Last Week

My last week started with the CNN / Espanola anchor shoot. On Monday we had the two most well known anchors first. After they were interviewed on camera we shot portraits of each of them in business clothing and casual. We shot portraits of 8 other anchors in both outfits and a group shot with everyone in business clothing. We also had one of the digital processors processing images while we were taking them.

Tuesday was the last day of the shoot. We shot 8 more portraits with the anchors wearing 2 different styles with a large group shot in business clothes. In each portrait shot we changed up the position of the wooden and silver blocks, which became difficult toward the end because we ran out of idea and keep track of what we already had done. After the shoot John and I cleaned up the studio and broke everything down. We had to mark were everything was positioned incase we needed to rebuild the set for more pictures which took a good bit of time.

The next day on Wednesday I was supposed to meet up with Justin for headshots at CNN radio. When he didn’t show up, Mark and I ran over there to do the shots. We set up in a small room and got all the headshots except one. It was really interesting to see the inside of CNN, where before I seen the inner workings with all the information cables, but with CNN radio I got to see booths and production offices. Upon arriving back to Turner, Mark and I talked about how my internship went and what I had learned. I told him I was greatful for the crash course in photo assisting while being able to watch professionals and learn tips and tricks to help me in my future career.

The last day of my internship was an easy one. I came to help Jeremy with another corporate headshot and also cut up foam to fit in the new case for the 23 inch apple cinema display to travel with. I also helped Ted with a product shoot he had for the TBS store. I got to talk to everyone I had met in the department and thank them for their patients and teaching me.

The last day was also sad for me. I had really enjoyed meeting the people I had worked with learning about the company. I feel very fortunate that I was given such a great opportunity to learn what all I did from whom I did. Each person I came into contact with at Turner was friendly and very helpful. Even though I knew at times I was hurting more than helping, the photographers were invested in helping me improve my abilities, for which I am grateful.

Seventh Week

On my seventh week, I started on Tuesday getting my security badge, which was waiting for me in the security office. Then I set up for another corporate headshot with Jeremy and took them. We used the gray background with lights on them to create a gradient with large key light and medium soft box for a fill.

The next day Justin and I set up for pictures of a dog for a new show on the cartoon network. The costume was fitted with a guy inside and looked like a large Labrador. We went through some great poses of him drinking wine out of his dog bowl, holding a martini glass, and others. After cleaning up the shoot I was put to work priming the 16 x 16 ft wall. I thought this would be a good as time as any to try a time delay so I set up the camera and this is what I got.

On Thursday we had two portraits going on at the same time. We had Mark shooting headshots for executives of Latin / Boomerang Network. On the other side we had Justin shoot Headline News T-Shirts. I helped as much as I could with both sides sometimes getting equipment for both shoots at the same time out the equipment room. The headshots did not take as much time as the shirts so I helped out more with the headshots and then worked more with the shirts.

The last day of the week was spent setting up for the large shoot on the following Monday and Tuesday of the CNN / Espanola news anchors. I painted the wall again to make sure the wall was completely covered. It was the largest production so far in the studio while I was there as well as the largest lighting set up and largest shoot schedule. We set up two 12 x 12 ft silk diffusers with 2 umbrellas behind on each side for the group shot and then we had a movable beauty dish for the portraits with the 12 x 12 ft silks as fill light. We also laid down a wooden floor for the ground and we had 3 wood blocks and 2 silver blocks for props for the anchors all to sit on.

Sixth Week

On Monday, my sixth week I had a Behind The Scenes shoot with Justin in the studio. It was a video shoot about choosing candidates. It was great to see Justin in action doing documentary work because I thought that was one of his strong points. He explained to me how to get really great shots of the people between takes and to follow the video camera for nice shots as well.

The next day I came into the studio at 1 pm and unpacked Mark’s gear from his shoot in Las Vegas. I asked if I could stay to help out for two more weeks and they all agreed. Since my card stated my end date was the end of July, I had to get my card renewed for two more weeks. I talked to the digital department about sitting with one of them the next day.

