David's Diary: Saturday, October 4, 2002

Siracusa: Professional Model Shoot

Earlier in the week, school was interrupted when one of us looked out the hatch of Dragonsinger and saw a photographer with a really long lenses standing just off the stern. We all rushed out to take a look at what was going on. There was a crew of people of people taking photographs of models dressed in clothing for next spring. We stopped and talked with Tony Urso, the manager who had arranged the whole thing. Tony explained that they were shooting photographs for a small German mail-order clothing company catalog.

Preparing for a Model Shoot

We all went back to school, but later Tony stopped by to ask if he could use Dragonsinger as a prop for part of the shoot. We agreed and he said that he would be back in a day or so. For the rest of the week we didn't hear anything from him and didn't think much about it until the whole crew showed up at Dragonsinger today. Due to high winds we had moved the boat inside the quay, but this didn't bother Tony. It took about a half hour for everything to be set up. We had to pull sails out and put them back in until they got just the look that they were looking for. Then it was time for the model to come onboard for a series of shots.

It was surprising just how many people were involved. Besides Tony and the photographer, there was a clothing person, a make-up person, two models, and two helpers. Many of the clothes did not fit perfectly, and pins were used extensively to gather together material, out of sight of the camera, to make the outfits look like they were made for the models. It was fun to be around everyone and next year there will be a catalog with a tiny bit of Dragonsinger in the background.