I was thinking about watching that episode of Chuck I had on DVR when I realized that I should probably continue to get my money's worth out of the rentals. I had wanted to see what the difference was between the reflectors and the diffusers included with the umbrellas, but decided instead to use my softbox and ring light. Why catalog lighting I don't own? The white board (and positioning of the slippers) is my catalog for future reference...
I tend to light everything high and directly in front. But on this day, I quickly learned to shoot with back light. It made things completely different from any shoot I've done before.
The sunlight in the picture on the left is was started all the back lighting. Then I wanted to exaggerate what was happening in the doorway. Then I needed to recreate that in the laundry room (before we got kicked out). I don't think I'll ever go back...
I absolutely love craigslist (except when they delete my ads for TFCD gigs almost as soon as I post them). You can find just about anything there. I've found three fantastic hair stylists, an amazing wardrobe stylist, and some pretty cool gigs. I thought the gig for today would be just as cool. So did two other photographers and a videographer, apparently...
My understanding was that I would have 30 minutes to shoot the band leader with four girls in devil/angel theme. Whatever I wanted to do creatively was up to me. When I got there, the manager who had contacted me told me to talk to the lead singer. He was too busy. And because I had worn a white tank top, I blended in with the dozens of other girls there that night wearing white. Four models and one photographer had obviously turned into, "Tell everyone yes just in case someone doesn't show."
Before I left the house, I decided to take my ring flash with me. Unfortunately, I completely forgot that the power cord was not in the case. I packed an extension cord but no power cord... Luckily, I still had three things no other photographer there had: LV and two fast lenses.
After so many freelance gigs that require so little art direction, LV the director was unleashed on that rehearsal space. He told the lead singer to stand more at profile to my camera. The lead singer did. He told the lead singer how to pose with his back up singers, and they did it. I said I wanted all the girls on the couch. LV put them all on the couch. (This is the lighting test with the manager and the craigslist "models.") He told other photographers to get out of my way. He told the band how to stand for their group photo. They did everything he said. At one point, two other guys tried to get in there and direct the models on how to stand. LV ended up fixing the arrangement for them.
I had come into the event thinking that I would be popping and dragging, but the ceilings were so low and the room wasn't dark enough. I just turned the flash off for most of the shoot. This was turning out to be nothing like I had thought I was getting into.
The lead singer was really crazy about LV, though, so hopefully something good will come of all the time I spent on photographing them. I was there for much longer than the 30 minutes I'd been told and ended up with no credits on MySpace. I have to add that to my to-do list...
This is the lovely clean white background I was able to produce with two lights on the back blocked by foam core. (The model specifically requested this look for the re-shoot of her January session.) Next time I'll have to be better about keeping the model in a fixed position; it's a lot harder to tell on the preview when her light wasn't exposing her properly.
With the laptop still being fussy about its connection to the camera (I specifically bought Aperture so I could shoot tethered...), we had plenty of time to talk about the Secret and how it's worked for her.
I looked around for a new modeling agency that had men who were looking to test. Lucky for me, it only took one phone call. Unlucky for me, my guy had a short amount of time to shoot. I think we squeezed in everything we needed and got what we wanted. A little too much in too little time, but, well, that's why it's a test.
Three locations in Manhattan. With a truckload of rental equipment. And no assistant. Oh, and it's pouring rain.
LV went with me to go get the rental car. (Why pay to keep it over night if I don't have to?) The bus ride was quick. We found the lot much more easily this time. The car still reeked of smoke, but I didn't see the need to call and complain about this. Tuesday, Zip would let me know that smoking is not allowed in their vehicles.
Two pairs of shoes? Maybe just extra socks? Should I bring extra pants? Extra umbrellas? These were my last minute thoughts. I took my coffee, even though I knew I wouldn't drink it (when was I going to have time to go to the bathroom in the next 18 hours?), hopped in the car, and hoped I had the good sense to find lower Manhattan in a timely fashion.
Unlike the previous night's test drive, I actually made it out of Brooklyn. Then I actually knew where I was. (There was a time where names like Bowery and Christopher Street scared me.) Then I actually found parking. It was all so wonderful. Then I got to the salon and had to be engaging. It was too early in the day for that.
