Mac Attack!
It's early summer June in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. There with my long time pal and co-worker I call Fish. I recommend this cool spot THE BEACH HOUSE on the boulevard for an after work/party meal. It's the reverse of Mrs. Cleo I just didn't see what was about to come. I stared at our server with the cross between a creepy old man and an alien who just crash landed here on earth. The gears in my brain turning as our server did the "tree pose" from yoga causally as she was running around wide open on this busy AF of a day. I left returning later that night with a different set of friends who were feeling the effects of a party a little bit more than we were earlier. It was time to pop the question. I go back each and every time to the first time I popped the question in High School at lunch time to my old friend and first model candidate named Monique. "Will you mind doing some pictures with me for our photography class?" Contrary to popular belief I don't ask that very often. It's a special thing to me. At least for the Shot Callers. Which I dubbed the modeling style photo sessions. Which Monique pioneered and I was about to ask this young lady to hop into this world that I was worried was now a dated theme. I mean "Shot Callers" who seriously calls photoshoots that with a Instagram like yeager_shots and shirt with that written on there....come on are you even serious.? But first things first, after getting her name, MAC and popping the question, she had one of her own. "Are you asking me to do these pictures tonight and tomorrow act like you don't know anything about it and I never hear from you?" In 1/4000 of a second it was clear this is the woman I was looking for, but the question is now "Could I keep up with her, or am I dinosaur unaware it's time to lay down and take my place as a fossil in the photography world?"
It's a bizarre feeling, I was fine with all 3 Shot Caller Photo Shoots in 2017 being the end. A trio put a nice neat bow on the entire thing, however the thought of teaming up with someone somewhere out in the world I haven't even met yet was just too tantalizing an idea to forget about. I mean it was bound to happen with clients but this wasn't a client deal. This is the signature brand with my name and the model's name on it front and center. That's a show piece of where we are as a photography/video business and us as creators. Of course Mac came to work. Twice in fact. With only two weeks between a fun full day of shooting and an afternoon into night. Weather was on our side it's just the humidity wasn't. The heat would leave me feeling [drained] me into the next day but we had our shots! Boy did we have our shots! It's a lot to ask when doing one of these photo shoots. There's still shots and video that breaks down into multiple YouTube videos, Instagram/Snapchat Stories, Podcast, this Blog, The edits on the pictures themselves and oh there's an Apparel biz that wants/needs some of that attention too. That gets to be a daunting amount to sign up for. And add to that it's imperative we get along, could you imagine having to work with and then look at someone's face during the editing and post production you can't stand? Ugh, it would be a horrific time. Obviously that ain't what happened here, see the part about doing a second photo shoot in as many weeks.
And since that relationship has been established, it's unfortunate that we're in a world where photos get judged so harshly as if real people aren’t the ones creating these images. I'm not using agencies and it wouldn't matter if I were, these are friends I've hung out with and been inside of their homes who help make all this possible. It doesn't really bother us, it just induces some serious eye roll sometimes. But, "If you ain't got haters you ain't poppin' is how the song goes right? I went down to Myrtle Beach in June 2018 hesitate to go right up until we hit the road that day. And left out of town with a weapon in my personal fight against turning into a fossil with a camera. The Shot Callers live on... Most of all I got a friend. Thank You Mac, Thank You for everything. As we say in the vlogs, "let's do this again sometime."
-YEAG
