Celeb Sighting

I saw Tilda Swinton! I was very excited because she's in one of my all time favourite films, "Orlando" (1992) and happens to have one of the most beautiful and interesting faces on Earth. I was in a bakery in Soho getting some coffee and pastries for a photographer I was working for and she came in with 2 kids with posh English accents, who I don't think were hers, mostly because when she ordered for them she said "Um, these...people, would like some croissants"...who calls their kids "these people?". Anyway, I was starstruck but had enough sense not to bother this woman at 8.30 in the morning. I think she's in town filming a Coen brothers movie with George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Here is a video of a shoot she did with Craig McDean for "Another Magazine" a while ago. If you squint at the end you can see a regular from this blog - that's him carrying the camera out of the icy Scotland waters.


Yesterday I assisted on my first American Vogue job (I'd only worked on French and Japanese before this). It was a portrait of a Vogue editor/socialite, and wow, was her house something (rhetorical question). It was on the Upper East Side, and just like the apartments you see in movies and TV shows like Sex and the City, where you think to yourself, "AS IF anyone lives in apartments that big!!". Well this woman does. It was even fancier than Charlotte's on SATC. There were huge rooms everwhere, and her foyer was the size of our whole apartment. I walked into the large kitchen, only to discover that was some sort of extra kitchen, leading to a kitchen the size of a whole apartment. I was scared to walk on the pristine carpet or sit on her white couches. She even had 2 nannies (one of them a kiwi). She was so elegant, such a lady. People like that make me feel like I just rolled out of a St Vincent de Paul bin! But she was nice and the shoot was quick and painless.

We shot her on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it was hilarious watching the crowds of people gather round, taking photos of us with their little cameras. I guess they thought she was a celebrity. The photographer told me later I should have been shooing them away, because there are professional 'snipers' who look like innocent old Japanese tourists, but who sell the photos to magazines, as if it was their own shoot. Oops. Well most of them will have my big head in the way so if you see any Asian magazines with me holding heavy equipment with a painful expression on my face, do keep a copy for me!

The day before yesterday I met Tali in Bryant Park for a hot chocolate and a catch up. We went to primary school together and she's now living here with her Aussie husband Ivan, who coincidentally went to school with David and Danielle. It's quite a small world over here.

On Sunday (do you see a pattern here? I'm retracing my steps) I helped Jarrah on his video shoot for Matt and Jordy. After they wrapped I took some pics of them around Brooklyn and on the Subway. I also did a shoot on Friday for Brazil Vogue's website, of 2 fashion designers. Both shoots went really well so I'll post some pics when I've retouched them. It's nice to be shooting my own stuff again, it's been a while. Sunday night we had dinner with Michelle and Pete. Pete leaves NY today but hopefully I'll catch up with Michie again.

Phew. That's enough retracing of steps for one day. I still can't find my keys however....