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FAST CARS AND BEAUTIFUL WOMEN

Interview with Fernando Escovar by Michelle Ryther

Samy's is excited to present this month's featured photographer, the 'Bond-like' Fernando Escovar, whose fast paced photography career has him flying in high places and photographing some of the most beautiful women in show business.

K-Cal 9 Los Angeles Photo Show at Pro One Los Angeles the best Photo Lab in L.A. , on K-Cal 9 , opening night for celebrity images like Beckham, SHAQ, Eva Mnedes, etc,,,,

Hi Fernando, it's so great to be talking with you. I loved your website and the online portfolio of celebs. I mean, you've got Beckham and Shaq! Are you an LA boy?
I've been in LA all my life. I need an air cleaner for my room, a filter for my water. But I love LA!

What was your first ambition? Weren't you going to school to be a fashion designer?
Yes, and I was terrible at the whole thing. You had to learn sewing on overlock machines.

Overlock?
Yeah, you know like the stitching on a sweater, that special stitching that you can't rip. What's hard is that the machine cuts at the same time that it sews, so it's really easy to mess up. You also learn to do the drawing, cut patterns, make bodices, and you have to drape the clothing and pattern it. You have to pick fabric, buy fabric, make it go in a certain direction. You learn everything from the ground up. There is a lot to it, so if you see a shirt for $30.00, let me tell you, it's worth it.

And you had to do photography?
Yes, you had to take pictures of your fashions and that's where I was at the top of the class. I sucked as a fashion designer but I excelled at photography. And everything I learned in fashion design informed my photography. My teacher told me that fashion was not my game but I showed real promise in photography. Now I do celebrities, fashion, cars and aerial photography of speed boats.

Aerial Photography? As in airplanes?
Actually I trail the speedboats closely in a helicopter. I lean out the door to get the shots I need. I even crashed in a helicopter shooting over a boat. The helicopter crashed and I went down with the helicopter. Both doors were OFF the helicopter when it crashed into Lake Havasu but I was taped into my seat with duct tape.

Omigosh! How did they get you out of there?
I got myself out. I was down there in the dark thinking, "I'm going to die!" Then, I realized I wasn't dying so if I could be thinking about it, I could be doing something about it. The problem was that I was taped into my seat with duct tape. I do that when I'm flying because I'm leaning out of the helicopter to get the shot and sometimes the seats in the helicopters come unbuckled, so I tape myself in securely. But underwater, where it was very dark, the tape didn't want to come off. It was wet and too strong to rip. It really hard to get a grip on and tell where the edge was but finally I got it off. Then, the gyro cord was wrapped around my leg, but I was finally able to get that off. Nowadays, I carry a big Rambo knife. Pilots freak out about it, but if I'd had a knife, I could have cut the cord and been out of there much faster. And now I've learned to skydive.

What was really funny in a morbid sort of way was that I got about 15 phone calls from guys, helicopter pilots, who wanted me to fly with them. So I had all these companies calling me coz the chance of me going down again is nil, the odds are almost impossible 1 in 800,000 of going down in a helicopter accident and I've already my one.

That's all because you do this aerial boat photography!
It's all high speed, you're going really, really fast and it's a rush. But now I've started skydiving. Now all my friends and family get a sky dive instead of regular presents from me. They do a tandem with 15 minutes of instruction and it's great. I've taken everybody, my dad, my grandma, my cousins, my friends. To date, I have over 350 skydives.

And now you know they all know how to do it if they have to.
I totally feel the helicopter crash was a good thing in my life because it really makes you appreciate life and want to live it differently, better. I used to do all kinds of stunts and really dangerous stuff before but this made me realize I have to take it a bit easier.

But you still do the aerial photography?
Oh yeah!

So how did you get going with your new career choice once you realized fashion design was not your true calling?
What's great about a school like graduate of Otis College of Art + Design in Los Angeles or other art centers is that they have really great guest speakers or teachers come in for the day and they are often very famous and or important people in the fashion and photography business. They are scouting these schools right on the spot for rising stars and good people. We had people like Oscar De La Renta, Calvin Klein and many other really impressive guests. These people and their entourages often pick people and hire them right out of the school. That's why I didn't graduate!

And so you didn't graduate? Somebody offered you a job?
Yes, right away I had a couple of popular designers pick me up as a photographer, Sasha London shoes, pretty popular back then, and some others. Then before I knew it I was also doing automobiles and boating, Catalina yachts. So once I was out of school, I continued to work my connections and build my book and I hooked up with some ad agencies and magazines.

Was there a point where you had that epiphany, that flash of inspiration that helped you establish yourself?
As I started dialing in my new career as a photographer, I paid attention to the work of one of my most favorite photographers, Helmut Newton, who was very influential to me. And what I noticed was that most all his work is celebrities. So I said, yeah! And I started trying to find celebrities. I asked myself who I knew who knew someone or how I could be somewhere that somebody would be. Then I would bring my studio lights along with me, even it the primary reason for photographing there was more or less candid shots. For instance, I knew Magic Johnson was going to be at a certain charity event that I was going to photograph, so I brought my studio set up with me. Then when I was able to get a moment with him, I got him to come over and pose. He really like the shots too and I was able to put them in my book. In this way I was able to get shots of folks like Ronnie Lott, of the Raiders and lots of others. Rodman was at a card signing event and my buddy hired me to do the photography, and again I had my lights set up to the side, so that's how I started building my portfolio of celebrities.

