Back to work. Turns out my former neighbor is the CEO of an Austin based tech company. He'd like me to make some portraits of his senior staff.

Shot with a Leica SL in two steps. Step one was to photograph Chelsea

against a green screen at a theater location. The second was to photograph

a slice of Third St. separately. And slightly out of focus.

Then it was a simple task to composite them together in post.

This semi-retirement or progressive retirement concept can be tricky. I've gotten in six swim practices in a row and been to the gym twice this week and done a number of long walks but I have to admit I was getting a bit...bored. I was missing the early in the year photographic activities that usually arrived, like cedar fever, in the early part of January, in years past. 

I was just cracking open a new book to read. One about Josef Koudelka, when I got an email from the former neighbor who recently relocated from the house next door. He asked if I could make myself available for a photo session. His company needs five people photographed for website use and general P.R. He asked  for an estimate and I went online to see what new Carl Zeiss ZM 21mm f2.8 lenses were selling for. I added about 30% to that and sent over the proposal. The bid was accepted and now I'm booked for Monday morning. But at the civilized start time of 9:30. 

We'll use a similar technique to the one I used in the image above. I'll photograph each of the subjects against a white background, or a green screen, here in the studio and then I'll work with the new company's art director/marketing director to choose urban background photographs with which to composite their chosen people poses. It's a great way to work as opposed to attempting to go out to five different locations and shoot. Especially since the weather forecasts are getting dicier and dicier for the next couple of weeks. Including a 50% chance of rain on Monday. We already have a catalog of 1100+ urban images from which to choose so...no glitches in the schedule.

This will be the second commercial shoot I've done here in the studio since it was recently painted and upgraded. I'll be lighting with a handful of Nanlite LED fixtures because I like the continuous light and I've used them enough to be quite comfortable with their color. No surprises.  It's also a chance to work more with the Fuji GFX MF camera and a few of the lenses I've acquired. 

Diving back into the Josef Koudelka biography, "Next" can wait until Tuesday. After swim practice. 

I'll admit that I've been choosey with work over the last six months; turning down more and more projects. But my former neighbor is a fun guy with a sweet family and he's the kind of client you always wanted to work with. 

Bonus: the masters pool is closed on Monday so no loss of swim opportunity is entailed. And I can always go for a nice, chilly solo swim at Deep Eddy Pool in the afternoon. Now....when am I going to work that nap into the schedule?