The Intersection

I had the chance to make some pictures for the Intersection.  I like doing things like that.  Before I get started talking about the pictures, I wanted to thank Jeremiah for the invitation.  I also wanted to thank Chris and Melissa for helping me haul more stuff to this than any sane person would contemplate.  Turns out I didn't use hardly any of it, but more on that below.

The original plan was to make some pictures of Jeremiah and Cori.  We arrived, and scouted out 3 areas to use.  One was open shade with a plain wall backdrop.  I thought a reflector and we are golden.  Spot number two was in shade also, and had a row of trees set deep into the background.  The idea was to place some flash about 1/2 to one stop over ambient here, and make that treeline a nice looking, if not unsurprising background.  The third idea was to stick our couple in line with the compressors along the back of the building.  Flash, again, was planned.  I was thinking to try it through an umbrella, and bare, and maybe toss in a back light.  Experimentation depended on available time.  Speed was essential.

As my example pictures show, the plan changed.

Our new goal was to make a set of headshots of the entire staff.   It wasn't that long ago that a change in plans like this would probably send waves of anxiety through me.  It took me a minute or two, but I decided the best spot for this was the first one we scouted.  The reasons were ... it was close to where everyone was, I didn't need to worry about my flash getting used up (it was fairly bright), and it had the simplest environment. 

Chris helped me bounce some light back into the shade, and all I had to worry about was trying to relax people.  Fortunately, most arrived relaxed already because with such limited time with each person that is a tough job.  Especially for me, I'm not a people person, or so my wife tells me.  The pictures show I did okay on relaxing people, but they also show me there is room for improvement.  Isn't there always?

Like I mentioned above I like doing this.  However, there is one piece I don't like.  Whenever I do things like this the doubts creep in after I hand over what I promised.  Did I do good enough?  Did I waste everyone's time?  Did I make anyone upset? Did I make some catastrophic error?  Was my camera laughing at me and my complete incompetence? Am I the only one with a laughing camera? Questions like that.  I've gotten better about telling that side of me to hush up a bit, unless it can offer a valid critique.  Sometimes it has valid concerns, like the first time I tried off camera flash for a real purpose, oh boy, I wish digital cameras had existed then -- I kinda pooched that whole deal.  I try to learn from those.

Oh, and as an aside, I finally saw first hand the clobbering Facebook compression deals out to images.  I also think, maybe one of these days, I should get an account there so I don't have to wait for my wife to tell me my pictures went "live".