Category: News

While we all deal with unprecedented and terrifyingly uncertain times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a few things that have brought some levity and much needed entertainment into our lives. One such thing is the sudden boom in Instagram Live broadcasts featuring superstars in the world of music and sports trading stories, going track-for-track in producer battles, or just going long on a DJ set for people to vibe to from their living room.

It’s helped there be a continued sense of community and also offered a welcome respite from the weight of the real world for a brief period. Sometimes, it’s even served to mend some fences and bring folks together that we wouldn’t typically expect. On Monday, we saw Chris Paul and Stephen Curry, two generational point guard talents who have not exactly been the best of friends, sit down to talk on IG Live about all manner of things, including that infamous behind-the-back crossover that Curry hit Paul with in 2015 that sent the Point God to the ground and has run on highlight reels ever since.

Paul knows there’s no way to do this conversation without bringing it up, since the comments scrolling on the bottom surely are all discussing it, and Curry doesn’t gloat or brag even after Paul admits he “got me.” Curry, unsurprisingly, deflects, noting he’s been gotten by Paul in the past and that it’s something that happens to everyone when you defend elite point guards in the NBA. It’s cool to see them talk about this and while there’s not been basketball to watch, seeing some of these greats swapping stories and getting together on a large platform to talk about the game has been a bright spot in all of this.

It’s been less than 24 hours since Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 36 to capture the greatest prize in professional wrestling history, the WWE Championship. (Well, technically, it’s been about two weeks, since Mania was pre-taped this year due to COVID-19 concerns, but you get the idea.)

Earlier today, the new champ called in live to talkSPORT’s morning radio show, at which point he joked about fighting BBC sports pundit Chris Sutton before pivoting into what kinda-sorta sounded like a real-deal challenge toward lineal world boxing champion (and part-time WWE Superstar) Tyson Fury:

“I know Tyson Fury is on the show today as well. I need to bring up Fury because he was talking trash about me. I know he’s coming up to the show, so tell him, ‘I saw what you said about me’ — you know, he doesn’t care who wins the match, he thinks I’m gonna win and he can smash me. Let him know, ‘All right, Fury, I’ve won the belt now, I’ve won the championship now, now I’m paying attention to you.’ After I beat Sutton, I’m coming for Fury.”

The Gypsy King, who already holds a count-out victory in WWE over Braun Strowman (himself the new Universal Champion), responded to McIntyre’s challenge via Instagram, writing:

@dmcintyrewwe has call me out after his @wwe Wrestlemania 36 victory, first I say congratulations and what a fantastic job. Secondly I accept his challenge, anytime any place, anywhere.

Could this be Drew’s first title defense? Will we see McIntyre-Fury at SummerSlam (or in Saudi Arabia)? We’ll all have to wait and see. In the meantime, Fury continues to train for his third fight against Deontay Wilder, originally scheduled for July but postponed until later this year due to COVID-19.

With so much conflicting information going around about the coronavirus and our leaders shilling Malaria drugs and promising the global pandemic will miraculously go away, it’s time to get serious and listen to one of the nation’s true thought leaders: Hulk Hogan.

Hogan, who currently looks a lot like a Santa with muscles lately, took to Instagram to provide some helpful insight on the COVID-19 plague that has shut down the entire sports industry and even has professional wrestling and WrestleMania on the ropes. His perspective as a rich 66-year old who lives on the beach: maybe God gave us the virus as punishment for going outside and doing things, and that science can’t heal us, Jesus can.

Word up,can you handle the truth my brother only love HH In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said, “you want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centers. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where you can’t go to church”

“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Maybe we don’t need a vaccine, Maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus.

I also really like that the picture he posted appears to credit “I AM THAT I AM” to Hulk Hogan.

As of Monday morning there are more than 330,000 cases of the coronavirus infections in the United States, so please, people, for the love of God, stop worshipping Regal Cinemas and have a spiritual awakening so The Lord won’t keep crashing the economy and ruining baseball season.

Smino hits the motherland in his latest video, visiting South Africa’s Alexandra Township and rubbing elbows with the locals in “Reverend,” which originally released almost a year ago. The St. Louis rapper has been working on his third album, which he says is “done” and being mixed by Derek Ali — aka MixedByAli, the in-house producer for Top Dawg Entertainment.

