Click Here to Navigate The Photo Shoots The Printing of Volume One The Making of Volume One Movie THE PHOTO SHOOTS: Doing It With The Dogg Father It was a typical sunny California day in January when the Immortal photography team was allowed to enter the infamous Dogg Pound. As we walked past the kennels, which literally house dozens of Snoops K-9 security team, the man himself greeted us. Snoop wanted to know if we could photograph the two of them together which we were happy to oblige. The goal of the Immortal Team has always been to try and capture Snoop in his natural environment. No gimmicks, no tricks, no stylists, and no make up artists. We decided to let Snoop be Snoop without letting anything or anybody to get in the way between him and us. That was our mindset and that is what we will deliver to our readers. After hitting a few blunts of some of the strongest weed known to man, Snoop began to relax. He invited us inside his home studio and allowed us to shoot him while he oversaw production on a new G funk infused Eastsidaz track. Tray Dee and Goldie Loc were finished writing their rhymes and headed into the sound proof booth to lay it down. Snoop was hovered over the 32 track board like an eagle over his prey. I had to move fast or I was going to miss some amazing moments. I grabbed my pentax 6*7 medium Format camera with a 90mm lens and tried to stay out of the way while trying to get what we needed. I was also strapped with an old Graflex super D 4*5 camera, which gave me a great balance. I shot all the Black and white film Tri-x 400 rated at 200 and color film was Portra 400vc rated also at 200asa. I even shot some Sepia tone film(400cn rated at ÿ 200asa) The day was a tremendous success. We will always be eternally grateful to The Dogg Father and his legendary hospitality. * Photography by Matthew Dean   X to the Z and Me The excitement was contagious around the Immortal camp as we headed to Smash Box studios in LA for our appointment with X to the Z. The Immortal team had many heated debates about whether or not to allow Xzibit into Volume One but this photographer always felt that immortalizing Xzibit was our responsibility and not a matter of debate. I have followed his career since he was with the Alkoholics and although he is young by some peopleís standards, I believe his talents are not. X has an energy you can actually feel which was obvious to us all as he strutted into the studio blaring The D.O.C. from his hand held Bose radio. He was sporting his signature Khakiís and wife beater along with an eager attitude. We had many requests by clothing companies and in some cases sponsors to dress X but we all agreed that X shooting as is was the right decision. He and I were on the same creative page from jump often exchanging ideas and in some cases finishing each others sentences. X participated in everything we came up with. Hesitation wasnít on the menu even when asked to do an impromptu performance while listening to his CD ìRestlessî. I wish we could publish the entire shoot but Iím confident that the connection we made is obvious from the shots youíll see in the book. I shot X with a Pentax 6*7 with a 90mm lens. Tri-x Black and white film rated at 400asa and then pushed to 800asa. I also did some shotís with a Graflex Super D.     * Photography by Matthew Dean