“Facebook is a waste of time. I don’t need to know what you had for lunch today” is a common response that I hear when I speak with people about why I am involved in social media – hmmm, what did I have for lunch today … but back to the point of this post: I wanted to share with you how I got booked to shoot a video shoot from my facebook post in less than an hour.

I have been getting into shooting video over the last few months – you can check out some of my films on vimeo – and I have been seeing that there is a lot to learn from a photographers perspective. I purchased my first HDDSLR 3 months ago and got booked on my first paid video production last week, so I posted a blurb about editing this shoot on my facebook page.

I tagged my wife (the beautiful model in the photo) and left it at that. I also did not design the post to be anything special my comment on facebook merely read: “Spend most of the day editing a commercial movie project, while learning Adobe Premiere, incidentally the client was very happy with the rough cut :)”

That was late Thursday night (around 10:30 pm), I was ready to call it a night, take the dog for a walk and go to sleep. On that walk I get a comment on my facebook post – 24 minutes after uploading the screen shot – from one of my photography clients. I answered the post and that exchange ended with: “Hey….I got a movie project we should talk about ; )” at 11:23 pm, 43 minutes after my original facebook post. I called the next morning and we are looking at producing a series of half a dozen short movie clips for this client in May.

“So an existing client contacts you to shoot for him” you say, “big deal.” – but wait this is where the facebook story really starts getting interesting. A few months ago, my wife (remember the lovely lady from my video shoot :) sees a post on facebook from one of her friends, Katja, who had posted a few images of a recent job photographed for some yacht building company on location in the Bahamas – beautiful photographs by the way – anyway my wife sends a facebook friends request to the brand manager of this company, who accepts based on their mutual friend, the model Katja, with me so far? Good. Turns out that the brand manager is friends with one of my good friend Hugo, whom I have known since college, he is also one of my wife’s facebook friends – she knows him through me and Hugo showed up a mutual friend when my wife’s friend request got accepted by the brand manager. So I friend the brand manager as well and based on our mutual friend he accepts my friends request.

The beauty of facebook in this instance, is that a couple of total strangers in real life, get connected based on relationships that we all had with friends of each other:

Yes you are right, facebook does not replace old fashioned relationships. It is not a magical machine that provides work out of the blue, but in this instance it showed me a relationship that I had through an old college buddy, who is best friends with a brand manager, who hired a model that is friends with my wife.

And that’s how you get hired on facebook in 43 minutes.

2. Pack it

Packing for the shoot

An overview

Now you know where you’re shooting from. You know how many shots your taken. You got the power and storage issues figured out. It’s time to pack. If you’re shooting a time-lapse sequence for fun, this will seem a little over the top just remember we’re talking about a commercial professional application. Redundancy is the name of the game, although I want to be able to walk into my time-lapse set up in one trip.

Everything I needed for this project fits on this one cart. I like this specific one, since it can double as a shooting table, once it’s unloaded.  I’ll go through each bag in detail with everything that’s in it, but here is the overview: slung over the back of the cart (on my back when I go to location) is my grip pack: extension cords, data cables, clamps, rigging gear, some snacks, coffee mug, velvet and black fabric – more on those later – gaffers tape, ect. They are packed in a old computer back pack, just in case I want to bring a computer to shoot the ‘B’ camera tethered as well. On the very bottom is my computer case that holds computer, hard drives, card reader, data cable, power supplies, … on top of that is my camera bag that holds cameras, lenses, CF cards, video cage, filters, moregrip gear, batteries, credentials, business cards, … behind that is my tripod (Bogen 3058 with a Gitzo Ballhead 1576) for the time-lapse ‘A’ camera and my sticks for the video work (Manfrotto 547 with 701 HDV fluid head).

The dolly is one I picked up at Home Depot a while ago, I like it because it folds into a table once you got all your gear off the dolly:

The camera bag

Over the course of many years of professional photography you accumulate a bunch of little tools, tricks and hacks that end up living in your camera bag. I took a bunch of them out for this assignment, like radio slaves, flash meter, sync cords, … As you’ll see there is a lot of gear that comes on a shoot with me, so I love my camera bag (ThinkTank AirportInternational 2.0). It’s a rolling case that fits on an international flight as hand luggage at least what dimensions are concerned. Now if someone could make it fit the weight restrictions too … but that’s another story. This case has no issues rolling, even if it’s fully loaded. It also features a lock on the case and a cable lock to secure the case to a stationary object.

Here is the case open and packed. Remember that there is a second 5D that lives here, but it’s being used to photograph the images for this blog post.

Let’s go through some of the gear that came with me. Much of this is personal preference, this is my kit, use this example to build your own.

Cameras:

Two Canon 5D Mk II’s. Awesome video camera and still camera. We shot one for the stills in the time lapses and one for all the ‘B’ roll – video and time-lapse.