The video, directed by TopShotta, sees Smino showing off his colorful personality and unusual stylistic sensibilities by sitting in a bright green bathtub under a lime-green sun umbrella, plopped right down in one of South Africa’s notorious townships. Of course, he’s also bringing light to an area that is often overlooked and underserved by public officials — an area where the residents are mainly Black and poor. Alexandra is located in the Gauteng province, just a few miles (or kilometers) from Johannesburg, the largest city in the country. As you can probably see in the video, many folks there live in makeshift shacks and the crime rate is understandably extremely high.

Yet, by highlighting Alexandra, Smino also calls attention to the potential for greatness in humble beginnings — among the township’s most famous residents is South Africa’s first democratically-elected President, Nelson Mandela. Even in dire circumstances, there’s a lot of beauty — and Smino shows that in his new video.

Watch the “Reverend” video above.

Air travel is an absolute mess right now. Flights are empty, planes are grounded, and an inexplicably short-sighted industry is asking for government support. In the wake of the coronavirus shutdown, airlines have been forced to adapt their cancellation/ change policies drastically. More and more airlines are moving toward a Southwest-style “change whenever you want, for free”-type model.

In hopes of gaining customer loyalty and trust during the quarantine, Delta Airlines is extending their rebooking window for two years. That’s massively helpful because while it’s expected that travel will open up again within a few months, building up the disposable income to travel might take potential flyers worldwide considerably longer. Delta’s previous policy only applied to trans-Pacific flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Incheon, South Korea, and Italy and required passengers to rebook their travel before May 31st, 2020, but considering a lot has changed since the early days of the outbreak — namely that the US now leads the world in COVID-19 cases by a substantial amount — Delta has expanded that policy to include all flights.

Delta’s current policy allows passengers to rebook their tickets for up to two years since the date of purchase and will waive all change fees until May 31st, 2022 if you’ve booked your flight for any time in April or May of 2020 or have existing eCredits or canceled travel from flights in March, April, or May of this year. Tickets purchased between March 1st and May 31st, 2020 can also be changed without a change fee for up to a year from the date of purchase. Thankfully, this is an automatic process and you won’t have to jump through any formal channels or make an official cancellation (a stipulation of many previous cancellation/rebooking policies) to score your eCredits. Delta is also making information on eCredits and their new ticket expiration dates readily available online soon.

“We are actively working on a solution to display the new expiration dates in all the places you can find your eCredits on delta.com,” reads a statement on the new policy, “If your eCredit for canceled travel has not yet been processed or extended, or is temporarily displaying incorrectly… rest assured your flight value is secure through May 2022 and will be ready to redeem online when you need it.”

Some fare differences may apply for new bookings, but fortunately if your fare ends up being cheaper than your original ticket you’ll receive the eCredits back into your account for the difference. Delta’s policy page has a full breakdown of this new policy — it’ll be interesting to see if other airlines follow-suit in the weeks to come.

Last month Tom Brady, in a somewhat expected but nonetheless remarkable move, announced that he would be taking his talents to Tampa Bay. The six-time Super Bowl champion, three-time MVP and one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history struggled last season with New England, throwing for 4,057 yards, 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Eliminated in the Wild Card round by the Tennessee Titans, the Patriots failed to make it to the AFC Championship Game for the first time since 2011 and broke their three-year Super Bowl appearance streak.

On Monday the 42-year-old penned an essay for “The Players Tribune” about his future, thanking New England for his 20 years with the organization and labeling his move to Tampa Bay “a great challenge.” As is now well known, twenty years ago, Brady was a scrawny kid from the University of Michigan and wasn’t given much of a look at the 2000 NFL Combine. The Patriots drafted him in the sixth round and from there, the rest is history. “I wouldn’t change anything about it,” the former cornerstone of the New England franchise wrote.

Following the 2019-20 season, it seemed that the 14-time Pro Bowler wanted a long-term commitment from the Patriots — something the team was not willing to provide him. Brady now finds himself with many doubters — he will turn 43 in August and currently holds the title of oldest quarterback in the league. But Brady seems to know that his football career won’t last forever, and that knowledge only serves to fuel his motivation going forward.

“Now I want to see what more I can do,” the quarterback wrote. “I want to see how great I can be. I want to hear other people say, ‘Go, man. Now that’s what we’ve been missing. That’s what we need! That’s what we’ve been looking for!’”

