exhausted, sore, but excited to get thick with the output

I was recently commissioned by a company to supply a multitude of photographic services for them.  They recently purchased another company expanding their footprint in the St. Louis area going from one showroom location to three.  They moved two of them to new locations, and completely rebuilt the showroom with new product lines, etc.  I have recently performed web photo updates for their staff, setting up studio lighting at their locations and shooting the staff as a group and then each individual.  Then they had a brand new product they wanted to showcase, for it... I shot a series of product photos, ...the exciting part of this specific photo shoot is my work  might make a local home magazine as accompaniment to the article in the near future.

We hope we hope.

Now the tough part of all this...I just got into ALL of this the week before our class started.  I did not know it was coming, the call from the owner came as a complete surprise and naturally he wants everything yesterday, or sooner.  So I got real busy real fast...and not much rest in between class and the various commission work requests.

It has been a hectic couple of weeks, as the classwork and its commitments are also just as demanding and necessary to my life and in my own mind, more important for my growth and development as a photographer. 

But I find that what I learn and practice in class, falls right in line with this task.  So I use the work for the client as a sounding board for my classroom assignments, and vice verse.

Last night they had the Grand Opening for their Fenton location.  I was asked to record the event, produce photographs of the attendees and events being held [they had a Chef on site using their live kitchen and product demonstrations by manufacturer reps.

I got there more than an hour ahead, got my equipment ready, based on what I thought I would need,.  Performed a series of test shots in the large space I had to cover.  It was going to be quite the challenge.  There were many aisles and each one had distinctively different lighting, none of them the same, and in some locations there were 7 [yes I counted them] different kelvin light sources in a scene.  I knew that trying to change white balance custom to each place was not going to happen, too much ground to cover, too many people to catch, and I did not wish to use Auto WB either, so I set one custom and figured I would deal with it in post.  Getting the shot was more important than the amount of potential work later.

I ended up shooting over 500 frames during the event and on the way home.  I have just loaded them to the various locations to work with them.  A copy was put into my class hard drive, as some are right in line with my assignments, I did capture something for me as well as the customer.

The unique thought hit me as I drove home, I had keep one camera out and at the ready.  As I drove I started taking photos with one hand, pointing out the windshield, and made so attempt at art with lights on the road.  The slow shutter, the moving cars, me moving, the camera not steady.  I thing I got some very different light shows to look at.  Can't wait, will post some when they are created to share.  I do have one, no post work, just a straight out of camera, to jpg in LR4.

the shutter on this was a long 0.4 sec   aperture f/20   iso 1250   and just as I hit the shutter I went over a bump and it did the rest...creating the little squiggles as my vehicle bounded up and down at 60mph.

I do not advocate doing such things on a regular basis, as i will not even talk on a cell phone and drive.  I am one of those people who pulls over and stops if I have to have a conversation.  And this was only done as I was tired and needed to feel like something from the night of hard work was going to be usable for class.  I took way more than I thought, it is easy as this camera has a good buffer and can pop with the best of them in terms of FPS.

Lessons I confirmed this night.  Photography is work, I was exhausted after the five hours of work.  And post is work.  I still have about four to five hours for the client stuff.  And still have about four hours for class related work. I did hit the LAB today, and will be there Saturday and Sunday for some time to get done.
And when I was safely home, in my driveway, just before I made the trek into my house, to collapse.

My vehicle looked back at me and beckoned to be a part of my nights effort.

Again straight out of camera, no post done....1/60  f/1.8  iso 1250 

Yes my mileage sucks, but it's a great truck and would never trade it for a newer model, it's paid for!