Sunday, April 08, 2007

Photo Shoot

The people who read the February issue of School Library Journal read my article Curl Up With A Cup Of Tea And A Good Blog and also saw this photo. (Edited to add: New! Startling! Revelations about the photo shoot at the bottom of the post.)

When SLJ said they needed my photo for the article, my first thought was I'd ask my sister to take a few photos. I didn't realize they meant a REAL photo. Or a real photo shoot. As happens with these things, it turned out that it was a week I could not take a day off from work; and a weekend when my sister (Pixie) and her husband (her husband) were out of town on business so I was babysitting Cheetah and PeterParker in their house.

Which meant that the photo shoot took place at their house, not mine.

Things I learned during my mini session as a star: it takes a long, long time to set up lights. Even longer than you think.

Children insist on being involved in everything. Until they get bored and go do something else.

This one photo was the result of about 4 hours and hundreds of photos. I am not making that up. The photographer, Will Taylor, was great.

I adore Nicholas Mosse pottery. You can just see the top of one of his mugs.

Because it was at Pixie's house, I brought a bunch of ARCs and books with me, partly for the photo shoot, partly for the kids to look at it, partly in the hopes of getting some blog work done. Me being me, I made a list of the books I brought. The ones in bold are the ones you can see in the photo:

Tips On Having A Gay (Ex) Boyfriend by Carrie Jones
Good Girls by Laura Ruby
Pale Immortal by Anne Frasier (this is on the sofa)
Bindi Babes by Narinder Dhami
The Fat Girl by Marilyn Sachs
Devilish by Maureen Johnson
The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless by Ahmet Zappa
Mommy? by Sendak Yorkins & Reinhart (this is a fave with Cheetah & PeterParker)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: A Pop Up Book by Stephen King (illus. by Alan Dingman, paper engineering by Kees Moerbeek) (another fave of the kids)
The Day of the Scarab by Catherine Fisher
Ancient Egypt: Archaeology Unlocks the Secrets of Egypt's Past by Jill Rubalcaba (right by the laptop)
Goy Crazy by Melissa Schorr (between Egypt and the tea cup.)
The Fetch by Chris Humphreys
River Secrets by Shannon Hale
Chloe Doe by Suzanne Phillips
Julia's Kitchen by Brenda A. Ferber
Beige by Cecil Castellucci
The Braid by Helen Frost
Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria by Kyra E Hicks, illus by Lee Edward Fodi
Kali and the Rat Snake by Zai Whitaker, illus by Srividya Natarajan (PeterParker is reading it. I cannot figure out which book Cheetah is looking at.)
Santa Knows by Cynthia & Greg Leitich Smith, illus by Steve Bjorkman
Poetry Speaks to Children
One White Wishing Stone
by Doris K. Gayzagian, illus by Kristina Swarner

I also brought:
Knopf Delacorte Dell (Random House) Young Readers Group Spring 2007 Catalog
Random House Golden Books Young Readers Group Spring 2007 Catalog
Book Page November 2006
Kane/ Miller Spring 2007 Catalog
Chronicle Books Children's Spring/ Summer 2007
Book Page December 2006

I think Cheetah was looking at one of these catalogs.

Edited to add: Robin Brande asks, Liz, you're such a celeb! Great photo!Did you do your own hair/makeup/stunts? If so, all the more impressive!

Oh, go on. No, seriously, go on!

Hair: As soon as I knew I was getting the photo taken (and it was a short time frame) I called the salon and BEGGED for an appointment to get rid of the gray (I started going gray in my early 20s) and get my hair cut & styled. De Jensen was awesome & fit in me in.
Makeup: I am not a big make up person. I use it, but as with everything, I take a minimalist approach. I used a combo of Benefit (I adore Dr. Feelgood) & Bobbi Brown products.
Stunts: I did them all. This is when I learned how the models & celebs have stand ins for things like setting up the lights; I'm the one who sat there, instead of a stand in.

And have I mentioned? I'm one of those people who dread getting my picture taken!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great picture, Liz! I do know how many photos it can take to get one good one. It's very demoralizing. But the trick is to only focus on the good one, and quietly forget that the 400 others exist.

Anonymous said...

Liz -- Congratulations!
1. For the SLJ article
2. For being such an expert and an asset @ OCL
3. For being the best aunt a child could wish for - they are DAMN lucky!
4. For obviously being a great older sister with all that babysitting you do! She is double DAMN lucky!
5. For ALWAYS being "on fire" about books and reading
6. For always taking a great picture - you are VERY photogenic!

Robin Brande said...

Liz, you're such a celeb! Great photo!

Did you do your own hair/makeup/stunts? If so, all the more impressive!

Lindsey said...

Who knew one picture could be so much trouble! I have some of the same ARCs:-) I can't wait to read Fat Girl

Melissa Schorr said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Melissa Schorr said...

Hi Liz,
Thanks for helping my book get its "15 minutes" of fame in the photo. Just wanted to clarify your list above, I'm actually the author of Goy Crazy -- Rachel Lowenstein is my character (I know, it's confusing, since her name is the one printed below her yearbook-like photo on the cover, and mine is stuck up in the corner.)
Anyway, hope you and your family enjoyed the book!
Melissa Schorr
www.melissaschorr.com

Robin Brande said...

Thank you for the additional scoop, Liz. Inquiring minds did want to know.

Chris said...

Liz,
Loved the photo! You are a great poster-woman for librarians - you make us look hip, cool, and happy and excited about what we do. And I have been meaning to tell you, I figured out who should play you, should your life ever get adapted for tv - Emily Blunt. What do you think?