Another day at work. A pleasant morning photographing medical products for Abbott. A wonderful and jovial art director presiding.

 

I worked as a photographer today. Not a pontificator. I didn't spend time bragging about stuff I did twenty years ago, I concentrated on doing the workmanlike steps required to supply a client with a number of photographs to use in international marketing and advertising right now. There was nothing glamorous about the shoot. I didn't have a video crew document my shoot and show off my collection of silver and turquoise rings nicely contrasted by tattoos all over my hands. I didn't hold a wide angle camera in front of my face and walk around. I actually did stuff real photographers who earn their livings taking photographs have done for decades and decades. 

It started yesterday when I swept and then mopped the floor in the studio. Then I set up a table which we would use to lay out products to be photographed against a neutral background. After the basics of cleaning and furniture moving were taken care of I pulled out cases of gear and made sure I could put my hands on the Atomos Ninja monitor I wanted to use, which led to a search for the correct HDMI cable and batteries for the monitor. Since the monitor has been stored, unused for a couple of months, I also needed to find chargers for the big NP-9xx batteries. Once I got those charging I started setting up lights. I've given away all of my big studio electronic flashes but that's fine as still life work is better, in my opinion, with continuous light sources.

It took a while to set up the ungainly octa-bank with all of its finicky rods and velcro closures. I also set up a smaller box with a second light fixture. I tested both of these to make sure they were fully functional. Then I took a break from the tyranny of the rods and speed rings to put up fitted pieces of Foamcore over the windows to prevent mixed exterior light from messing with the light from the LED fixtures. It's a little thing but who wants mixed color casts? And who's going to correct the resulting files?

I built a tripod shooting rig that allows me to shoot straight down on products and to check composition and focus on the Atomos monitor so that even when I have to go to the full height of the tripod and head (about seven feet) I can see with great clarity exactly what we'll be getting in the final image. The crossbar I use will allow for two cameras to be set up side by side or you can do as I have and hang one on either end, facing down. But I anchor the camera with a ballhead to give me more flexibility if I want to shoot at an angle or double check that everything is level and make adjustments if it's not. 

I'm a worrier so even though I've done shoots like this for about 40 years I always (always) set up the camera, the lenses I'll be using, the cards I'll be shooting to and the cables I'll be use to connect it all together the day before the shoot. Early enough in the day so that if there is something giving me problems I have the time to source and grab a replacement --- if it's something I don't already have in studio. 

The afternoon before the morning shoot I will have set up all the tools and materials I think we'll be working with and will have turned them all on. I have done a custom white balance, formatted two memory cards, metered the exposure with a handheld meter and then confirmed it with the in-camera meter and the histogram on the test files. I have five fully charged camera batteries ready to go even though I don't expect that we'll be shooting for much longer than the first half of the day...

I knew I wanted to shoot in the .DNG format so I could make use of the A.I. Noise Reduction and Raw Detail features of Lightroom Classic in post production. Those features are currently unavailable when using non-RAW files. .DNG is the raw file format for Leica SL cameras and I knew that I wanted to use the SL2 camera for its high resolution capabilities. And the lovely color. 

The last thing I did in the studio was to change the filters in both the air conditioner and the HEPA air cleaner because I like working in clean air and feel my clients deserve the best environment I can give them. But the day before the shoot doesn't end at the studio door. 

I went into the house and straightened up. Our master bathroom was already spotless and it's at the far end of the house from the studio. We don't take clients that far into the house usually. But we do get a lot of traffic in the guest bathroom so that was next on my pre-shoot checklist. I swept and mopped the floor, cleaned the countertops, the sinks, the bathtub and the toilet. I looked at the window in the bathroom that looks out over the garden. It was too dirty. I went outside and washed a number of the windows. Much better. If you are going to use my guest bathroom you deserve to have a nice, clean view of the garden. 

I made sure the toilet paper roll was still bountiful and that the liquid soap container on the counter was filled. Guest towels hung up and ready as well. 

With any shoot that starts in the morning your "evening before" chore list is never done until you make arrangements for coffee and snacks. I didn't know how many people from the client side would be attending so I guessed. I went to the grocery store and bought fresh baked banana nut muffins, some Cliff Bars, some fresh fruit and a variety of granola bars. I also bought a pint bottle of half and half for anyone who'd like to add a bit of saturated fat to their coffee...

When I got home I put the snacks on a big serving trays and then double checked my coffee supply. I also got down, from a high shelf, my stainless steel, insulated coffee carafe. I draw the line at trying to figure out how to make coffee in advance. That seems immoral. 