I used my Canon 5D to shoot some stills and behind the scenes photos. This particular job had 3 cameras going.

Extra batteries and chargers. 8 camera batteries, 3 chargers.

Canon on camera speed light – never left the bag. That was there just in case I needed it for some of the still images.

Lenses:

Canon 24-70 mm 2.8 L. Most of the video was shot on this lens as well as all the ‘B’ roll time-lapse.

Canon 24-105 mm 4.0 L. The lens for the ‘A’ camera’s time-lapse. Focus and zoom got taped once we got the camera set.

Canon 100 mm 2.8 macro. I love this lens, but it never came out of the bag.

Canon 70-200 mm 4.0 L. Love the Image Stabilisation on this lens for shooting video.

Mamiya 500 mm 8.0 mirror lens. Just a fun lens to have. It’s big and heavy.

Mamiya 70 mm 2.8. Never left the bag. The Mamiya lenses are attached with a mechanical adapter.

Filters:

Lee ND 3 gradated filter

Circular polarizing filter

LightCraft Fader – essential for shooting video out doors. Unless you want no shallow depth of field – but then why are you shooting a MkII?

Canon lens hoods and Lee compendium. Use them. ‘nough said.

Grip:

Manfrotto Magic arm with Super Clamp and camera plattform. If you hang your camera 40 feet over a concrete floor, you want to be sure that your support does not fail. So are you really gonna trust that $10.- deal you got on Ebay? The arm preformed flawlessly. It articulates to where you want it and then locks down solidly with one big knob.

The white fabric next to the lens shades is a rain coat for the camera and lens – it lives in my bag and only comes out when it needs to protect the camera. The black bag next to it is the raincoat for the Camera Bag that comes with the rolling case (thank you ThinkTank!).

Flashlight. Grey balance card. White balance card. Business cards. Press Pass. Credentials for all access at show.

Video:

Zacuto Z-finder. You’ll want one to pull focus. Get the anti-fog version – or upgrade to it. You’ll need it.

Follow Focus. Essential for smooth focus pulls. More an art than a science. Don’t forget the wet erase marker for marking the points your pulling to and from.

Easom Cage. Protects the camera and follow focus assembly, allows you to attach audio recorders, monitors, ect. to the rig. The other great design detail is that the camera plattform and the tripod plate move independently from each other so you can balance the camera on sticks for pans and tilts.

The computer case

I love these cases – I have a few of them. This one (Hardigg’s storm case) is like a armored briefcase for your laptop. I also have a shock mounted rack case for the bigger shoots, but again – that’s another story …

These guys are basically bomb proof – well at least water proof and crush proof they do an awesome job protecting your fragile electronics. I like these because of their unique latch design – they don’t bust your knuckles like other cases. Like the photo bag, there are a lot of little details in the case that get added over the years.

Computer:

Mac Book Pro with a 2.53 MhZ processor, 4 GB of RAM and a fast 320 GB harddrive.

We also used a Mac Book Air as the computer that the ‘A’ camera was tethered to.

Harddrives:

1.5TB drive in a Wiebetech enclosure. These enclosures rock. I have the single one that I travel with and then dual and quads at the office. You can slide the actual HD’s out of the enclosures. They’re interchangeable and pretty cool. Great Product.

2 750GB bus powered HD’s

Power supplies, lock, CF card reader, another set of USB data connections for the camera, firewire cables, eSATA card and cables.

The grip pack

You can go over board packing for the unknown – that’s why scouting pays off – good scouting that is. Where o you have power? Is it enough power? Who is in charge of the location that you’re in? Who can override their decision? How do you secure your gear or do you want to sit next to it for 10 hours a day; other than being boring that means you won’t be able to do anything else.

Back to packing – my grip/rigging bag is an old computer laptop back pack (Targus Computer back pack). I specifically chose this bag for this assignment, because I had to shoot up in the catwalks 40′ above the ground, with the only access being a small spiral stair case. That means no cases, no tripods and no carts up there. I need to be totally mobile – so camera in hand and grip/rigging gear on back – and I can slip the computer into this case, if I had to.

Since we are shooting a long day we need to get power to the computer that’s running the time-lapse camera. A few hundred feet of extension cords do the trick, along with some surge protector strips – since we are charging camera batteries, running lap tops, ect.

Rigging gear, i.E. webbing, carabiners, ratchets, clamps, … for securing the camera when it gets suspended from the catwalks and boat railings. Some coffee (gotta have coffee – no that’s not a canon lens – it’s a canon coffee mug :) thanks Trevor).

The black cloth in the foreground is a 3′x3′ piece of velvet. When I scouted the location, I saw that we were going to shoot through the glass of the restaurant we were shooting from and that we needed to eliminate the reflections for the time-lapse. Gaffer tape this piece to the window, lens goes through a hole in the center – secured by a rubber band. No more reflections. Make sure that the fabric does not vignette in your lens.