Was everybody in your 'book' a celebrity?
Not always right away but a good number of the people I shot early on became celebrities. For instance, I had a photography show at a club called the Gate, still there in Hollywood and I had framed photographs displayed all over the club. One night Carmen Electra was there but it was 1995 and no one knew her. I happened to be there and asked her to dance. In the course of the evening, we got to talking and she mentioned the photographs on the wall. She said how much she like them and would like to meet the photographer. So of course, we got together and did photo shoots at least ten times before she got on that MTV show, "Singled Out". She became the host of that and MTV bought a lot of my photos since I already had that pre-existing art.

From that shooting Carmen, I learned about syndication. As Carmen became more popular, I became more popular. I also shot with Tracy Bingham, Brooke Brooke, and Eva Mendes, long before they were 'known' and became popular. So the same thing happened with them; as they grew in popularity, so did I because I had their pictures in my portfolio and was syndicated.

Wow! Eva Mendes?!
She came to my house like three times, same with Eva Longoria, when she was on a 'soap', way before she was well known. That's five actresses that were in my books before they were well known. So when I take my book around, I have all the top actresses in my book and it helps me get other jobs in a second.

You really thought about what it would take to build your portfolio and then went after it. Would you say being aggressive about it?
I don't know about aggressive, but basically by going after the shot, being lucky and right place right time.

Even though you were lucky and at the right place at the right time, it sounds to me like you came prepared.
Yeah it's like that famous saying: "Opportunity is chance and preparation meeting."

The number one question I get is "How do I get to shoot celebrities all the time?" I just make it happen! Whenever I'm going somewhere I bring my studio light set up so that I can get these great quick studio sitting and it's historic and cool and plus I get to meet them. Another great opportunity was when there was this sports banquet and there were all these amazing players and sports legends there. I had my light set up, so amongst others, there's Joe Montana. My wife asked me, "Why are all the guys getting so excited over this picture of this guy?" And I'm explaining gently to her, "It's Joe Montana, honey!"

Speaking of lighting, what sort of lighting set up do you use for these on the fly celebrity portraits?
Michelle, I mostly use ALL Photoflex lighting to pull off my shoots from the multi-domes to the LiteDomes and I occasionally use Profoto Ring lite or a combination. For cameras, I use Canon 1Ds 16 MP and I still shoot film with a Mamiya RZ 67II. For action I use the Pentax 67 and the Canon 1Ds, of course.

Do you use the same lighting set up in studio? Any favorite bits of equipment you want to tell us about or tricks you would like to share?
I do use the same lighting equip indoors or out like when I shot Hugh Hefner I placed both Photoflex Multidomes to right and stacked to do some split lighting.

I noticed that you also have film making in your list of credits. Tell us a little about that.
I think as photographers we all want to keep challenging ourselves and to back up for a minute before I took photos I actually made Lego Space Wars movies, you know, still action with a 8mm Bolle camera. I also started a Production Company named Dice Films along with my biz partner Earl Crowe. Together, we produced "Elvis Idol" "The search for the world's greatest Elvis Impersonator" for the Elvis-a-rama museum. We shot a pilot and one episode. We advertised in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter for Elvis impersonators. As a result, we had Elvises fly in from all over the world to try out for the show. It was hilarious. Elvis is always in fashion! In the meantime, we met with the production company, Fremantle Media and Telescope, the phone voting company that handles the voting and stats for American Idol right about the time that CRX bought American Idol and 85% interest of Graceland. Freemantle & Telescope mentioned to CRX that we were doing the Elvis Idol Show for the Elvis-a-rama museum. That didn't sit too well with CRX who now controls everything to do with American Idol, so they bought us out, we were shut down and that was the end of that.

BTW I am a big Elvis fan! So they bought Chris Davidson's Elvis-a-rama, an awesome museum with the coolest Elvis memorabilia and of course I got to photograph 98% of it, like Elvis' blue suede shoes and Elvis jewelry and guns etc,, which I shot for the museum and Christie's auction house. Tha was last year. This year we have pitched a couple shows and we are negotiations with SiTV an English for Latinos network and the Men's Channel with some photography related TV shows. So I have been really learning the business of television while keeping up with my still photography. In addition I released a DVD series Photographing Cars 1.0 that is available at Photoflex and soon Samy's. Photographing Swimsuit Models 1.0 is in production with Kendra Wilkinson: of "The Girls Next Door". It's a 'how to' series for photographers ranging from amateurs to pros and we've made it fun to watch with cool music and graphics.

Anything else you'd like to tell us about that I might not have thought of or known to ask?
I love fast food. I love the NFL, NHL and NBA but baseball is boring on TV but cool when you go... By the way, Samy's runs in the family! My dad shopped at Samy's Camera as long as I can remember. I used to go there with him all the time and then I started to buy there. Together, my dad and I have kept Sam in business. I bought almost every piece of equipment I have at Samy's and they always have everything... and a great rental department!
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