Group Portraits and all that Schtick

July 31, 2009 at 5:44 AM (Professional)
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600 people in front the the Feature Animation Building (FAB)

600 people in front the the Feature Animation Building (FAB)

So yesterday I photographed the 600+ people who work for Disney Animation Studios in Burbank. As some of you know, I was one of the main outside photographers doing business with The Walt Disney Company for close to 20 years. I sort of walked away from it in 2006 for a lot of reasons, my dad’s death, 9/11, my son, teaching and the list goes on. So I get a call the other day from a colleague who was actually  booked for the shoot but became unavailable when the client changed the date.  So he gave me a call. I was delighted and flattered to say the least. This type of photography is an art form for me, one I cultivate actively so it was tremendously gratifying when the client wrote me earlier today saying how much she loved the sample I sent over. The sample is the image posted for this entry.

I was helped by Peter Duffy, a colleague and former student, someone whom I look forward to helping when I can. Actually we have helped each other on a number of shoots. As a team we work very efficiently, professionally and have a lot of fun making photographs. He showed up with his 5D Mark II so I could take that baby out for a test spin. What a nice camera! I was stationed in a scissor-lift about fifteen feet up, shooting with a 24mm tilt-shift lens poked through a ring flash. I had to shoot at high noon due to the limited availability of the big three who run the division. My choice of course was to shoot early in the morning. We’re talking about artists here though, people who usually don’t like mornings, so probably only half would have showed. Late afternoon and they all would have been squinting, so noon it was. About thirty minutes prior to their arrival, the 600 or so made their way to the front of the building. Peter helped wrangle them into the three groupings I had designated. Using a bull horn it was a bit like wrangling cats. But he worked the crowd quite well. Give a bull dog a bull horn and that’s what you’d expect. Thanks Peter. The three executives came out and we were on!

I pumped 4000 watt seconds of power through the flash tube and it threw light all the way to the doors under the word “ANIMATION”. I shot at 1/100 @ f/13 @ 200 ISO and pulled f/7.1 as my fill. Impressive light and in my opinion (and experience with other group shots), a very efficient way to light a scene like this. As a variation I had them put on sunglasses and look slightly up at the sun. I had them wave and make funny faces. I had them tilt their chins up and then down. Incredibly almost all of the people participated. I was very pleased. I even did a little schtick (which I always prepare) to put them at ease and to break their thoughts as to what another group portrait in the sun was going to be like. I live for this type of opportunity.

I say it that way because the main thing bugging the client about their last photographer was that he did not direct them during the actual time he was making the exposures. A critical time to ignore your subjects, don’t you think? She related how they thought he was futzing with the camera while they waited for him to begin. Then he says he’s all through, thank you very much. I saw the photo, it left a lot to be desired. Like as many people as possible looking at the camera. Like as many people as possible smiling or at least paying attention to the photographer. At finally there was no attempt whatsoever to try and make the building come alive. It is a stand out facility, a piece of art. Why not treat it as such? After all magic is produced there.  My clients honor me when they commission my talents. I want to return the favor by honoring their work too. Pretty simple equation but  a lot of professional artists either don’t think like this or just plain forget.

After the shot was over I waited 20 minutes (in the scissor-lift bucket, in the sun) for people to clear out, I shot a bracket of three additional exposures, normal, +1 and -1 for the HDR portion of this project. I generated my HDR background plate and after a few duplicate layers here and there, a few blend modes here and there, a little burning and dodging, I was ready to drop in the shot of the people. Add a stock cloud image and there you have it, a nice portrait of nice people. Oy! such fun!

Here is the original shot. It took a bit of time to achieve the final result but my client is very happy indeed.

The camera original

The camera original

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After Life Portraits

June 15, 2009 at 4:20 AM (Personal)
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Taming The Digital BeastI have long been inspired by after-life portraits. I became intrigued with this particular type of subject matter after purchasing  “Portraits in Life and Death”, by Peter Hujar, in 1979. This book changed my thinking about what is appropriate subject matter for an artist. I admit that I’m intrigued by death. I embrace this part of my artistic persona because it profoundly informs my other work. In late 2006, I was holding my dads’ left hand and watching his face when he drew his last breath. After he passed (and before the mortuary arrived to retrieve and prepare his body for the memorial service), I went back into his room and made several portraits of him. The session was quiet, soothing, sad and in a strange sort of way, comforting.

To be completely honest, I documented the last three days of his life, from the moment he left the hospital in an ambulance (I rode with him), to the hospice set up in his home, to his casket being pushed into the mausoleum. Making a few portraits of him within the first hour of his passing seemed entirely appropriate to me. A friend of mine, Greg Ellis (who is a gifted percussionist) has offered to put his music to selected photographs from the three days. Should be interesting. I haven’t looked at the photos since November 2006. I wonder how I’ll react to seeing them again? I wouldn’t have thought of putting music to these photos but I’m along for the ride because I trust Greg’s instincts and passion as an artist. Stay tuned for what promises to be something extraordinary.

