Teenage Paparazzo

I admire him for taking the step and doing it. Well done and the support from his mum is admirable. I mean, how many kids these days stays at home and plays the Xbox all day? And how many actually go out and, as Adrian puts it, 'have an adventure'?

Good on him.
 
Must try and watch this, sounds good.

There's a chap over on another car forums I frequent who is a pap, he doesn't talk much abotu it but from what I gather Britney isn't a fan of his :p
 
One thing i didn't realise, is that the kid tuns 18 this year.

They started filming this 4 years go. It was debuted at the sundance film festival last year, so even when it was released, it was quite old.
 
I didn't either until I Google him the next day and saw stories about him at 17 being arrested...

On the subject of flash recycle time.... can some explain it to me? I got a 430EX II for Christmas and the quoted recycle time is nearly 4 seconds - however I can have the camera on continuous shooting and get 4-5 shoots in a under a couple of seconds before the buffer fills and I have to stop, flashing with each shot. Is this because the power has been reduced due to it being ETTL and that the recycle time is for full power?
 
Really great documentary, cheers for posting up about it MrLOL.

It was really good to see Adrian in something other than Entourage too, I love that show and it was cool it see how his true character seems quite akin to the character he plays on the show, in relation to how grounded he is.

I'm glad they portrayed Austin in such a way that it doesn't look like he'll grow into being a douchebag papparazzo. He had the enthusiasm and the opportunity to take advantage of the situation when he was young, and fair play to his parents for supporting that but it was obvious it wouldn't last. It's amazing to see that he's matured so far through that part of his life and he's still a teenager, I'm sure all the papping practice will bode well to him becoming a great photographer one day.
 
One thing that I noticed was how the other paps wearnt that well off. They didn't have super nice cars and that tall guy who had been doing it years had a small flat by the looks of it. Spending all that time in there cars isn't much of a life.

Also are they shooting in jpeg as there bursts are long and they have to upload them on the move asap meaning would they have time to PP from raw before sending?
 
Yeah, sitting around in your car all day, eating fast food, shooting the breeze with 5-40 other paps who just want to steal your shot. Not exactly glamorous or that fun the 99% of the time your sitting around with your thumb up your ass.

Sure it probably still beats a low wage job and hell it beats the ****ty job I'm doing at the moment, but I still don't think I could do it, at least not for a long time. Plus I'd hate having to be so aggressive about invading their personal space.
 
it worked for Austin because he's a teenager. No rent to pay, no bills to pay, possibly food but thats about it. When you're living with your parents you can pocket most of what you earn.

In reality the paps make enough to live comfortably, they wont get many $1000 dollar shots a month. So just make a living as opposed to being well off / rich.
 
One thing that I noticed was how the other paps wearnt that well off. They didn't have super nice cars and that tall guy who had been doing it years had a small flat by the looks of it. Spending all that time in there cars isn't much of a life.

Yeah that guy who was shown as a real veteran and pioneer in the Pap game was certainly not living pretty. The outside of his place looked a bit like a council estate here in this country, the inside was also certainly nothing to write home about.

I guess really you make the odd photo sale that makes you some good money, but in the grand scheme of things over the course of the year, it's no different to any other job, but it's clearly better than minimum wage and has exciting moments.

I think it's pitfall though is that anyone can do it, there is so much competition trying to sell the same photos. Digital Cameras have made it so that anyone can be a Photographer and the photos they are taking don't require you to be a good photographer. You just have to burst and hope you catch a celebrity looking not so good, or catch them up to something they shouldn't etc.

That's why we saw so many that looked quite down and out. Get enough money together and buy yourself a camera and you can go be a Paparazzo.. trouble is it's you and everyone and their dog.

Also notice how many weren't American?
There were certainly a few Brits in there... can easily work out there and be paid via an agency without breaking any working visa rules I would think. With Hollywood being so easy to pap celebs it wouldn't surprise me how many people go there to do so.

Austin wasn't interested in photo journalism, although that's a respected photographer position and still has excitement.

If I was in his shoes, I'd be using my new celebrity connections to actually take some proper studio portraits... that's where the real money is and the chance to take proper photographs.
 
I've just seen this and I have to say I've got no respect what-so-ever for him or his parents.

A spoiled and foul mouthed kid who has everything given to him, treats people like crap and has parents that let him wander the streets in the US at 3am. Seriously, could they be any worse parents? If that was this country, social services would be called. As for the weak excuses his parents make about the way he didn't fit into school so is home schooled, well christ, there'd be about 20 people in each school if every parent did that.

I was also surprised at the camera shop selling the director the camera they did when he clearly asked for entry level equipment, and then went on to give him a far from entry level set up.

The whole irony of it all is that that they're trying to sell the film on paparazzo whilst slating how they treat people and then the celebrities saying they understand it (whilst moaning about it in their fake way), just to get more exposure, then contradicting themselves over and over.

