OK, she didn’t exactly say that, but it is what I heard.
I was standing in her little office – ‘her’ being the art director of a major retailer in Los Angeles.
The transparencies were scattered over her lightbox and she was looking at them very closely.
She casually moved one transparency from below the loupe and focused on another when she said it…
“Your lighting is a bit sloppy,” she said quietly, and without any hint of malice or anger.
What I heard: “Your lighting sucks the suck out of suck and you will NEVER work in this town again!”
My heart started pounding, my gut was constricting, and my knees became a bit wobbly.
I just witnessed my career plans of being a photographer crash around me like the smoldering embers of burning manure soaked in some sort of flammable liquid to make the bullshit burn hotter… I was toast!
I was never going to work in this town ever again.
Hold on.
Let’s back up a few days.
The call was a referral from an art director in Venice (Beach, not Italy… geez) who was doing some design for a major retailer in Los Angeles. They had decided to do some POP’s for their Mother’s Day Sale and he thought I may make a good fit for the photography.
I wholeheartedly agreed with him of course. Hell, I was a good fit for any photography because I was the shits and the shizzle, baby.
I had just come off a week’s worth of fashion… well… it was off the rack stuff, but still – in LA that’s fashion, baby. I was in contention for a shoe campaign and now I may get to work for this major retailer and they should be thrilled my schedule could accommodate them.
The shits… AND the shizzle.
We met at the art director’s office in LA for a half hour to discuss the direction of the shoot, and my designer friend was to be present at the shoot to make sure all the looks (6 in total) were right on brand for each of the makeup brands we were shooting.
The POP’s were going to be head and shoulder shots, blown up to about 8 ft tall.
Wow. I knew I needed medium format.
I left the meeting and was thinking about it all the way back down the 101 to my studio in Lakewood. I was really excited.
I started to put the shoot together. (Today, I would use a producer, but in those days WE were the producers.)
We set up go-sees for models from Wilhelmina and Elite.
First, we got comps and then we would look at a smaller selection at the agencies themselves to make the final choice.
We had four possible shoot days so that we could coordinate the best MUA and hair people and make sure we could get at least one of those days with everyone open for the shoot.
We nailed a Wednesday a week away.
The designer and I were joined by the art director from the retailer at the go-sees.
I hated those things.
Models would come in and give us a ‘private show’ of sorts. Each one hoping to get the gig and that possibility was in our hands.
I was always very uncomfortable, and it seemed a bit of a weird situation.
I had no input really. I didn’t want any.
Any of the models who had come in would be perfect for the gig.
But that was not how it was done. Arguing back and forth over two or three of the picks was the norm of the day. It had to be contentious because that justified the silly process.
I was the deciding vote and all I did was a mental coin toss.
Of course it mattered who got the gig… and of course it didn’t matter because they were all beautiful and professional and any one of them would have been fine.
On the day of the shoot, we had one of the best MUA’s in the business with two of her assistants. The wardrobe was supplied by the retailer of course, but we had a wardrobe stylist on set to make sure everything worked out.
My assistant and I got to the studio very early and shot two rolls of 120 film at different settings to be processed as a ‘rush’. My assistant ran the film over to the lab and waited the two hours for it to be processed.
He got back just as the models were arriving and we did a preliminary check of color and exposure on the film stock we were using.
We needed to add a bit of warmth to the film so a suitable filter was chosen.
The studio was ready. Cables taped to the floor, shooting table set, extra film backs loaded, and the Eurythmics playing on the studio sound system.
Yeah… it was cool.
We had approximately one hour with each of the six girls to get the shot.
The models were staggered in arrival so we didn’t have a bunch of bored girls waiting for hair and makeup. It worked pretty well.
Only the last girl had to wait about 45 minutes to get into the cue.
She didn’t complain. She was a pro.
Such great days working with professionals in so many disparate tracks.
I was shooting a Mamiya RZ for that shoot. I had rented it so I could decide if I wanted to trade my RB’s in for the RZ.
(Another story…)
The shoot commenced and I did about 8 rolls on each girl.
When the film came back,
It was glorious.
The designer and I were pretty damned happy.
Fast forward to the art director’s office.
Knees quivering I ask her for some clarification.
It came out like “uhh…err… I… uhh…”
Yeah, I had a real way with words back then.
What she had noticed was that my clamshell umbrellas were not quite aligned stem to stem.
“When these are blown up to 4 times normal size, the eyes will be larger than a silver dollar and these umbrellas being off will show”.
Oh.
I missed that when I was shooting.
One umbrella had drifted so the rods were not symmetrical.
“I think the shots are lovely and let’s get them down to the art department,” she said with a huge smile.
My knees started to work normally and I could feel my heartbeat decelerating from about 500 BPM to something less stroke-worthy.
The displays were beautifully printed and I was able to get one after the sale period.
I had it in my studio for a few years.
It reminded me to be deliberate. To be painstakingly persistent in looking for the anomalies in the shot.
No matter how good the models and MUA’s and wardrobe people are, in the end, it is OUR total commitment to making it perfect that is the defining point.
And no, we will never have anything be perfect.
But it is the struggle for perfection that leads to the prize.
Be deliberate in all you do, and it will show in your work.
And that is a good thing!