Brady also wrote about how excited he is to “embrace fully a team that is confident in what I do — and what I bring — and is willing to go on this ride with me.” As a player with 20 years of experience playing for one of the most successful franchises in NFL history, Brady also hopes to bring his veteran leadership and expertise to the Buccaneers locker room.

But most of all, Brady believes he still has a chip on his shoulder, and that he still has something to prove.

“If I don’t go for it, I’ll never know what I could have accomplished,” the star player wrote. “Wanting to do something is different from actually doing it. If I stood at the bottom of a mountain, and told myself I could scale the highest peak, but then didn’t do anything about it, what’s the point of that?”

Restaurants across the country have shuttered or are struggling financially, due to the coronavirus pandemic, including the iconic Twin Peaks diner. Over the weekend, actor Kyle MacLachlan, who played Agent Cooper on the original ABC series and Cooper/Dougie Jones on the Showtime revival, shared a GoFundMe for the “Twede’s Cafe Employee Relief Fund.” Twede’s Cafe is the real-life Double R Diner, located in North Bend, Washington, and organizers are hoping to “keep this iconic diner alive and directly support the staff who are being severely impacted by this global crisis”:

All over the world, individuals and businesses are being hit hard by the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic. Twede’s Cafe is located within King County, Washington, one of the hardest hit counties in the US. We are limited to take-out only and have had to greatly reduce our employees’ hours. We are doing our best to keep our staff on the clock, but we are unable to support everyone financially with our reduced sales and as new business owners. We are hoping to raise money that will go directly towards paying our employees and helping them through this tough time. (Via)

If you have the means, spare a few bucks for the employees at this damn fine “landmark for #TwinPeaks fans,” as Agent Cooper put it. In other Twin Peaks news, MacLachlan is hosting a live-tweet of the show’s pilot on Wednesday, April 8, at 11:30 PST, followed by “an Instagram Live starting at 1:20pm PST w/ a mystery guest.” He teased that it’s Mädchen Amick (Shelly Johnson), but here’s hoping for a Wally Brando cameo, too.

(Via GoFundMe)

f nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Better Call Saul (AMC, 9:00 p.m.) — Mike goes to extremes to mitigate the destruction caused after he pissed off the cartel, and a simple task pushes Jimmy to his breaking point.

The Neighborhood (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) — Calvin, Dave, and Gemma encourage (read: peer pressure) Tina into trying skydiving while Marty helps Grover with his school science project.

Roswell, New Mexico (CW, 9:00 p.m.) — Isobel tries to use her powers for good as Liz enlists Kyle’s help after her mission to save Max hits another dead end.

The Plot Against America (HBO, 9:00 p.m.) — A death in the neighborhood shakes Phillip to his core while Evelyn attends a state dinner with Mrs. Lindbergh and the foreign minister for Nazi Germany, where she’s convinced to make Sandy the face of the youth assimilation program.

Breeders (FX, 10:00 p.m.) — Luke is sent home with the class bear with an assignment to take him on an adventure but Paul can’t even get the family to make a trip to the park.

Manifest (NBC, 10:00 p.m.) — With the clock running out, Saanvi and Vance go to the Major, who may be the only person capable of saving Zeke from his Death Date.

Dispatches From Elsewhere (AMC, 10:00 p.m.) — Janice receives an unexpected clue while Peter and Simone confront their growing feelings for each other.

Look, we know you might be getting bored with the quarantine. We’re past the two-week mark and folks have cleaned their cupboards and indulged in all the Zoom happy hours they can handle. There’s a distinct possibility that you’ve got nothing to do with your leisure time today. (Assuming you are safe and food secure and have a few minutes to spare between dreading the unknown, refreshing Google news to a compulsive degree, and checking Twitter like a masochist.) The way we see it, you can spend those leftover minutes in one of two ways. You can lay on your bed digging deeper into a pit of despair thanks to the increasingly dire coronavirus news, or you could get busy living (while socially distanced).

That might mean leveling up your bread game. Or figuring out what dalgona coffee is all about. It might be improving your understanding of whiskey. Or taking your self-care more seriously. It could also mean finding new, meaningful ways to express yourself at a time when you have all kinds of bottled up emotions and feelings. Because if you’ve got the energy for it, there’s no better time to make art.

