer into arrogance.
However, during the show, he did seem humbled and chastened at times by his own difficulty in several of the challenges. While he did, on occasion, regain some of his confident swagger, he became more likable as it was clear he was truly driven by his passion for photography, and therefore appeared willing to try to incorporate useful critiques when he could.
He has written about each of the challenges on The Shot, including his perspective on the all-important final challenge on the show.
December 30, 2007
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The season of VH1's fashion photography show The Shot ended last week, and the winner, Maria, will now have the opportunity to shoot a Victoria's Secret catalog spread. She might be working with one of the shows judges: Italo Gregorio has worked with Victoria's Secret, and he seems to be the go-to guy for sexy hair.
If you have curly hair, and are looking for a new, sexy way to do your 'do, Italo has some tips to help you achieve just that.
December 23, 2007
The finale of The Shot aired tonight. Normally, when a reality show – especially a competition-format show – airs its finale, fans are frantically leaving comments for their favorites or their least favorite. But for The Shot? To use a reality show cliché, insert the sound of crickets chirping here.
So why the marked lack of interest in The Shot? After all, if America's Next Top Model was able to become a monster hit based on its highly unrealistic reality competition about modeling, and Project Runway cornered the market on fashion design, why didn't a show about fashion photography, completing the triumvirate, take off?
December 16, 2007
Friends and family will be gathering together this holiday season and, of course, millions of photographs will be taken. Of course, the main point of holiday pics is to capture the moment so that good times can be remembered, and aesthetic concerns aren't necessarily high on the list of objectives when the cameras come out.
Nevertheless, it can't hurt to try to maximize the impact of your holiday snaps by using some tricks of the photographers' trade in order to make the most of the moment. Russell James of The Shot recently offered up some advice on holiday picture taking.
December 9, 2007
Until the "Hair Dance" episode of The Shot, I was actually quite unclear on precisely who Italo Gregorio was or what his role is on the show. (The "Hair Dance" episode is the one in which the photographers had the models jumping on trampolines to capture movement in hair, and contestant Jason said the words “Hair Dance” about 37,000 in one half hour.)
After that particular The Shot episode though, and the level of distress he seemed to experience witnessing bad hair, it became clear: tresses are this man's passion.
December 2, 2007
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Part of being a reality show judge is making someone very unhappy every week. There's no getting around it. Without critique and painful eliminations, what would be the point? Sure, maybe you could have a show where every week people participate in some kind of competition, but at the end of it, everyone just gets a cookie and a hearty pat on the back before returning to the house for a nap. But no one would watch it. Because we've lived it: it's called kindergarten.
So in both the real world and the reality world, there are winners and losers, and in the subset of reality that involves a competition, it often the judges who make that call.
But they don't always like doing it. The Shot judge Zanna Roberts recently wrote about one such tough call from that show, and offered up a slice of drama markedly more interesting than a lot of what's actually wound up on air on the VH1 series.
November 18, 2007
Tonight was the third episode of The Shot, VH1's new series about the search for the next great fashion photographer. I find myself continuing to watch despite the somewhat ho-hum nature of the whole thing. This week was a doubly-challenging episode, forcing the photographers to work with the heights and depths.
Last week's episode of The Shot was also a double-whammy of challenges. The photographers had to work with both children and animals. Host Russell James recently offered up some advice for others on how to deal with these sometimes difficult subjects.
November 11, 2007
Today we had the second episode of the new series America's Next Top Fashion Photographer…er…Project Studio…er…The Shot.
Now, I don't have a problem with derivative reality programming. Sometimes, a show can replicate the structure of another show but still bring something interesting to the table. Case in point: Top Chef. Yes, it's just Project Runway with food, but the chefs, judges and subject matter are interesting.
But The Shot, so far, doesn't seem to be hitting that mark.