The nature of writing blogs for me is to have frank discussions about serious issues that face photographers and creative people in a tenuous time. But sometimes even I get overwhelmed with my gloomy mein. So I thought I'd dredge up a delightful memory I have from a different time in my photographic career.
I was on a week long assignment for a tour company that represented a large chain of "all inclusive" resorts in the Caribbean. My favorite resort in their inventory was the property in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The main building of the hotel complex was originally built as an estate for Prince Edward just before the second world war. It was an amazing, solid place with a wonderful open air restaurant and a large swath of white sand beach. I've been back on vacation with Belinda several times and we've always had a wonderful and relaxing time. We even took turns (unintentionally) flipping over a little Sunfish sailboat in the bay.
The photo above was taken on my first working visit to the island. This was one of our four models, hired in Dallas, who flew down to the property with my small crew in a chartered plane. She was standing on the dock, getting ready to hop on a catamaran for a sunset cruise and I snapped this with one of the original EOS-1 cameras sporting a 70-200mm early L lens. All of the film from this particular assignment seems to be Fujichrome 100.
We worked hard on this trip and got images all over the resort. We even took a trip to climb the falls at Ocho Rios. We worked hard, played hard and generally had a good time. No one broke the rules. No one went on a "diva" fit. The client was pleased enough with take to assign us to five more island adventures over the course of the next year.
We worked from a shot list. We kept our film cool and dry. We kept the cameras and lenses out of the air conditioning so they wouldn't be affected by condensation. We wore hats. We used sunscreen. I learned to scuba dive.
The check came in the mail. It was good.
Now that was a boring blog.......
8 comments:
Well, maybe not such a soul-searching post, but if you go back to what Don wrote about audience - it was a nice clean post that is more targeted at people who may hire you for this type of work (if that's something you still want to do), rather than other photographers - that is except for the book/tripod section.
It's all good to have a clean portfolio site, but sometimes adding just a tad of flavor to a shot, and whether you enjoyed it or not, and the project was isn't a bad thing.
But for the photographers in your audience - the gearheads will find it boring (ewww film ;-), the amateurs will be in envy of the assignment, and the pros will look at the shot, find it nice and move on.
PS: Nice shot.
Jan, you probably know that I have a totally separate website at www.kirktuck.com and that this blog is most definitely not aimed at my clients. It is aimed at photographers who may be in the market for a little controversy and, in all transparency, it's a way to keep my books in play. And to introduce new books from time to time.
But it exists mostly because I'm both opinionated and I love to write. Probably a dangerous combo.
Yes, I know about your other site and the purpose of the blog.
I was just tying it back to what audience that post could reach and that while you called it a 'boring' post it can serve its purpose and be successful, though probably not on this particular blog ;-)
Thanks Jan, I didn't get it but now I do. Agreed.
Well, I enjoyed the post for three reasons: 1.) I used to do quite a bit of photography for the resort/hospitality industry; 2.) Fujichrome RDP 100 is my all-time favorite film and I still have most of a 100-foot roll of it left; and 3.) because I would still be using my lovely 80-200L lens if I could have found someone to repair it.
Write whatever you feel like writing. I enjoy most of it, and if you write something I don't much care for (like video), I can just skip it and check in a day or two later.
Not boring at all. Just very funny and made me want to visit Montego Bay,
With all due respect and as much as I have been enjoying the blog, I have to say that I have not seen a worse photograph of a woman. Objectively, I realise that the picture is that of a very, very fine woman, yet in this photograph she looks like a frog on a frying pan or a horse prior to a race… Sorry, again, but it is just not a good picture…
Opinion noted.
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