Not an artist you say? Check that noise. Remember those people you used to roll your eyes at, who would say things like “It’s art” about any little thing they made? Yeah, well, those kids were right. Anyone can do it. And anyone should. So pick up that camera that you dropped a lot of money on and never used (or your phone!) and start documenting this unprecedented time in our lives. Because one thing in all this is for sure: We’re living through a fascinating moment in history. One we’ll be asked about until we’re old. How do you want to answer those young brats researching the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 for a school paper? By griping about how your neck got sore while doing a full Breaking Bad rewatch? Or by cracking open that digital photo album (this is a future thing) and showing them how you kept your cool in the face of one of the scariest global moments in modern history?

We vote the latter (there’ll still be time for a few episodes of Walt and Jesse, don’t worry.) So to help you elevate your visual storytelling game, we chatted with three photographers — Charmi Pena, Dixie Dixon, and Thomas Bol — and picked their brains for some expert tips on how to use your home set-up to take better photos. Dive into their tips, then grab some everyday household items, your camera, and some good ‘ol boredom-fueled inspiration and get to creating!

What’s the easiest type of photography to practice at home?

Charmi: Still life. I literally just pulled out all the fruit that I purchased before we entered quarantine so that I could photograph it. It’s especially easy if you’re just getting started. Otherwise, I would say documentary photography would probably be the next easiest thing, because then you could just shoot what’s happening in your house.

Thomas: I think for me, or at least what’s coming to mind right now, would be macro photography. Macro implies that you can get close to your subject, but it doesn’t need to be people. You can literally do things inside the house, outside the house. Plants. I guess the only caveat is that to get close you need a little bit more gear. If you don’t have those lenses, try portraits or food photography or something along those lines.

Dixie: Kids and pets are obviously some of the best subjects; and you can also utilize objects like flowers, water droplets, cookies. Grabbing flowers from your garden to make a cool headpiece for a cool self-portrait or something would be really fun. If you don’t have a kid or a pet, coffee in the morning always photographs really nicely with the window light.

What everyday household items might be converted to some good gear?

Charmi: I used my laundry basket earlier today as my tripod. Just because I didn’t want to go out into the garage to get everything. So I think literally any surface is a tripod in your house. I used a bungee cord from my garage to hang my camera from a pillar in my house at one point. So, yeah. Yeah, bungee cord, laundry basket, table. Maybe put a pillow under something if you’re bungee cording it. Be inventive but don’t break your gear.

Thomas: I went into my garage and I found — I climb and fly fish and do all these outdoor activities– I found all these amazing small detailed things related to that — flies, leaders, hooks, carabiners, things like that. It started as a macro session and quickly evolved into a light painting session in a dark garage with a small penlight.

Dixie: If you take a frame, like a picture frame, and then take the back out of it, you can actually shoot through the glass of a picture frame and you can put Vaseline on the frame to create some really cool artsy portraits. Shooting through wine glasses looks really cool for some portraits. Utilizing the blinds of a window for interesting shadows. If you grab an old CD, I mean not many people have CDs anymore, but if you find an old CD you can actually make rainbow colors if you reflect the sun with it on your object or your portrait. And then also using old Christmas lights in the background of a portrait creates really beautiful bokeh.

What are some beginner lighting tips?

Charmi: I think if you don’t have a lot of light, it’s actually okay to embrace shadows and just highlighting what’s important in an image. For example, it’s the most horrible, rainy day today and so that’s why I took out the fruit — I just wanted something that I could photograph because I felt like I hadn’t been doing anything lately. And there’s not a ton of light coming in and I put all the fruit by the window and I’m just really accepting what’s coming through as window light, as little as I have. The key here is to understand shutter speed on your camera. And so if I was new, I would say put my camera in manual and then just play with your shutter speed in every image and that exercise will show you what you need to do to get the photo that you want.

Thomas: Go into your garage or in your house and make it dark. Wherever that room is, put your camera on a tripod and get the smallest flashlight that you own, and if you don’t own a small flashlight, then put a little tape over the front of the light to make it a smaller beam. Set your exposure for 30 seconds, ISO around 1000 and 5.6 and put, whether it’s forks and tableware, cutlery, anything like that, or maybe you have some hobby that involves some other things that I can’t even think of. Then just try a shot where you put all that stuff on the kitchen table or out on the garage bench, hit it with the flashlight from a perpendicular side angle and see what the picture looks like.

