Brazilian Graduation Paparazzi Party

It’s a Friday night – Irvine Marriott. We arrive. Set up for a portrait in the Catalina room for the special people that receive the crystal awards. Ooooo. Done. Tear down set. Drag it back to car and get ready for award shoot, grabbing the portables and head to the ballroom. Aaah, the 150 Brazilians in one room. Together again. I’m here to shoot the award presentation. All one hundred and fifty of them. Cool, we get to eat. Right on. Steak + veggies. After the grub we enter the room.

There are a 150 people–with 150 cameras and video cameras, all speaking Portuguese, it’s like a frickin’ circus in here. What are they shooting? It feels like we died and went to paparazzi learning school. After we catch our breath it’s 8:00 pm. Center stage, I’m ready, the awards are aligned. What happened next was the most unexpected, CRAZY experience I could have ever imagined. I became surrounded by a gazzilion nuts, screaming and shouting for their fellows on stage receiving their awards. Holy crap. Felt like chum at a feeding frenzy. ‘El Carnival!’ NOT! Just another shoot.