Sitting in Traffic

Have you ever stopped at a stop light and looked at the people in the cars around you?

Each one is the center of their own world. Each one is the ruler of all they survey from within their mobile glass and steel microcosm. They can exert total control over this little world, directing where it goes and even how warm or cold it is inside.

And, within that bubble, anything they do is justified. After all, they are the center of that little universe, with God-like powers.

Or, maybe I am projecting a bit...

Have you ever sat at a stop light and realized that someone was watching you from the next car?

The image above was created a few years ago, based on an actual event. I was the little boy in the window in the background...

Back to the Tongues

Yes, we're back to the tongues.

I was looking through the archive for some other images and came across this little gem of a portrait of a good friend of mine who was just starting out his business and wanted a unique portrait instead of the industry standard, driver's license/passport photo headshot.

Of course, this was not the one he chose for his publicity campaign!

We started out with a very serious looking image and gradually broke it down until we were just laughing out loud about bad jokes (mostly mine).

Eventually, we came around to more casual expressions and captured some real expressions.

He said something interesting about the process and the goal of the shoot. He said that, while the photo was of him and looked like him, its reason to exist wasn't about him. As a personal photo, he didn't really like the portrait because, well, he wasn't 18 years old, etc. I can relate.

The important measure of success for the photo was how it would appeal to his target audience. Would they like it? Would they feel comfortable with this image? Would it help them to feel comfortable hiring him? Did it have the elements (props, wardrobe, expression, background, lighting, pose, etc) that would help the audience identify with him?

That would be the true measure of a successful marketing portrait.

But, I still like the tongue shot!

Oops! Or, how to justify a new lens.

The shoot brief was simple and dramatic: set up the product and shoot sparks over it for dramatic.

I have commented before about "simple" and photoshoot and how they generally do not exist in the same sentence. But, here is an example where things really got out of hand.

It took a little thought about how to get the sparks to fly in the right direction. Because of the direction of the spinning disk on the tool, we had to rethink the layout of the shot and actually flip it. Otherwise, the sparks shot into the background and were lost to the camera. Ah, reality vs scribbled layouts.

Once we got that part figured and adjusted the shutter to get the maximum sparks, it was just a matter of doing it over and over until the sparks looked just right.

This was one of those attempts where the machine slipped and shot a shower of sparks straight back at the lens... and photographer!

After the shot was done, we carefully cleaned the camera and lens and realized that the UV filter we put on the lens had actually melted. There were pinpoint black marks all over it where the sparks had hit the filter and melted into it.

Thank goodness we had the filter! $50 to replace it vs. $600+ for a new lens!