The beauty, of course, with digital is you get instant feedback on the LCD. The first ones are probably not going to look great and that’s what we all do when we’re learning to light with a flashlight. The cool part about all this is, we’re not talking speed lights or bigger strobes or anything. Almost everybody has a flashlight and now they got to have a tripod, but most photographers will have a tripod and then your camera, and that’s all you need. Then you just got to experiment a lot to try to figure out what looks good.

Dixie: One of my favorite kinds of light is just natural window light. If I was going to create some portraits inside, it’s always nice to find windows that face the north or south because it provides a really consistent kind of lighting throughout the day. It’s just really soft and it’s really diffused.

But if you want to create more dramatic kind of portraits, you might use east or west-facing windows because the light’s going to stream through and create really harsh shadows to create that really dramatic type of lighting. Where you position your subject has a huge impact on what the picture will look like. For instance, if you place your subject facing the window and you have your back towards the window, shooting into your subject, that’s going to create a really soft and beautiful portrait. So that’s a really great way to light women. We actually use this type of lighting a lot in fashion shoots and stuff like that because it just has a really soft look.

Then if you position your subject with the window to the side of them, that’s going to bring out all the texture in your subject. So, that’s really better for males because they look cool all rugged and more textured. Then you can also add a reflector on the side, say you are shooting a woman, to kind of bounce some of that light back into your subject. Then also you can create some really nice silhouettes if you stand… or you placed your subject against the window and then you’re shooting into the window you create some cool silhouette shapes.

Basically, the bigger your light source, the softer it’s going to be. So one of the greatest rooms in your house is to actually utilize your garage. Basically, the garage is like a big light source. If you open the garage door and then you place your subject just inside and you stand outside shooting in, you can create some really amazing fashion portraits and stuff like that.

If you want to get super moody, like at night time, you can utilize candles. Candles are a really cool light source. You could also utilize flashlights, instead of having them shining right on the subject, I like to bounce it on a white piece of paper or white cardboard and then back into my subjects cause it creates a softer type of look. And then with lampshades, you can actually take the lampshade off the layout and utilize the bare bulb for a very nice portrait; just hold it slightly above your subject, get as close to your subject as you can without it being in the frame. So, those are kind of some of the basic lighting you can utilize at home.

What are some in-camera tips or tricks that people can use to take more interesting photos or to experiment? Obviously, this is going to be different depending on what camera a person is using, but I’m talking basics.

Charmi: If we’re just trying to make artsy, fun images while we’re learning, I think using household items as the foreground is really fun. Like using a glass from your kitchen and shooting through it or shooting through the edge of it or using it to make a reflection. You can use your iPhone to make a reflection. I do that all the time. Just use your household items and use them as foreground and background and just play with the different effects that different materials will give you. A copper pot is going to give you a very different effect than a clear glass. A lit candle is going to be something else that if you shoot through, you’re going to see something that you didn’t see when you were just looking at it, the camera sees some really cool stuff.

Thomas: Some photographers work in raw, some work in JPEG. What I would tell folks is experiment with different white balance settings and experiment with different depths of field, which is going to be controlled by the aperture setting.

You could literally take one object or say you’re looking at a flower in the front yard or a tree or whatever and from the same position, shoot the same subject and go through every aperture setting your lens offers and look at the difference on the computer with the background and just the overall mood and feeling that’s created simply by changing the depth of field and the background. I think that’s a very fundamental thing that everyone with a camera can try. A lot of people really don’t ever have the time to do an experiment like that, and it’s so important when you’re in the field.

Dixie: Gear wise, the Nikon Z50 is my favorite camera right now for a beginner. That’s what I’ve been telling everyone. Basically you can do all these different settings in-camera. I love creating in-camera black and white, but you can just go to picture control and click “monochrome” and create some really beautiful black and white pictures in-camera and then just send it to your phone using the SnapBridge. When I’m shooting, I always like to shoot raw because then that gives you a lot more leeway in the editing.

If you’re not a master at settings yet, a great way to set your camera is to shoot aperture priority. Basically, set the aperture to the widest possible that your lens has. So, I would set it to F2.8 and then that’s going to create that beautiful look where the eyes are really a tad sharp, and then the rest of the photo just falls out of focus really nicely. I love aperture priority because it basically just sets everything for you and you choose the aperture.