The plan was for me to go to the salon, get some pictures, leave early to go set up at the church. But weddings don't go according to plan. Things started very slowly at the salon. Had I left after an hour or two, I would have missed the meatier part of the story. And the bride would have been stranded. In fact, I deleted all the pictures from the first hour I was there. (I had to conserve disk space.) Above, she painted her sister's toe nails with a bottle purchased at the corner drugstore so that her sister didn't run off to get a pedicure.
When I went to retrieve the car, the rain wasn't so bad. By the time we pulled into a parking spot, though, it was a torrential downpour. Those extra shoes, socks, and pants would have been great... The bride tried to keep an umbrella over my head as I pulled more and more bags from the trunk. I think it took three trips to get all of our bags from the car. (I wasn't the only one who could use an assistant.) While we were waiting on the stairs to the chapel's balcony, I took a quick picture of my bags (Slingshot on my lap; Lambertson with the backups, an external hard drive, and assorted goodies; the bag for tripods, stands and umbrellas on top of the beast of a case for the portable kit; my hand-truck; my umbrella) to see how loudly the shutter would echo. Pretty darn loudly...
When the bride and I arrived at the meeting house (it was a Quaker ceremony), the women's group that had been double-booked for the chapel was still in session. Rather than continue to hide on the stairs, we joined the rest of the party that was corralled in the main office. The groom's mother was trying to arrange the flowers and trim away the wilt. She didn't care to be photographed, so I thought this was a good quick solution to telling the story.
I don't want to show too many faces here, so this is really the last picture that lends itself to this blog. The association for wedding photojournalists had an article that emphasized being a sniper instead of spraying the scene in the hopes to get a hit. I tried to keep that approach as these were two families that didn't seem accustomed to having someone shooting without saying, "Look at me." Above is one of the few pictures I took of all the time spent figuring out where to place the flowers. I think it pretty much sums it up... Blurred, but you get the idea.
How did the rest of the day go from there? I believe I got the shots the couple wanted. The couple was supposed to download my flash cards that night, but there was no firewire port on the laptop and the built-in card reader was not for flash cards. So, I don't know for sure yet how they feel about what I did get. I do know that I didn't use a flash or make the floorboards creak a lot or even take too many pictures during the ceremony. (The ceremony is a long silent reflection interrupted only for statements made by witnesses.)
I also know I was given very little time to set up group shots, but I did it. Between the double-booking at the meeting house, the absence of the bride's family, and my lack of motivation to pop up a studio in the middle of the makeshift altar they were still arranging, I felt like I had maybe 15 minutes to shoot from set up to strike. Plenty of time for some bozo with a point-and-shoot to kill the first battery on my lighting kit, a few unnecessary comments about the condition of my rental equipment, and the groom to imply this is all he could get for $5.
Yeah, looking in Bridge, I took my first group test shot at 5:42 p.m. I took my last group shot at 6:04 p.m. I took a picture at 6:11 p.m. of guests sitting in the pews we had just used, which means my equipment was down, packed up, hidden away, and I had my camera out again before 6:11 p.m.
I think the ceremony was supposed to start at 5 p.m.
I digress. Group shots in 30 minutes or less. Yay.
People ringing bells and signing the certificate? Check and check.
By the time the place emptied out and I had my equipment loaded up and ready to roll back to the car, the rain had stopped. My pain had not. There was a $95 ticket waiting for me.
Apparently only doctors are allowed to park there. Ever. I took lots of pictures of the lack of signs. See what a beautiful job I did parallel parking on my first attempt? Yes, there was a car in front of mine when I pulled into the spot as well as a truck behind. The truck's windshield was sporting a ticket, too, that night.
Some magical sense of duty and belief that this is all worth it compelled me to find my way uptown for the reception. I have no idea how I'm going to convince the hotel's manager to let me turn her mezzanine into a photo studio, no idea where I will charge my batteries, no idea when my shoes will dry...