Since it’s difficult for me to frequently gain access to dead people and since I’m no Joel Peter-Witkin, I’ve settled on scanning and photographing after-life animals. Click this link to see some of my scanned Remnants. Now it just so happens that my sister-in-law is a veterinarian and supportive my desire to work with this peculiar type of subject matter. When she graciously granted access to the deceased frozen animals at her clinic, I set up a small studio there as soon as our schedules allowed. There were dozens of frozen animals in a huge locker, loosely packed on top of each other. To name the few that I recognized, there were dogs of all sizes and shapes, cats, rabbits, chickens, hawks, owls, peacocks and eagles. The eagle and peacock were the coolest (literally an figuratively) because they were frozen like ice cubes and large. As I went about the process of photographing these after-life animals, I was very selective about the lighting and camera angles, depth of field and focal length. I was taking my time as I wasn’t used to handling frozen carcasses with latex gloves and a mask. My deliberate and thoughtful approach to these portrait sessions caused a problem; within thirty minutes of pulling a frozen carcass out of the locker, it begins to thaw, sweat and smell. Awful. And as the formaldehyde filled the room I was working in, my eyes became irritated too. The need for speed and economy of motion was going to be just as important as the photographic considerations.

Well it all ended quite well and I have many, many after-life portraits in my archive. The image used for this blog entry is from the peacock series. I created this image as part of an entry for a contest sponsored by NAPP, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, of which I have been a member since 2000. The photo was not selected in the contest and for several years I didn’t consider it part of my portfolio but now I do, so here it is.

See ya!

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Disrespectful Potential Clients

June 22, 2008 at 6:17 AM (Client Relations)
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Michael Ovitz

Michael Ovitz

For my very first weblog entry, I will discuss what happened to me this past week. First a little background. I have a corporate client whom I have been shooting for since June, 2004. Professional portraiture. Over 450 since we began working together. Good money. Good work. Good business. They have been great to work with and for, always pay promptly and are straight forward to deal with. In short they are the Mary Poppins of clients, “practically perfect in every way.”

So what’s my problem with this client? Nothing at all. A former employee however is the problem. I received a call from this former employee, wanting me to provide her with a copy of her portrait so she could provide it to her new employer, a realty company. She was expecting it for free because “after all I was already paid for the picture.” Can you see where this is going? I told her my license fee was $200.00.

She was surprised and said she just as easily could ask her former employer (my client) for the file. At this point I informed her that contractually they couldn’t do that as I held the copyright and all third party rights. She said all she really needed it for was a one time email campaign. I informed her the fee for that was fifty dollars. (The $200 I previously quoted was for a onetime brochure use. I assumed this, my bad.)

I offered to fix a part of her hair she didn’t like and after she sent the money I would send the file to her and the person handling her email campaign. We agreed but she said she needed the file the next day. I wouldn’t do that until after I had the check so she better send it that day. I’m thinking “poor planning on your part is not an emergency on my part.”

She called and said she wanted unrestricted usage. I emailed back and offered a two year unrestricted license for $300.00 with a renewal for two additional years at $150.00. I would still hold the copyright and all third party rights. She said fine but still needed the file sent the next morning. I again emailed and urged her to send the check in the evening mail.

Next am she emails and says she would prefer a four year deal with a renewal for four years and felt this was fair because I already was paid for the shoot. Also her fellow agents had no limits to what they could do with their photos. Can you see a pattern here?

I mentioned that commercial photographers earn income by relicensing their photos and the $300.00 reflected a reduction off the original shooting fee. She then tells me she held a law degree and knew what I was talking about. She also said at a previous job she worked in the photo department and dealt with this issue.

Say what? You know this and you’re still trying to put one over on me?

After chilling for a bit I wrote back and asked her how she’d feel if a client asked her to lower her commission percentage because after all she already made good money on a previous sale. I mean that’s fair right? I also said that if other shooters want to give their work away they were free to do so but I held my work in higher esteem. Did she hold the quality of her work above others or lower? At this point I’m ready to book.

A day later no communication from her. I decide to write and tell her the scam she tried to pull backfired but I wasn’t the least bit upset. She provided me with a ready made lesson for my students at Brooks Institute. I would be sure to thank her by name.

A day later the check arrived. Three days after we spoke and initially agreed to terms. For someone who was in a hurry to get the photo, she took her time sending the monray. One can surmise she was trying to do a version of check-kiting: promise to pay, I send the photo ahead of payment and then she stops payment on the the check or delays sending it so I’m not sure what the real deal is.

I’ve been around too long to put up with this sort of ham-handed game playing.

Thanks for reading.

Michael

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