This was probably the last shoot I have done. I realized how much harder things were. I can’t hold the camera straight, I can’t get myself into positions to get the shot that I want. I can’t see the dials and knobs and LED readouts, or even remember names correctly, so I can easily give out directions on how to pose. I wonder how much of it is just getting old and how much is due to my condition. I guess I am disabled.
I was doing a photo shoot for my friends band. He thought of me when they needed to get some promotional pictures for their “album cover” – though nowadays its for the picture that shows up on their digital file or other media. I met Brian at Peter Pan (a Co-Op Nursery school in Oakland) a few years back. He was the first person that we met there, and kind of did a job handoff – He was handing down the historian job down to me, which was cool for me to be able to contribute in that way.
Anyway, back to the shoot…It was windy and on a hill and my allergies had started to act up, because it was windy…and on a hill….there was a patch of burned out grass on the side of the freeway. It made for a cool backdrop with just the burned hills, them and the sky.
But the logistics made things just a little bit harder. I needed to be on a little giant ladder, luckily Brian had supplied and set it up for me so that I would be able to shoot on even level or looking down on them. The wind had a few effects on the shoot. It was difficult to see the screen clearly because my eyes were so watery, and it was wreaking havoc with timing of photos to get everyone’s eyes open at the same time. One of the band members wanted to wear a cape, which I think would have looked better on a calm and windless day.
They had wanted to use these mirrors as props, but it was kinda hard to get the reflection in any or all the mirrors to be interesting at the same time while also adjusting for good lighting and composition. It ended up making things harder than it was worth, so they ended up breaking the mirrors and ditching the idea.
I think my wedding photographer came out in me when I started to think of group poses. Very reminiscent of a bride and bridesmaid, don’t you think?
The obligatory cool guys pose.
I was trying for the infrared portraits to get the black sky effect, but it didn’t really work. The wind again was wreaking havoc with my plans for shooting IR portraits. This is what the scene looks like in regular black and white:
Photography by Rex 