August 2 and Photoshoot

I arrived at the studio on August 2^nd at 7 in the morning. Since Callie was at the shoot - house to get the keys, I had to pick up 6 bags of ice for the 3 colors filled with bottled water, Red Bull, assorted soft drinks, and Gatorade. There were 3 assistants at the shoot this time and they were Keith Martin, Ryan Flynn, and John Herre . . .plus me.

We unloaded everything once arriving at the house. The owners were out of town so we had the place to ourselves. We began putting everything together in, or working from, the driveway. This included all the stands, strobes, digital workstation (with laptop and large screen) and tripod.

The first shot was set up in front of the house with the large softbox to the right. The model was standing on the front porch so Scott had to stand on a ladder. The second shot was inside of the house in the living room with the model laying on a chair. The shot included a Fernell light (a movie light that can focus or flood the light much like a flashlight) fitted with a strobe outside to flash light into the window like the sun and a beauty dish as the key light off to the left. Another strip light was set up on the right to light the side of the model and used as a hair light. The third shot was with the model standing behind the island in the kitchen / living room with the beauty light to the left and the curtain used as scrim for the ambient light into the window. The fourth shot was set up with the model on the stairs with a strobe with a grid while using curtains as a scrim for the ambient light and the Fernell light coming through the window. The fifth shoot was up stairs in the TV room with the model laying on a couch with using a softbox and reflectors. The sixth shot was set up in the shower of the master bedroom. The model was standing in the window of the shower. The glass of the shower window was frosted so a strobe was set up to simulate sunlight coming through with the beauty dish in the shower with the photographer. The last shots were set up downstairs with a strobe and reflectors.

This shoot I learned a lot of how to work with a crew and with a model. Scott told the model a few things that I remembered like “Tell me a story with your eyes” and “I am going to ask you a question and answer me with your eyes”. This showed me that Scott realizes the model will make the picture. He also pressed the idea of previsualization of all the photographs.

I left the studio at 8 pm.

August 1 and Pre-Pro Number 2

On August 1^st, I arrived at the studio at 3:30 in the afternoon and talked about the shoot on the 2^nd. I talked to Iain, the food photographer that rents out of Scott Lowden Studios. I helped with organizing the model photos and took out 8 cardboard boxes to the trash. We talked about the schedule for the shoot and that I needed to get 6 bags of ice and get the model from the hotel next door, Highland Inn, at 7:20 AM. Also, there was a preproduction meeting that Scott wanted to see. It basically was an extension of the first meeting with the stylist. She brought the clothes she found and Scott and the art directors from Current talked them over. Scott also took polaroids of the clothes and taped them to printed pictures of the locations where the model would be wearing what clothes to help visualize the images.

July 31 and Scouting Again

On July 31 I arrived at the studio at 10:45 in the morning to Scott, Callie, and Ryan working on the production for the Natick shoot and managing the contact list. They told me that The Glen was rented out on the day they were going to shoot and they didn’t want a crew in the hotel that day. This was frustrating because they already let us scout the place and then took it back and wouldn’t let us shoot there. We went to scout a modern house off of North Avenue that would be a nice substitute for The Glen. Scott brought his camera again and shot everything just like scouting the last time. The house was very graphic and thoroughly modern with big windows, mainly made of concrete, monochromatic palate, and a sense of being in a museum because of little or no personal touches.

After arriving back to the studio, Scott and Ryan immediately processed the scouting shots and put them up on his website for the art director to look at. Scott showed me how to put up those pictures on his website with a php program specifically written for his website.

Before I left in the evening at 4:30, Scott received an email from Mark Anderson, an editorial photographer in Atlanta, who needed an assistant on Monday August 6^th.

July 26 and Pre-Pro Meeting

On July 26 I met up with Scott at his studio at 9:30 in the morning to go to a meeting at the ad agency Current to talk to the stylist about the Natick shoot. We drove over to the agency and when we arrived I sat and listening to the meeting. It consisted of the stylist, Kim, and the agency talking about what kind of clothes she needed to buy and bring and from what stores. After the meeting, Scott and I drove back to the studio. We talked about how he found his photography style. He said that he likes to have the picture show the people in the photos were it looks like they have done something, are doing something, or will do something. He said that it gives the photographs another level rather than just a pretty girl in a pretty place.

After getting back to the studio I helped scan model releases that the signatures weren’t legible. I scanned them darker so the signatures could be seen more clearly. I also cut up about 90 photos.

I also found this quote in a “The Negative” by Ansel Adams: “Once you begin the process of visualization the final image becomes the paramount importance, and you are far less concerned with the subject per se than with your representation of it”.

I left the studio at 5 pm.