The Shot: Mini-Review

Yeah, I know I promised my next post would be the final installment of my macro ring flash series, but I've been too lazy to finish prepping the images for the web. So sue me...

On second thought, don't; I'm too poor to make it worth your time.

So, instead I'll give you a little mini-review of The Shot, a new reality series from VH1 built around fashion photography.

When I first heard about the series on the Photo Business News & Forum, I was pretty shocked that I hadn't heard about it. After all, I'm a bit of a reality series fan (I wouldn't go so far to say junkie). I still watch the Amazing Race, Survivor XXMCI, The Apprentice, etc. but I can't tell you off the top of my head who has won each Survivor season (hmmm... Richard Hatch, some girl, some guy, at some point a guy named Ethan won it and that chick married to Boston Rob). Still, though, I enjoy reality shows and something related to photography is right up my alley.

The Shot airs on VH1 every Sunday night at 10 pm EST (and there are plenty of reruns during the week). Actually, the fact it is on VH1 is probably why I didn't hear about it; I'm too old to watch crazy spring breaks and Carlson Daly on MTV yet too young to watch VH1 and find out what Vanilla Ice is doing right now (oh crap! It looks like he is touring... in Europe). Hence, I didn't hear about this show until now.

So I used the old DVR to tape the third episode and watched it a few days ago. The show is built around the concept of wanna-be professional fashion photographers in a game to select a single photographer to get some cash and some high-profile assignments. While it isn't amazing, there was enough to please the reality show fan and photography fan in me. I'll definitely be watching a few more.

Episode 3 (summary at PopPhoto.com) was built around extreme locations. In one sequence the wanna-bes hung over a cliff and tried to shoot a climber (I was really living vicariously in that one). Then, for the real competition, they got split into two teams to take shots of supermodel Kristy Hinze underwater in a pool (did I mention living vicariously?). The main thing I got out of the episode was a respect for models; Hinze was in the water for four hours patiently taking the direction (or lack of it) from novices. She looked entirely exhausted at the end.

The actual reality stuff (you know, relationships and freakouts and stuff) bores me, but it is really cool to see what the contestants are given and how they use it: sort of a mini making-of video. I wish there was more, but it'd bore the typical viewer if they put in too much. Just seeing the equipment is really cool -- the underwater housing on the camera was a monster with a lens-cover the size of a dinner plate. Must have had a really wide zoom in it.

So, overall, I'd give the show a 7 out of 10. It could be I just saw a cool episode, but I'm interested enough to watch again. If you have the time (or the space on your TiVo) check it out!


Actually, unrelated to the review, I hate VH1's website. Too many ads, too garish, uses way too much processor time. I went to look at The Shot images (too see some of the contestants results in more detail) and the photo gallery looks like it was taken with a cell phone. C'mon guys!