Another fun thing to play with is double exposure in-camera. With the Nikon Z series cameras — like the one I shouted out above — you shoot a picture and you can click “double exposure,” multiple exposures, and it’ll show the image that’s laid on top of the other image. That’s really fun to play with for portraits to create some really creative effects in-camera.

What’s a good at-home substitute for a seamless or a reflector?

Charmi: A blank wall is good for a seamless. For a reflector, I would say poster board or even tape some white pieces of paper together and then your good. You have some printer paper, you tape it together. Try to use matte tape if you can instead of shiny tape so that you’re not completely skewing the reflection, but I would definitely say putting pieces of white paper together would do the trick.

Thomas: I got the best one. It’s simple. Get out tinfoil and put it around an 8.5 x 11 magazine, and you now have a small little silver reflector that works terrific for flowers, pet portraits, anything like that. It works like a charm. When I first started shooting, oh so many years ago, that’s how I first started. I had all this old cardboard, so I just wrapped it in tinfoil, taped it up, and then I had these great silver reflectors.

Dixie: Something that really makes a great reflector is insulation board. But you can use that as a nice reflector. We actually use those on set quite often, the insulation boards, and it’s a really nice reflector for portraits and things like that.

What ISO should we be aiming for with indoor photography?

Charmi: Modern cameras are so amazing that even when I’m shooting professionally, I would say that I try to stay under 2,500. But I will tell you, shooting in my house right now and photographing my kids do their homework and my husband do his job and just like I said, apples and bananas, I am letting that ISO range kind of do what it wants to do. So under 2,500 if you really care about the grain, but I’m kind of letting the grain… I think we’re in the kind of situation right now where letting the grain be what it is, is also speaking to the mood that we maybe are in. So I think it’s okay to just embrace the range that your camera offers you.

Thomas: it’ll certainly depend if you have good window light or not. But indoors, you’re probably already starting at 800, and if it’s just a room lit by incandescent lights and overhead lights, they’re probably closer to 1600 on the ISO. The beauty of it is, all the cameras these days, the new cameras, they do so well with ISO performance that 1600 is not the end of the world. If there’s no window light in their room, then they’re probably going to need that just as a starting point.

Dixie: I feel like it used to be you wanted to stay, back in the day, stay at like 200 or 400, but now you can go pretty high. I mean, for indoor type of photography you could go to 800 or 1000 ISO and still be okay, and it’s going to look super crisp. It’s really amazing just how little light you need to make amazing portraits these days.

Do you have any portrait taking tips?

Charmi: My big one when we’re taking portraits is I’m not personally a fan of mixed light. That is very up to everybody’s taste. But personally I think that if I was new and learning to take portraits, the first thing I would do before I would mix light is just turn off anything that doesn’t match so that you’re only dealing with one source of light. Start with one source of light and then you can add other sources of light later. But if you’re just getting started with a portrait, I would stick with one source of light, see how you master that and then you can add more after.

Thomas: I think to really get the shot that is really evocative and really shows the connection between photographer and portrait person, even if that person — the model… I hesitate to say that — it’s going to be a friend or a family or a kid or something like that if we’re not bringing in people from the outside. I think the trick is, before you even bring the camera up, you engage. Your son or girlfriend or whatever it may be, they may hate having their photo taken. So, the end goal is to make a really evocative shot. My mode of operation, whether it’s somebody on the street or a friend or a paid model, is when I first start, the images are never that great.

It’s like you just are trying to get into that zone where you’re at that level where they’re comfortable with you, you’re comfortable with them, and the same applies to very familiar people. So, I just talk to folks and let them see the picture, show them the LCD, just kind of try to really relax the situation out. I think then, even in available light or just being lit by an incandescent bulb, you can find a great photograph of a family member that is going to probably shock just how good it can get. I think we’re all relearning a few things here with all this time on our hands going, “Wow, I’ve done that in the past, but this looks really good. Look what I can do at home.”

Dixie: Composition is really fun to play with, and positioning your subject to the right or left-hand side of the frame, leaving negative space; practicing with more centered type of portraits. I like to get to a higher angle and then shoot slightly down on my subject, especially for beauty headshots, because whatever is closest to your camera is going to appear larger. So when we shoot from that higher angle, the eyes are closer to the camera. And so it really brings out the eyes of whoever you’re shooting, which is really beautiful.