The other black fabric is a large piece of canvas to put down on the super dirty catwalks (that no one has EVER cleaned), so I can lie down and place equipment on a clean surface.

Now that you’ve finished planning and packing it’s time to photograph your time-lapse project.

Go on reading how to photograph a commercial time-lapse project on Friday.

I am a commercial photographer. I don’t shoot the portrait session with the 4 wallets and the 5×7. I shoot mostly models, i.E.people that have been hired to represent the company, fashion line or product that we’re shooting. Often there is a crew of art directors, fashion stylists, hair and make-up artists, clients, assistants, product stylists, prepers, caterers, …

However I have been getting more and more requests lately to photograph people for the people themselves, where the person is the hero of the shot and everything else becomes secondary. This genre of photography requires you to take photos of the person that’s being featured. You can’t use a stock shot for this. It needs to be this human being that has to be in front of your lens.

Grammy award winning producer, composer and conductor Julio Reyes.

Take for example this environmental portrait of Julio Reyes, the grammy award winning producer for Mark Anthony. Julio had asked me to photograph a recording session a few months ago and I had a great time documenting 35 musicians laying down a beautiful track for the new album. Mr. Reyes had asked me to photograph him for his media collateral at that point and we got our schedules lined up a few weeks ago to shoot in his sound studio. So what’s the secret ingredient that you always need for a great portrait?

(find out after the jump)

The secret ingredient of a great portrait is trust; of course you need to be technically skilled, able to adjust to always changing situations – after all you’re not shooting in your studio, where you control everything, but you’re shooting in someones home, office, locations that usually have a lot of restrictions from time constraints to limited space. It’s challenging, but when you pull it off it’s rewarding.

Photographing someone on their turf may take you out of your comfort zone, but it puts them right in theirs. And the viewer will see this in your photograph.

I have been shooting for a new client today. 100 tulips for their website. Tomorrow we’ll photograph a few more plants. Here is our last shot for the day:

The last few jobs I have shot have been for a variety of jewelers. They have ranged from shooting $400,000.- rings at a jeweler’s store that has been established for over 100 years in Miami, to a brand new website that is launching a new line of custom designed watches to shooting for an old client again that distributes australian designed urban inspired jewelry.

All these images are shot on black, retouched and cleaned up. The reflection in post, which is easier than trying to keep the dust off of black plexi glass. The first time I shot for this client, I had planned to capture the reflections in camera, but retouching all the tiny dust spots out of the image, that would appear on the plexi immediately after cleaning it become such a chore that I produced all of them in post.

No, this is not a quick snapshot taken with a point and shoot, it is a complicated shot that was set up and lit, no the snap part of this photograph is the fact that 24 hours ago, I had not spoken with anyone from this company.

I got the request for a bid yesterday, scouted the location, met with creative, looked at the product, produced and shot the images, processed and delivered them to the clients in 24 hours.

This specific image had to be shot yesterday evening, since this was the only day that the location was available, tomorrow the client needs to print this – they are going to be used on a trade show on Thursday. So another snap-shot from having the client contact me to delivery of final files in under 24 hours.

I got an email from one of my clients last Friday evening, asking if I could shoot a product/packaging shot in one day. So monday they fedexed a package to me containing the packaging and product for their shoot. So was I able to complete the job in the extreme tight deadline I was given?
I received this package with FedEx first light (i.E. crack of dawn) delivery.The shot was set up in the studio by 8:30 am and all variations were finished by lunch time. Right afterwards the shots are edited, processed, tagged, retouched, finalized in Photoshop and prepared for client delivery – via a password protected photo gallery on my website, which is driven by PhotoShelter Here my clients can view, tag, comment on, edit and download their images. After a quick second round of retouching – to remove some old information on the packaging, this job was bid on, merchandise received, photographed, digitally processed, cataloged, retouched, delivered and billed within 24 hours. Not bad for a lighting quick turn around.

It’s been a very long time since I have been in the windy city! It feels good to be back – I think that may have a lot to do with the fact that it is not winter … We have been producing this catalog job for a few weeks prior to coming up here and have had a very successful shoot – barring the Chicago agent that pulled all of his male models from us a few hours before the casting, because of some issue that had nothing to do with us. Talk about getting a wrench into your production. Thanks to Ford Models Chicago, that came through and delivered – so thanks Ford! Way to go!
Bob, the art director on this job is an old friend of mine – we’ve known each other for 13 years now and are enjoying the opportunity to work together.

Art director, clients and stylist discussing a shot

With over 200,000,000 users facebook is a market that’s basically the size of a small country (well not so small) that has many clients tucked away. One of the ways of promoting my business is my page on facebook. Go ahead: become a fan!