Meditation? Yoga? Giant weed bag? In the midst of a massive photo production platform, sadly, none of that is really practical. For these types of photography, where there are a lot of moving parts, and the unknowable, unpredictable key in the compositions hidden behind every bad test shot you take, photography home is still the eye of the storm. While everyone rages about you as if you’re the sidekick from the movie Twister (“Is it the same cow?”), you have to find the secret place in your head that you still can’t find, right? so even when meditating.
In Budapest, I had to light up the museum for fashion photography, being one of four photographers worldwide selected to showcase Nikon D850, that, until I got one Z 9 In my hand, is the best camera I have ever used. It is a great honor, and the light of this museum, I confess, is a self-inflicted wound. I wrote the treatment (among others) and Nikon Creative responded, “We love it!”
All great news, until you have to put your photons in the place of your mouth. Large production. 20 to 30 thousand watt seconds flash. Flashes on the cranes in the street, illuminating the windows. (We can only work overnight.) Flashes everywhere. A fallen statue, an escaping cat thief, a sleepy security guard. A team of about 30 people. I filmed, and a live camera, all week. Casting, wardrobe. Did I mention something about being the eye of the storm? Trust me, more tk on this production.
One trait I’ve been trying to learn over the years of big production is trying my best to never let them see you sweat. So when the PA worm hired by a film crew you’ve never encountered before comes to you, you mix the verbs and adjectives hyperbola incoherently into a doomsday message about how. The circuit just blew up and the lights went out, and there’s a storm coming to the place of biblical power, you gather the meditator to just say, “Okay.”
I try to be as calm about the position as I can be. There have been moments where I fell into that state and became a little irritable, even frustrated, but overall I managed to float (outwardly, anyway) like a balloon on miracles, and think before the next few steps. You must be determined to remain polite and pleasant, and be an honest signal of good optimism in front of the crew. And this massive museum photography team, crew, assistants, photography team and talent are just phenomenal – a positive experience. I learn from every member I work with.
My history of success in this, and sometimes my outright failure, will be the subject of one of my talks at Scott Kelby’s. Photoshop World This year’s conference, coming very soon, runs from August 30 to September 1. I offer reflections on the history of great works, and also teach another class called “At the end of the day (Or quest) We are Storytellers”. Both will be lively, fun, hopefully informative, and relevant to the visual history woven in and between today’s discussion of all those pixels we have access to today.
This is link to sign up for this year’s (still virtual) Photoshop World, one of the last remaining anchor points in the photo calendar. Photoshop World remains a platform of trusted learning from established photographers who have a wealth of experience to support their teaching, all combined with fun, interactivity on social media and the incredible magic of post-production, fueled by vivid imagination. Hit go for this one!
More tk… ..
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