Lighting is so huge; just having that beautiful window light. Natural light is probably the most beautiful kind of lighting you can use on people. If you’re shooting outside, you don’t really want to shoot portrait during high noon because you’ll get those ugly raccoon shadows underneath their eyes.

Also, play with different expressions. Like, when I photograph, I tend to shoot through moments, so I’ll shoot a lot more images than I need just to get that supernatural type of look where they look like they’re connecting with the camera. If their eyes are super sensitive to the sun, you might have them close their eyes and then kind of look up towards the sunlight or the window or whatever it is and then have them open it on three and that’s going to make their eyes look super bright in the frame and be super open and not squinty.

… Any self-portrait tips?

Charmi: I’m letting my mood guide me. If I’m having a really good day, then I’m letting myself set up a happier, brighter photo. And if I’m having a grumpy day, I’m accepting that the photo may convey a little bit of mood and darkness and that’s okay. I think with self-portraits you have the opportunity to get as creative as you want to get and it doesn’t always have to be of your face. It could be of your feet, of your fingers, of yourself hiding under your blanket in bed. It doesn’t matter.

So let your mood guide you. And then circling back on a technical front, just use what you have for settling your camera. If you don’t have a tripod, that’s okay. Set the timer on your camera and put in on your kitchen island or put it on your couch. Do whatever you have to do. You don’t need all that stuff right now.

Thomas: That is not my expertise! I’ll throw this out. So, I was a journalism major about a million years ago, and one of the projects I remember doing in journalism school and I still bring this up when we do portrait stuff is, do an implied portrait. In this case, it’s going to be an implied selfie. And so what that means is, the selfie can’t be actually your face, the camera can’t be pointed at you, but it can be pointed at a mirror that reflects you, or it could be your silhouette created by a lamp and the shadow that you project on a wall. Or in its most basic form, maybe it’s things that you use every day like if you’re an older person, you have a cane or maybe your glasses or even your cell phone. These are the things that are really my identity, but it’s not actually me. I like the idea of the implied portrait and seeing on a creative level where that goes with folks.

Dixie: Definitely the high angle is key with selfies. And then utilizing the self-timer is definitely a big part of that. If you don’t have a tripod, you can use a table or a bench or something like that to place your camera on. But it’s a lot of trial and error with selfies. That higher angle; it’s always more flattering. You don’t want to shoot from a lower angle because it’s going to bring out the chin if you have any sort of double chin. I love utilizing props. I’m big into hats and glasses and things like accessories and earrings. Those are really going to come to life when you’re shooting self-portraits and things like that.

Why should we all be documenting this time in history — or, how are you choosing to document this time?

Charmi: I think everyone should be documenting this time. I think that this is literally the most unprecedented, never happened before in our lifetime thing. I lived through 9/11, from the other side of New York, the Hudson River and we’ve had people live through tornadoes and we kind of think, “Oh my God, this is the worst it could get,” or, “This is the wildest it could get.” Nobody ever saw this coming and I think that for future generations it’ll be really interesting for everyone to see how lots of different people spent this time and how they viewed this time. Photography really isn’t just about what you’re photographing, it’s a lot of what feelings are coming through in the image and the story that you’re telling. I think telling our stories of this time is going to be really important.

I am trying to force myself to photograph things even when I’m in a mood because it’s not easy to be cooped up, but I actually think it’s a really good way to process your feelings. So on a lot of different fronts, I think it’s really important that we record this history.

Thomas: I know this maybe isn’t as fair to the folks that are in an apartment, but we live in suburbia Colorado and we have a lot of flowers coming up through the dirt right now. It’s full-on spring out here. We shoot macro and flowers and that kind of thing by default on assignments and workshops, but I’ve kind of made that my mission. It’s like, okay, I can’t really leave my yard but look at all these flowers coming up.

Dixie: I think that in life in general, when we go through things that are tough and life gets really real, people gravitate towards art because it’s a nice outlet. It’s an escape from what’s going on in reality. This is a perfect time to turn off your television, turn off the news, get out and shoot because that’s going to really be good for your soul, and just getting those creative juices flowing to get away from what’s going on.

My folks have two Frenchies so I’m going to be probably up shooting them today because it’s a really nice sunny, sunny day today, just to get out and get off the computer, get off the screens, and really just take in that moment. I think it’s super important.

