Professional Tip: Always bring a ladder.

The aftermath of a morning golf photograph...

I met with my friend and sometimes client, Dr. Jim Grubbs, for lunch last Monday. He showed me a comp the cover mock up for his third book about golf and psychology. He asked me to photograph it for him. 

Yesterday I pulled out the camera and lens I wanted to use and made sure I had charged batteries, two formatted memory cards and that all the settings were in the ballpark for use on a sunny morning. Since it's been hotter than Hades here for a long time it was just a reflex to grab a 4x4 foot white sheet of nylon fabric and a couple of clothes pins for use in covering up the black camera, lens and dark camera bag ---- there's not a lot of shade on a putting green...the direct sun on gear is contraindicated during the Austin Summers...

I knew I wouldn't have to light anything but as I was going over the shoot, step-by-step, in my head it dawned on me that a bit of elevation was going to make the shot work better. Jim's scouting photo was nice but he's also about 6 foot five inches tall and I'm 5'8"; his perspective is different than mine when it comes to shooting at a down angle. I knew I'd want some space to back up (literally "up") so I could get the perspective right.

That meant bringing along the step ladder. The ladder is six feet tall and the only way it would fit inside the Subaru Forester is if I reclined the passenger seat all the way back. But you know what? I'm over trashing the interior of my cars with dirty ladders and accidental upholstery destruction. But, for the first time in my long career I finally have a car that has a built in roof rack and crossbars. 

I felt like blue collar craftsman using bungee cords to secure the aluminum ladder to the top of the car. But it was great. It didn't fall off on the freeway and snarl traffic or kill someone.  I can't wait to buy a roll of nine foot seamless and attach that to the topside as well. Hell, give me time and I'll have an entire studio full of stuff tied to the racks...

My sleek Forester will eventually look like one of the those overloaded car/trucks from the FSA photos of the Dust Bowl times in the Great Depression. Or, maybe the VSL CFO will step out, take a look and shut down my plan. Calmer minds prevailing and all that. 

Jim arrived early, carefully planned out his shot and got it set up and ready. I arrived punctually at 9 a.m. and walked over empty handed to check out the props and the angles. We made one small adjustment. I went back and grabbed the ladder and the Fuji GFX 50Sii with the 35-70mm lens. Took one more look and then climbed up three steps on the ladder and started shooting. Damn, those 16 bit, uncompressed raw files are big. About 108.5 megabytes apiece. On the other hand they sure are hard to screw up. Get onto the target and you can post process a "bullseye" nearly every time. 

We started shooting at 9:05, did a few variations, shot a few with passing cloud cover and then called this part of our project completed. Time at the finish was 9:12. The ladder went back on the car and, after a nice handshake, and a quick schedule check to get the book's interior shots on our calendars, I was heading back home. Seven minutes for a book cover. A new record for me.

The shoot was a good reminder to always think about bringing a ladder on a shoot. We might not always use it but it sure is handy when you need one. 

This will be my third book cover for Jim's golf books. Relaxed, fun, happy shooting. Almost like being retired.