On Wednesday I got to sit with one of the digital processors named Matthew. He showed me the process he goes through with each photograph, lightening the exposure and uploading the images all back on the server. Later on in the day I traveled with Jeremy to shot interior shots of a radio studio for references. Apparently they were going to put video cameras in the studio and wanted to mock up several scenes with ads all around the studio.

Fifth Week

At the start of my Fifth week at Turner we shot the second half of the first time voters league. I was out of town for the first half, so I was interested to see how the pictures would look. John, the assistant, pretty much had the routine of how Mark wanted the pictures to be shot so I watched and followed for the example. We shot 12 people while holding a card with words they had written about voting. They were also interviewed with a camera crew after we shot them for the piece. After each one was shot, John and I shot the cards in a copy work setup incase the card was out of focus for the portrait or they needed a better shot of it.

The next day was mainly breaking down from the shoot the two days before, nothing exciting just moving stuff from one place to another. I also cleaned up the studio for the next day because a video shoot was going to be there the next day.

On Wednesday, I watched a video shoot for Monica. It was for an overlay ad for her new show on Peachtree TV. During the promo shoot Justin and I set up for a corporate headshot and photographed him right after the promo was done. After the green screen from the promo was taken down with all the lighting equipment, I set up copy lighting and shot blueprints from Turner Studio. They wanted pictures of the whole blueprint and some details as well.

At the end of the week on Thursday, I built a set for a light test with a mannequin I had for another shoot later that day. I used all the light modifiers they had with one light on the mannequin to see what effect each one would have. After the test, I built a set on white for a shoot I had for Joe Dues showing their product on a dressed up model.

Fourth Week

My fourth week at Turner involved coming in and organizing the equipment room table in the studio. With four photographers coming in and out and pulling out equipment like cameras, camera accessories, lighting, and other various tools it can get quite cluttered. Later on in the day Mark and I shot another corporate head shot with EVP John O’Hare. After everything was put away from the shoot, Mark asked me organize his idea book with included images from many different fashion magazines, people magazines, and news magazines. He had books that were organized into men, women, and others.

On Tuesday I spent most of my day with Mark packing up for his shoot that he was traveling for the next day. We also cleaned up the studio because of a lunch event being held the next day. We moved the furniture and lights so they would have enough room for the tables and chairs. The last thing of the day was the most exciting. I got to pretend to be a photographer at a radio station for a show on cartoon network called “Fried Dynamite”. They were pretending to be the Jonas Cousins and the radio station thought it was the Jonas Brothers. When the DJ found out they cut the interview and I walked off the set.

The next day, Wednesday, I came in an hour late at 10 am. I had scheduled to do some photo editing with Jake but the servers were painfully slow. Images that would normally take a minute to load, took 20 minutes. We let a group of photos from the TBS show House of Payne load and come back to them. Jake went over some images with me to idea of what to look for when editing the photos like: you want cause and effect images, the best images technically, no images that would make the network or show look bad, etc. The server was to slow we decided to try another day. At the end of the day I helped Ted try out a time delay set up he was working on for PGA. Where he could get a picture every 15 seconds at a hole and also get the capture down to one every second for putts.

Thursday involved the pre-light for the shoot on Friday and Monday for the First Time Voters league. The studio brought in a set maker who built three backdrops (red, blue, gray) to look like the side of an old building. They were 16 x 16 ft with stretched canvas over them. Each one had to be lit and one had to be lit for a group shot. Mark wanted to see how the pictures would look with a Tilt Shift for the RZ so I ran to PPR to get one before they closed. I also picked up illustration board and markers for the voters to write what voting meant to them.

