Saturday, December 14, 2013

GQ Magazine Shoot in Memphis Tennessee

The photo below is Sebastian Kim, one of the top fashion photographers in the world. He flew in from New York in the fall to shoot the December 2013 cover shot for GQ Magazine in Memphis, and our studio was called in to be the assistant photographer for the shoot. 

Michael Allen Photography got a call from the magazine to be an assistant photographer for Sebastian and his team on a shoot with Justin Timberlake and Kendrick Lamar. I considered it quite an honor to get to assist Sebastian and his team, it was a fast paced 2 day shoot with a crew of about 15 people, from the editors of GQ, to all the PR staff, hairstylists, wardrobe team and set designers.

The photography team help set the lighting for each scene, as well as help aid Sebastian in his creative process, keeping the computers tethered to his Nikon camera, and getting each scene ready and tested for each part of the photo shoot. Just about every photographer in the world would give just about anything to assist Sebastian on a high profile shoot like this. I wasn’t afraid to roll up my sleeves and assist on this shoot, working with a group of professionals takes willingness to help at any level, from cutting foam board for bounce light, to rigging a 20 x 20 scrim to diffuse the light from the sun. I’ve worked on a lot of professional sets over the years, and this team was simply amazing to work with! 

Working with both Justin Timberlake and Kendrick Lamar was also about as good as it gets, they were both fun and very professional. I've photographed a lot of high profile people over the years, they both were down to earth and nice to work with, it is a little surreal when someone like this walks on the set, but after a few hours of work, the room is focused on helping them look and feel their very best during the course of the day.