In the midst of his Saturday night Verzuz battle with Lil Jon, T-Pain played the 2008 favorite “Blame It” with Jamie Foxx. Lil Jon cheekily replied, “Cute… you made an alcohol song” before noting, “I made the biggest alcohol song of all time.” T-Pain grunted in dread as Instagram live stream attendees like Charlemagne Tha God, Ebro, and 6lack commented, “Shots!” in unison.

Lil Jon fed the anticipation by playing his 2009 “Shots” banger with LMFAO, and the two music icons actually toasted their cameras and took a shot “together.” Ciara spoke for all 250K stream viewers by commenting, “This is too good.” Even if Americans had the option to go out, Lil Jon and T-Pain’s banger back and forth would have been the best way to spend a Saturday night.

Most of the world is quarantined as a measure to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and beat battles have been one of the best breaks from reality. While fear and anxiety are rampant, these two-to-three-hour Instagram streams have delivered music fans away from their doldrums and into pleasant memories of cookouts and parties that we’re all longing to get back to.

But the battles aren’t just entertainment. They’ve been a springboard for a collective appreciation of bygone eras and cultural moments. They’ve also inspired intense debate: what means more for a producer, having the hits or having the streets? Does musical versatility mean more than mastering one style? These are questions that most people have had nothing better to do but debate, and we have Timbaland and Swizz Beatz to thank for it.

There have been other hip-hop highlights of this surreal moment in human history. DJ D Nice’s live-streamed “Club Quarantine” that had a who’s who of pop culture vibing with his 11-hour set. Tory Lanez’ Quarantine Radio has women twerking, DMX growling, and Drake pulling up to a record 315K stream viewers.

But the beat battles, which have all been broadcast on Instagram Live, have been the biggest draw. The sessions started with Timbaland and Swizz Beats, who rematched their 2018 beat clash for hundreds of thousands of people on March 24th. Nationwide “social distancing” policies, which encourage people to stay in the house, gave their stream perhaps the livest chat in Instagram history to that point.

Other artists and fellow producers were giving out fire emojis as the two producers culled their vast catalogs. Since their battle, the Verzuz series has become such prime viewing that non-hip-hop accounts like @Sportscenter, @NBA, @Sports Illustrated, @Netflix (drunk), and @UFC have been seen in the chats. There’s nowhere to go outside, so Instagram live is the place to be, giving each battle a party atmosphere.

After the success of their battle, Swizz and Timbaland branded the clashes as the Verzuz series, an impromptu brand to stamp the battles of their choosing. Though most of the battles have been between producers, there were two songwriters battles between Johnta Austin and Ne-Yo, as well as Sean Garrett vs. The-Dream. The T-Pain vs. Lil Jon battle was a bit of a hybrid, as T-Pain played songs he featured on as well as records he produced.

The battles, aside from their entertainment value, have served as various producers’ refresher — and introduction — courses on their legacy. Consider this sequence: T-Pain transitioned from Tory Lanez “Jerry Sprunger” into his “I’m Sprung” hit (which Tory sampled), then Lil Jon followed up by playing Saweetie’s My Type” and transitioning into Petey Pablo “Freek-A-Leek,” which Saweetie sampled. Scott Storch got to show off his mastery of melody for a generation of fans who were in elementary school when he was one of music’s biggest hitmakers. Swizz Beatz and Timbaland both showed off their longevity by trading Jay-Z hits from the ‘90s and 2010s. Lil Jon dropped a gem Saturday night, telling T-Pain and viewers that the famous bed-creaking sound from Lil Scrappy and Trillville “Some Cut” track actually came from him rocking in a chair.

The Verzuz series is probably the most fun way for kids to learn about the history of the genre. There’s no shaming or guilting involved, just good vibes. The nostalgia will reach the next level when Babyface takes on Teddy Riley in the next Verzuz matchup. The battle was supposed to take place last Sunday, but Swizz noted on Instagram that, “we’re taking the quality to the next levels for these 2 Kings,” promising “you will understand later trust me!”

Could the Verzuz series be headed to TV? Could Timbaland and Swizz use their influence to coax hitmaking heavyweights like Jay-Z, Diddy, Drake or Lil Wayne to jump into the fray? Will Kanye pause his secular music ban to fulfill Timbaland’s dream matchup and take on Pharrell and the Neptunes? We all have more than enough time to wait out the answers to these questions, and we’ll have a lot of fun watching along the way.