I arrived too late to catch pictures of the receiving line (a helper monkey (not an assistant--see earlier posts) to pack up my equipment and get it in the car before everyone left the chapel would have been awesome), but I did arrive in time to catch the DJ's introduction of the family (which hadn't really been a priority for the couple). And I got the table toasts (which was a priority). And they found a place for me to charge my batteries (though it was rather unnecessary seeing as we didn't set up a photo station). And I got eat (which wasn't really my priority--I wanted food picturs...). Then the dance floor was heavily and enthusiastically used by guests, which saved me from feeling bad about only wanting to take documentary photos.
I think I got home at 2 a.m. The happiest part of the whole day was how well I drove in the City. The last time I drove a car at all was Labor Day weekend. I don't drive in cities and I'm certainly not the kind of person who shoots at three locations in one day. Although, I guess I am now.
I agreed to shoot a wedding. I didn't think preparing to shoot one would be so intensive, but I spent lots of time looking at wedding photography sites and deciding just what to rent. (The sites didn't help me decide what to rent. It was just an on-going battle in my head while I looked at too many wedding pictures.) I ended up renting the following: a car, a Canon 40D, an extra battery for said 40D, a fast telephoto lens, a portable light kit, two strobe heads, two umbrellas. I think that was everything. I decided not to get a laptop, not to clean my camera again, not to get insurance (though, I still need to do that)... There were two ways to approach the wedding. After I ordered my rentals, I wasn't sure I had gone the right route--the more portrait-oriented route.
The couple didn't want the new trend of photojournalism. They didn't fancy themselves the center of new reality show. They wanted group photos. Lots of them. Okay... Good thing I did that stint at Tavern on the Green and rented lights. Posed shots should be better for my portfolio than documentary photos (even if they would wreak havoc on my budget and make travel impossible).
Making sure I'd be able to hold the camera steady was a whole 'nother story. I tried shooting tiny objects across the room in almost complete darkness. At this point, I was still exhausted from carrying the rentals home on the subway. (Imagine a box as wide as a doorway, as high as your knee, as heavy as a small child. Now put two more bags on top of that and one on your back.) I couldn't begin to imagine how tired I was going to be at the reception when I would really need to be holding the camera steady in the dark.
Now sure that the pictures would have motion blur but would also be large, relatively noise-free, and properly exposed, I decided to test out the lights. Above is what happened when I turned on the lights and used my point-and-shoot's flash. Yeah. The point-and-shoot tripped the strobe lights.
[insert moment to ponder repercussions]
This was my biggest regret in going down the rental path that I did. I knew before I picked them up that point-and-shoots would trip the lights (I'd seen it happen at other shoots) and I should have just taken my own light kit instead (it's from long before the time of wireless technology).
[insert moment of self-loathing for bad decision]
It seems that it would make sense to ask the rental house how to turn off the radio signal, but things that make sense rarely work out when I ask sales people for help. So, I didn't ask. Also, as soon as he had my signature, the guy vanished. Most likely, he would have opened the gigantic case, looked at the tiny-but-incredibly-heavy pack, and said, "Turn the radio receiver off." I did. The point-and-shoot kept on tripping the lights. Go wireless technology!
My little Elph didn't trip the lights here because I turned the flash off. This would be a more effective demonstration of the difference if I hadn't taken a picture of my big camera. But, it does remind me that I tried plugging my 1Ds into the kit and turning the radio dial to "off." The strobes were still slaves to the point-and-shoot.
Satisfied that I had at least put the "no one else is allowed to shoot when the Photographer is shooting" clause in my contract, I didn't have time to be angry at the rentals making me look retarded rather than slick. It was time to go test out the car.
I met LV at the Atlantic-Pacific station, and we went to go find the Zip lot together. I didn't have my cell phone with me, so I couldn't report immediately that the car smelled like smoke and was dirty. I had to do that from a pay phone later.
After a day of carrying my heavy rentals, finding out my low-light images wouldn't be the sharpest, getting lost with a copilot in the car, learning the point-and-shoots would kill my portable kit's batteries and possibly ruin the posed shots, I pulled the blankets over my head and prayed someone would call off the wedding.
A while back, I answered an ad to be an unpaid assistant when needed for a fashion photographer. I thought it would be helpful to see what lighting techniques he uses. The other day he calls and wants to know if I'm free Thursday. The voicemail was normal enough. I call him back, he tells me he's shooting Helmut-Newton-style in an old theater north of Manhattan. I have no idea if that just means black-and-white or pictures of a vagina. He tells me to email him and he'll email me the info. So, I send him an email...
