The Phila Film Festival Cocktail party for Press and Sponsers

As I start out on my serious journey of learning to be a paparazzi in Philly I have learned a lot of secrets about the business. 1) This one is universal, if you know the right people, the right doors open for you 2) PR people run the world (of course I told you about them last year) 3) the competition (other photographers) are friendly and have been generous in showing me the ropes in Philly. (not that some of my Paps in NYC weren't friendly too, but it took them months and months to warm up to me) 4) Sometimes reporters think they are better than the photographers who capture the images for their stories. (more on this later) Last night the Philadelphia Film Festival held a cocktail party for the press and the sponsors of the PFF taking place April 5 - 18 (who knew the press got wined and dined, nice!!) http://www.phillyfests.com/templates/home.cfm

The event was hosted by the very congenial and charismatic executive director Thom Cardwell of the Film Society, picture here with sponsors Liz Martin and Helen of Caviar Assouline (which I LOVE as they have delicious tea sandwiches)Did you know if you looked up my yahoo profile you would see that one of my hero's is Sharon Pinkenson, Director of Philly's Film Office (I wrote that in 1998 but it wasn't until just tonight that I had the courage to even speak to her, sure my friend Greta over the years, and more recently, Phylis wanted to introduce me, but I have such an admiration for her that I could never speak to her without getting nervous and tongue tied, sorta like my Madonna complex, in the 17 months I was in NYC, I could never bring myself to seek out Madge and shoot her as I feared I would have some sorta breakdown. It's the Bette Davis/Joan Crawford/Rosalind Russell/Cher simplex, strong women who broke the mold and blazed the trail for others. OK that's enough about what's going on in my head! Here's Sharon and the director of the Philadelphia Film Festival (which I will be shooting for in the upcoming weeks), my other hero, RAY MURRAY who is also the owner of TLA Films and TLA Video Store. http://www.pvla.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=46The crew from the Philadelphia Tribune and the Philadelphia Sun. Bobbi Booker Tribune Staff Writer is on the left. These guys were a hoot to hang out with, and helpful with my journey. When I lived in NYC, some of you know my favorite celebrities were the gossip columnists like Liz, Roger Friedman and Cindy Adams, well the same goes for Philly, except I only got candids for some of these people. 2nd to the left is Mary Frangipanni Patel of the City Paper's fun and informative Political Notebook, Chad Jenkins Photographer for the City Paper, and one of my favorite columnists Michael Klein INQlings at the Phila Inquirer.I couldn't figure out who these two were, I googled their name tags nothing of note came up, but love his flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephagervasi/406399545/in/set-72157594517112817/This piece could appear in the Phillygossip.com Overheard column... AT A PARTY: Reporter: "Who do you work for?" Photographer (me): I am shooting the event photos for the Festival; Reporter: "Oh you are the hired help, not part of the press corp, I see" PGN and their friends

Who knew City Council at Large Andrew Toy was on the Board at PFF. Andrew Toy, formerly Program Officer at Philadelphia LISC is running for an At-Large seat on City Council. I've met him and spoken to him extensively, I think he would be a great Councilman: http://actionphiladelphia.wordpress.com/2007/01/18/andy-toy-a-new-face/ Not Pictured: a lot of shots that I will be submitted to the Philadelphia Metro newspaper that I love as its lite, informative to the point and entertaining http://www.metropoint.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Metro.woa. *****Finally, for the most part, I met a lot of nice people last night, hopefully some of them will pan out for gigs in the future as I continue my journey towards paparazzi and event photography paradise.