So, all of that falls into the realm of pre-production. I think it's important. It's why, I think, I rarely lose a client once I've worked with them. I try to actively make sure that their experience is as problem free and hassle free as I can make it. 

I made one more pass through the kitchen, the dining room and the great room and headed to bed. But before I turned the lights out I picked out a "uniform" for the morning's shoot. Best to look like a well put together photographer rather than someone who just doesn't care. 

My big sacrifice was having to hit the early morning swim practice which allowed me to be a back at home base 45 minutes before the scheduled client arrival. It gave me time to make a nice, smooth pot of coffee and to shave my scraggly face. 

The art director arrived, solo, and I poured her a cup of coffee and offered food. She's photographed with me here before so she knew the lay of the land well enough. Emboldened by coffee and food we headed to the studio and started the process. Nothing at all glamorous. In fact, the bigger the client the more layers, and layers of "style guides" and graphic rules, there are to follow. That's okay, we're nothing if not disciplined; on both sides of the "aisle." 

Once we started photographing my art director would place high tech medical products on the shooting table and arrange them so their features and control points were well positioned. I'd spend time carefully focusing and staying within the comp boundaries. Focusing very small products, like cardiac devices that are about a quarter inch by an inch, and have braided cables attached, requires very careful distribution of focus if one is to get focus over the entire object. And certainly products with greater depth are more challenging. 

With the attached monitor there to share the images in real time we worked quickly and in close collaboration. I shoot two frames for each set up because once processed the images are about 250 megabytes each and, at some point,  excess becomes unwieldy. 

We started photographing at nine and we wrapped up the last shot around 11:30 a.m. I suggested to the client that instead of just taking the raw files ( She is at least as proficient with post production as I am...) I could take the images and run them through Lightroom to apply metadata, put them through the A.I. Denoise feature, coupled with Raw Detail Optimization. I'd output the finished files as .DNGs and delivery them on a thumb drive. I suggested WeTransfer.com as a file transfer option but like many big companies that need to take security into account at all times those web-based programs are off limits at her company. 

After the A.D. left I took a break to eat a peanut butter and blueberry preserve sandwich and then I sat down to process. Since the background on the photos will be dropped out (not by me!) I cleaned up the files as well as I could and trimmed some that had a lot of blanks space on the top or bottom. The added Lightroom processing was good and while the effects can be subtle, in aggregate they do make for a better looking final file. 

After handling that exercise of the post production I pulled a 32GB thumb drive out of a desk drawer and formatted it. They generally come already formatted but mostly it's for (pre-historic) MS DOS fat 32 so if one is using the thumb drive in conjunction with a current computing system running a superior OS it just makes sense to start out fresh with a better format. Even if you are just using EX-Fat. 

Once I confirmed the integrity of all the files I wrote out a "thank you" note and slipped the thumb drive into the envelope with it. I drove over to the client's offices and hand delivered the files at 2:15 p.m. Since the project is being done under a very tight deadline the client was very happy with a speedy delivery. We cut a day off her production time by being a bit earnest. 

The sexy part of the day came next. Breaking down the gear and putting everything back in the cases, on the shelves, etc. And putting all the used batteries back on the chargers. Oh, I almost forgot, I also wanted to create a couple redundant back-ups of the original files as well as an online folder of the processed files but the ones for online needed to be Jpegs. So those needed to be processed as well. 

Then...I took out the trash. Tomorrow, after swim practice, I'll write out an invoice and send it via email. The client indicated that they'd like to pay very quickly, with PayPal, instead of getting bogged down in internal accounting. Fine by me. 

After all the excitement and drama of the shoot (there was none) a friend came over to buy several of my lenses. I used to have an enviable collection of longer, fast glass for theater work but since I've passed on that torch I feel lighter and happier getting rid of stuff that, for the last year or so, as just been gathering dust and depreciating. 

Tonight's excitement? B. is home and it's Thursday so that means "pizza night." Might get crazy this time and order a mushroom pie. I'll go pick it up and bring it home after I sort the recycling. 

No bungee jumping over a gorge for me today. Just working as a tradesperson, getting a job done. Knocking down a paycheck. So cliché I should be drinking a Bud Lite as I type this. 

The glamorous life of a real, working photographer. In detail. 

Camera: Leica SL2

Lenses: Sigma 70mm Macro Art,  Leica SL 24-90mm Asperical. 

Lights: Nanette LEDs, various. 

There you go. Lots of excitement. ta da.  Oh...forgot the composting. My turn.....