A photographer’s life isn’t as easy going as you think. After being a part of a photo shoot for a client, I know the cold, hard truth first hand. First, you have to pull, or drag depending on how heavy, 3 large carts full of camera and photo equipment to the site. Upon arriving at their apartment, you must unpack… everything. And just when you think you have about a few seconds to breathe, you have to carry the tripods to the room, set up the light stand, open up the reflectors, and hold. Maybe even for 10 to 20 minutes at most. Then when it seems like there may be a short break, you must go back to the bags and retrieve even more. New lenses. Different cameras. More reflectors. Camera hoods. Hold the HMI light on your shoulder. Wait to be called until needed. Tape up the backdrop. Fetch toys for the children. Make silly faces to make them smile. Clean up drool and spit on the baby’s face. Return with water. Breathe. But of course, this is only the hectic job of the assistants.
The job of the photographer is just to order his assistants to follow with whatever he is doing, and then some. But even that is never as easy as it sounds. They must set up the best studio in the area they are given. They must wait for the subject to cooperate; in this situation, with a 3-year old and a 3-month old, you know this isn’t going to go as simply and smoothly as you would hope. You then must wait for a smile and capture the moment. And just as you get the ball rolling, the camera may break. But then, I guess, that’s where the assistants come in.
This day was loaded with the use of muscles in my forearms and biceps I thought I would never use. I had learned new photography lingo and equipment that will only help me further down the road. I had finally joined in on a photo shoot and saw exactly what went down for the product of an amazing photograph. And while the focus of the shoot may fidget and not want to sit still, you have to be understanding and push to work with them.
My first day at Gruber Photographers started out with making a best friend at the beginning of our separate internships brought together through coincidence. It only got better when we received the job of creating the draft of a photo album for a client. And even though every now and then the work would revert to boring, mindless tasks, being asked to come along to an important shoot for a mother and her children put the icing on the cake for an excellent internship. At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue my interest in photography for a career after seeing the difficult, tedious, and somewhat frustrating end of the spectrum. But this internship showed me two extremes: the sweat and tears side of production, as well as the passion behind the photographer who truly loves their job.
Written by Ally Orzo
No comments:
Post a Comment