I had a [hopefully] successful shoot today.  I was commissioned to update the staff and group shots for a web site for a company at three locations.  I completed one site today, another is set for tomorrow and the last site TBD as to date.

I have shot at this site previously so I knew the area, and the problems and advantages of the site.  I brought and set up three strobes the main and fill with umbrella's that I shot thru and a hair light with softbox to punch up the tops of the heads. 

Given the amount of equipment employed, I hired an assistant for today as well as tomorrow.  I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have a strong backed, dependable individual to be present.  He caught on to my attention to detail during the shoot and pointed out that a button on a Chef jacket was not properly buttoned, and saved an embarrassment if this had not been corrected for the capture shots for that individual.

I brought along my laptop and loaded the shots into LR4 and showed them to those of the group [there were seven people] that wanted to make sure they had acceptable results.  I was prepared to re-shoot anyone that required it.  We found of the 6 shots per person I did, each person had one or more that could be used.  I shot each person in three basic poses with two pops per pose to hopefully capture the right facial expression. 

I tend to shoot a lot of individual people shots, as I really like doing this and find that some folks just cannot relax in front of a camera.  In this group there were two such people and it showed in the frames, a tense mouth, the distant eye look, or the clenched jaw.  Not much you can do when the individual just cannot find a way to embrace the moment.

Given the pressure of being in front of peers, and a boss or two adds to the stress.  I do what I can to relax the  person, trying several different techniques to put the person at ease.  But the background chatter from the peanut gallery [co-workers], overrides my efforts on this occasion.

When you have a task and it means a deadline and time table and the client wants you to do something and then get out of their way ASAP, you find that cutting your losses is the best tactic. 

I learn from each session, trying new and different approaches to helping a tense or nervous subject to perform better while in front of the lens.  When I have the time and freedom to roam and capture things ad hoc, I find it is easy to get my shot.  It is a manner of stalking, but being spy like in the approach.  Being six foot five and on the very large end of a scale, it is a bit of a challenge for me to hide, but I do.  Using the right lens, and settings support the stealthiness of my actions.  Flash is not an option is such game plans, so the newer bodies and sensors that allow iso 3200 [have one, and love it!] as a more than acceptable setting, make quick work of low lit scenes.

So today is about confirmation.  What do I know?  I know how to plan and set up a location shoot and take along the right assets to control the lighting quality as I wish it to be.  And it is a robust effort and requires me to have HELP!  And the other fact is a co-worker can be down right mean to another when a person shows a weakness.  Next time, separate those not in the shot from the shooting area.  Corral those characters elsewhere, queue them up, and only allow them to be present when it is their turn.  I did this during the first shoot for this company back in 2008.  The room that was available then is no longer usable for a shoot studio.  We must learn to adapt to succeed.  And as the conditions and environment changes, we must evolve along with it to continue our path to success. 

I need the income, so doing well, and making a customer happy is of paramount concern for me.

A shout out to my assistant, DAVID W.!  I call him the chili-dipper master.  A personal story for another time.