Hi [photographer],
Just a follow up email from our phone call... I'd be happy to assist Thursday. I can't read my handwriting about where the Starbucks is where you're meeting that morning, so please send me the time and location and I'll be there.
Thanks,
Madeline
I get an email back titled "Thursday callsheet." The call sheet is supposed to name everyone in the crew, locations, times, and maybe even what the purpose of the shoot is. The entire email labeled "call sheet" says...
Meet time 9:00 AM
>
Where: Starbucks on West 43rd and 9th Ave. Meet silver mini van on West
43rd. I am tall with black polar fleece sweater
>
Thanks
>
Um... Seriously?
So, I don't reply. Great. 9 a.m. Got it. Weirdo.
But there's something not right about it. While watching ANTM, I tell LV that I feel like I need to take a picture of the van's license plate to email to him so they know what vehicle to look for if I go missing. He's completely opposed to the idea of me going on this shoot. I start to think I really don't want to go either. Sure, a real psychopath probably would have made up a call sheet with names and phone numbers, but that doesn't mean I have to give up my day to someone who would call that a call sheet.
I get a voicemail from the photographer around 10 p.m. He wants to know if I'm doing this shoot. Um... Didn't I say I would? Now I really don't like him.
I email the photographer to let him know how creepy the whole thing seems. First there's a new email to me simply saying "Starbucks 9 a.m. Look for the Japanese crew." I don't find that to be reassuring. Where are we going...? He replies right away to my new email about how creepy the whole thing is by telling me I can Google him. This has never been an issue before. He really needs me to assist today. It's a public place. I can just not get in the van.
Um... I'm not gonna get up early to travel an hour to not go to the shoot. I'll just make that decision from here. Also, Google me.
Part of me--the part that likes to second guess a lot--thinks it's terrible I bailed on this guy. And the rest just thinks, No, pasting part of an old email doesn't show nearly enough respect for how much my day is worth.
Now, it's probably totally hypocritical to label all of my photos with a big "MadelineStrum.com" and then steal images off TV, but, until I get my cease and desist order, these images are courtesy of Tyra Banks, Ken Mock and the fabulous people at CW.
This is Sarah, shooting the 14 contestants for America's Next Top Model Cycle 10. I tried to stand as far away from Sarah as possible during filming so as not to end up on TV. When she asked me to stay closer so she could hand me the camera when she was done shooting, I took to squatting as close to the ground as possible so I would not end up on TV.
Mr. Jay is very tall, but when the cameras first started rolling, I was like right over his shoulder the whole time. We all were. The producers told us to stop clumping. So, I took to scurrying around the background. At one point I kicked over a pipe and caused a really loud bang. Then I started hiding farther away from the set (which wasn't really possible).
I am squatting and thus escaped being in this frame. It also helped me keep warm. It was really cold in November.
I really do take pictures of things other than my cats...
After assisting on a shoot for Verse magazine and talking to the fashion director about where I could find wardrobe stylists, I was really motivated to go out and find some people. These people keep canceling on me, but I push on. Shoots are always better with stylists, but, hey, I think we did all right with a wardrobe person.
Toward the end of Scrappy's birthday party, we popped up the seamless white and studio lights to make room for expanding my portrait portfolio. This is a rather unsuccessful attempt at desaturating and stylizing the picture. But it was one of the five frames I got with the Philly Phanatic, so that's a plus...
This is one of LV's Top Ten toys of 2007. As with all projects, I was happy to shoot them all at once (it's my first black background) but then never delivered the CD. Not that Crazy Colored Glasses has been itching to post its official Top Ten list. Several more action figures have been added to the list since the shoot, so it's hard to say what exactly will make the cut.
Just in case I ever forget how uneven and hairy the surface of my face really is, or for that day down the road when I yearn for less wrinkly skin, I used myself for a beauty test shoot today.
Where did this month go? Why have I only invoiced one person?
Go check HappiestPuppies--I've introduced new angles and crops per advice from my second session of portfolio reviewing...