I really wouldn't bother watching this. All you learn from it is that camera shops will rip you off if you know nothing, the kid has awful parents and he's a spoiled brat. Nothing implied the kid had any intelligence either. Also looking at his site, he doesn't seem to have done anything of any note since the film was made either. Where are all his photos? The only ones on his site are the ones he took 4 years ago.
 
I was also surprised at the camera shop selling the director the camera they did when he clearly asked for entry level equipment, and then went on to give him a far from entry level set up.

I really wouldn't bother watching this. All you learn from it is that camera shops will rip you off if you know nothing, the kid has awful parents and he's a spoiled brat.


I don't think he was ripped off, I think you've just misunderstood what happened... but the editing might not of been super clear, but I understood what happened.

He asked for an entry level camera, the guy clearly showed it him. Then the Paparazzo kid got him to try a top spec camera saying "This is what you really want!". He then had a go on the top spec gear and bought that. At the end of the day, he could probably afford to, so why not.
 
I didn't either until I Google him the next day and saw stories about him at 17 being arrested...

On the subject of flash recycle time.... can some explain it to me? I got a 430EX II for Christmas and the quoted recycle time is nearly 4 seconds - however I can have the camera on continuous shooting and get 4-5 shoots in a under a couple of seconds before the buffer fills and I have to stop, flashing with each shot. Is this because the power has been reduced due to it being ETTL and that the recycle time is for full power?

It doesn't have to be in e-TTL mode either, as long as you're using a lower otuput power you could very easily flash as fast as your camera buffer will allow. I have a 430EX mkI and do just that for fill in flash when shooting moving subjects and don't want to miss a moment, with over 7fps it comes in handy!

Also works the same way with any half decent flash, doesn't have to be a Canon or Nikon.
 
I've just seen this and I have to say I've got no respect what-so-ever for him or his parents.

A spoiled and foul mouthed kid who has everything given to him, treats people like crap and has parents that let him wander the streets in the US at 3am. Seriously, could they be any worse parents? If that was this country, social services would be called. As for the weak excuses his parents make about the way he didn't fit into school so is home schooled, well christ, there'd be about 20 people in each school if every parent did that.

another thing to bear in mind is home schooling seems to be much more popular than in the US.

Over here its almost seen as a cop out, as though you arent being properly taught. Over there its not got quite the same "stigma" possibly due to the fact it prevails in the rural states where nobody lives near a school.

I also don't agree with your judgement of the child. I swore that badly at 14, i think most kids now-a-days do too. Every child struggles to find themselves as a person in those teenage years. Their hormones are raging, they're struggling with starting to become a man rather than a child, and that film reflects that.

The ending showed just how much he had matured. That was filmed when he was 16 nearly 17 and appeared much more mature and grounded.

The kid had a tutor, and he checked his work and he averaged a grade B which is perfectly respectable given his obvious talent and enthusiasm for photography. He's got far more direction in his life now than most kids his age, the defining moment in his life now is whether he will move onto proper studio photography, or continue to be just another papparazo.
 
He was 13 at the start of the programme (he brags about having a 16 year old girlfriend at one point). He's only 17 now. Just because you swore at his age, it doesn't mean he's not foul mouthed, it just means you were too ;)

I'm aware of what it's like being a teenager, as I was one once. Shocking stuff I know :D but I wasn't ****** and blinding left right and centre at that age. The ending didn't show how much he'd matured at all. You heard about 10 words from him and the director told him he'd matured. Hardly a valid way to judge his maturity. Google his name and see some of his comments on twitter, etc. That'll show you how mature and polite he is, and they're from last year ;)

Home schooling is one thing, but the reasons for giving him home schooling were pathetic. I actually think it's mentioned in more detail on his website (or one relating to him, with a comment from what seems to be one of his parents) than on the programme itself. I have to admit that I was more than a little bit sceptical about the tutor conveniently saying he is better than all his other students. I'm sure their parents appreciated that, and he never said why. Odd that.

Anyway, letting your 13 year old kid out on the streets at 3am is disgraceful behaviour for any parent. There is nothing anyone can say that justifies that from a parenting stance.

The whole thing was purely to get celebrity loving sheep to watch this and turn him into a celebrity, which sadly they probably have done with this poor effort of an almost reality programme. If I'd known what the content was before hand, there's no way I'd have wasted my time watching it. You don't even learn anything about the paparazzi other than they stand outside peoples houses, bordering on trespassing, but just staying inside the law (although this kid was blatantly flouting this law), which is something we all knew already anyway.

It was just a total non story/documentary.

The only thing I'm remotely interested in is what he's done in the 4 years since that documentary was made. I haven't been able to find anything he's done since then other than a few people saying he's still in the business. His own poor website only has the photos that were shown from the programme. If he is doing stuff in the photography department, I'd like to see how he's progressed, or actually has any talent as a photographer, as lets face it, anyone can be given £5000 worth of kit by their parents and hold down a button, picking out the better shots.
 
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