I’m still in Kansas. I have been waiting for the weather to clear since Sunday. The weather has been wonderful for ducks though not so good for shooting trees, real or made of steel. Sunday we gave shooting the tree a shot (pun intended) several actually starting in Doyle’s shop with an improvised canvas background. These didn’t work so well.
The detail in the tree is amazing. This close up shows the branches, limbs and individual leaves that Doyle has cut from stainless steel, shaped, sandblasted with Cheryl’s help by the way then welded into place. Amazing.
I’d brought a Chimera Octa Plus and a 2400 watt second Comet powerpack that I used for the canvas background photo and the detail, a mini roller light stand, Gitzo tripod, Really Right Stuff ball head, lenses, MacBook Pro along with my warm weather wardrobe stuffed into the empty spaces in my two checked bags. One tipped the scale at the airport at exactly seventy pounds the max for a medallion level frequent flier. The logistics of a shoot like this are always fun.
Here is a photograph of the tree that I made outside the shop just before the wind came up and the light went away on Sunday. We had to scramble to attach the dolly to the tree and get them under cover. Stainless steel trees clang loudly in wind much over fifteen mile an hour. More photos of the tree will (weather permitting) showing up in future posts.
The game for large product photography like the tree is really second guessing the location to have everything to at least get something useable in spite of squirrel-ly weather.
We’ve been glued to the computer watching weather maps and so far it looks like this morning–it’s Thursday now, almost a week after I got here–we’ll get to shoot. Originally, I was scheduled out of Kansas last night. I pushed to stay for today so I fly back to Atlanta tomorrow morning at 5:40. I’ll get back just in time to get to the studio for a shoot with a client that starts at noon. And before you ask, yes they know the schedule and the extra day here is with their blessing. May all clients be as understanding!
Dawn is a short while away. The computer promises broken clouds with full sun by noon. The shot list is daunting. A full length from various heights using a snorkel lift that will reach sixty feet up. Straight down photographs from the lift. Straight up through the tree with (fingers really crossed here) blue sky and maybe a fluffy cloud or two in the background. I’ll make portraits of Doyle and his wife Cheryl with the tree to show scale.
Yesterday I helped them get a website up showing the tree, showed Cheryl a bit about blogging. I really look forward to reading her posts about life in Kansas with an amazing aritist and how the tree came to be.
Tips & techniques
Be solid! Hold your camera the right way
Sharp photos start with a stable camera. When the camera moves, the picture it takes has some movement blur. High shutter speeds minimize the effect of camera movement, but they do not eliminate it. Here’s how to hold your camera steady.
March 23, 2024
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