My Second Week

My second week at Turner started with me waking up with a horrible stomach ache. I ended up called Mark to let him know I wasn't feeling great. I ended up going to turner at 1 30 pm in time for a photoshoot outside on the parking lot with rocket skates. We set up a fill light facing the skater and a light behind him with a red filter. We also lit smoke sticks to add to the effect. For some reason or another the digital back wouldn't connect to the laptop so we had to shoot to the card. After the shoot we packed up everything and went back to the studio. I unpacked the equipment and tore down the set that Mark had up from earlier that day. That was my day.

On Tuesday I assisted Ted who shot headshot for the Latin section of CNN. We set up a simple white set up with v-flats on the sides to light the background and plexi on the ground to give a shadow to ground the subject. The main light was a large octobank with a bi-head dynalight head. We also set up a small soft box for a fill. After that shoot was over and taken down, Ted and I went to CNN to take abstract images of the technical aspects of the building for art work. We shot in a few control rooms and in a server room. It was very interesting to talk to the IT guy over the servers about how everything was set up to feed into the CNN building and sent out via a secret group of arrays South of Atlanta.

The next two days included going with Ted to Home Depot to pick up wood to build cubbyholes for the Profoto 7a heads and the brand new Profoto 7b heads and power packs. We measured and measured again, then cut the boards. It took us both days to get the boards cut and sanded and placed in between the shelves. We also had to rearrange the existing equipment to fit along with the 10,000 dollars worth of gear that was bought.

On Thursday Ted and I unpacked more of the new lenses and gear that was bought. We also labeled and rearranged the dividers in the flight cases for all of them to fit. I cut a large amount of styrofome for the lenses to rest on and be easily removed from the cabinet. I also use the p-touch machine to label all of the lenses and their place so anyone looking could tell what lens was available and what lens was taken.

The Friday I was off. My sister also came up to visit during the weekend while she was out of school.

The Sunday had me shooting a rock/country duo with Ted for a freelance job. The first set up was entirely lit with flourescent lights and set up to look like a den with wood paneling. The second shoot was a location in Castleberry near railroad tracks that made for an interesting time. The guys were really nice, so the shoot was easy and fun.

The first week

The first week of my internship was exhausting. I began my first day by setting up for a table top shoot for PR packages for new shows like "Black Gold" and "Speeders" for TRUtv and Court TV. I learned how the turner photographers, especially Mark Hill, likes his set ups with each light attached to its seperate powerpack. After learning about shooting tethered and how to handle the Canon Mark II's they have I left to get back to my apartment before they closed at 6 to get a key cut because I left mine at home.

On the second day I finished up the press kits by shooting a punching bag on table top. My supervisor had meetings for the rest of the day so I had to begin a special intern project to start organizing a prop closet at the studio. The closet contained many interesting items including a giant banner with the TNT logo on it, 5 huge theater curtains, sporting equipment, back-lit posters, prop blankets, podiums, large sheets of plexi, Halloween decorations, and 3 American flag dresses. I also was able to find a fake beard. The project will continue through the internship so I had to pick up one of the other photographers from AVIS after returning from Nashville, TN. We when returned we began packing for the Wednesday photo shoot of a video production shoot.

Wednesday began earlier than usual. I got at the studio at 8:15 to pack the photo gear in Ted's car to go to a video shoot. The shoot was off of Wells St off of Metropolitan Parkway at Ambient Studios. The shoot was most of the day boring but I asked questions and watched how the video assistants handled all the grip equipment and used existing light. Ted mainly shot production stills with the blimps on the cameras. At the end of the day we shot some promotion shots with the talent. John Good, the talent, spent the night doing promotional spots for CNN's Black in America. Ted and I got back to the studio at 10 30 pm. We unpacked the camera equipment and left.

Thursday began with me unpacking the equipment from the day before. Then we set up for a photoshoot using their humongous white cyc wall. It was for the head of Latin CNN. We shot him in 2 different suites and ties. We shot him on white plexi-glass and v-flats. After the shoot I broke down the set and talked to Mark about the closet that I started to organize. After that I left for the week.

The first week was tiring and an interesting view into what I'll be doing the rest of the summer.