I had to go scout for a project today. Back in the saddle.

Mitakon 135mm f2.5 on the Fuji 50Sii. Full frame.

100% crop just below. 

My favorite creative director asked me to do a photography assignment for him. It involves photographing fruits and vegetables in bins on shelving. The images are for a regional food bank. They'll be using 6-8 images as wraps for large, refrigerated trailers. Since my creative director friend is smart, and since we'll be shooting at the client's location, he decided that we should scout the project. We should go look at everything we could.

The client H.Q. is on the other side of town. We were scheduled to meet there at 2:30 this afternoon. I left the house early because with Austin traffic you just never know. Add to that the temperatures and tempers on the road and, well, it's better to take it easy and risk arriving early. 

It was a routine, almost stereotypical scouting adventure. The facility is huge. We all met in the lobby. I was joined by the C.D, the art director, the client's marketing director, and one of her associates. We looked at the trailer that would get the wrap. We discussed the proportions of the photos and how they would be applied to the long, horizontal structure. We walked through one of the huge refrigerated food warehouses to get an idea of what kinds of props/products we'd be working with. And we scouted for some location in which to shoot. 

It's really good to do a scouting trip before a shoot. You can prevent a lot of misunderstandings and lost time on the shoot day. For instance, if you are going to shoot a shelving unit that's six feet tall and four feet wide and you don't want to see a lot of perspective distortion between the front legs of the shelves and the back legs you'll need to back up a bit, use a longer than normal lens and also have space behind the shelves to put up a white background and to light that background separately. What a client thinks might work and what actually does work can be vastly different. 

Moving produce (fruit and vegetables) from a very cold storage space into a warm and humid shooting space will cause a bunch of condensation on the products. Might look good or it might not. In shots like this control over the final look is important....

We ruled out one shooting location because the closest electrical outlets were about a hundred feet away. We ruled out another location because, well, it was on a different floor and also on the other side of the facility. By the time we left we had a working agreement on where and when we would do the job and a good idea of how to proceed. That's a time saver. And an anxiety preventer in anyone's book. 

A good scouting adventure tells a photographer: The best location at which to photograph. Where to get ample electrical power for lights. How to schedule the most popular conference room because it's the best shooting location. What to expect in terms of styling the product. Where to load in on the day of the shoot. Who the decision makers on the client side are. And how long the set up and actual photography will take. 

We have a tentative schedule and I feel more comfortable about the details of the job. I think it was worth the time and travel. Even if my car did tell me that the temperature out on the road today was 114°. 

There's another step before the shooting day. The art director and I need to have a phone meeting to discuss technical stuff. Like, how he wants the files and how big he'd like the files to be. The "look and feel" of the lighting. And who will be responsible for styling the shots. We'll get into that tomorrow. 

But for today it seems like were pretty much on target.