July 17, 2010
10:42 amWhat Could Go Wrong?
I show up to a scheduled photo shoot yesterday with my beautiful friend Tai. She and I have been meaning to do some photo shoot work together for a while now, but finally our schedules lined up.
We planned to meet on top of a parking garage in downtown Eugene. Yes, the top floor. Which in Eugene, that’s like 5 floors of driving in a circle. I finally get up to the top, and Tai was already waiting for me, I was about 2 minutes late. No biggie. So we chat and discuss our plan, because this is an evening shoot, we had to work quick. So after looking around the area a bit I pop open my trunk and start pulling out gear. Then I realize, wait, where is my back pack? Then it clicked. It was sitting at my friend’s house where I had dinner! I mistakenly forgot it there when I was charging my cell phone! Anyway, I start making phone calls, and luckily my friend Natalie was still at home, and so she also agrees to help out with the shoot. She’s awesome, just saying. Holding lights over her head, keeping lights from falling from gusts of wind, yes, trooper. I love when I find great assistants! Anyways! Sorry to get sidetracked. Natalie, if you are reading this, *high five*!
I start unpacking my gear again, get everything setup, and then notice that my camera didn’t have a memory card in it. So, I start looking for my Pelican 0940 Memory Card Case, which is no where to be found! This has my two 16GB Sandisk 60gb/sec, 8GB and a 2GB CF memory cards. I start to look back to when I had it last, my mind immediately decided that I had forgotten it at the restaurant from a few days ago (Don’t freak, I found the memory cards).
I silently freaked in my head, the shoot was not starting off very well! Wow, way to be professional Will! Gosh! After pulling it back together after my 5 second freak. I remembered that I hid away an extra 2GB card in my battery charger case. Which is made from an old briefcase that I got from Goodwill (but thats another story). So, I popped it in, sure enough, with my Canon 5D Mark II, I would only get 35ish photo. And they went FAST.
Realizing right there, that I would need to connected my camera to my computer, and tether the shoot. Who tethers an on location shoot? Honestly? Well, I did. For those of you who don’t know, tethered is where you connect your camera to your computer, and when you shoot, the file is uploaded on the spot to the computer from the camera. I was using Lightroom 3′s new Tethering feature which I discovered a few months back with my Olive Tree Clothing photo shoot.
By this time, it was starting to get dark. All throughout the madness we made friends with all the security guards, which is easy to do if you approach them with an attractive girl. They would occasionally stop by during their rounds and check up on us, or just watch. With the added security we pulled our cars into a corner of the parking garage and built a little photo studio. I used two umbrellas, and my DIY beauty dish. We rocked the photo shoot, and got some excellent photos considering everything that had gone wrong.
So what’s the moral of the story?
Don’t freak out when things don’t go your way! If you paint yourself into a corner, don’t be afraid to get a little paint on your feet when you walk out. Own the situation, and kick it’s butt! …oh, and always be professional about it! In return, the model was very interested in doing another photo very soon, and she had a lot of fun as we joked around and got some beautiful photos!
Great shot! of the girl in the yellow =] I’m glad you could keep your shoot going!
Thanks Edly! Me too. There is some good shots in the bunch!
Just gotta keep going no matter what obstacle is put in the way!