Learning Experience

Last night was the big photo shoot. I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but a couple months ago a guy from a company in Chicago contacted me, saying they were flying a bunch of their top sellers down to V@llarta and were looking for someone to photograph the group and then take shots of people during the cocktail hour. It was going to be 140 people and I was nervous because I never attempted to shoot such a large group before. But M. kept encouraging me and I pursued the job.

First, the guy asked how much I would charge and once again, I had that sick feeling in my stomach. I don't know! Then he asked if I could rent risers to pose the people on (you know, those things church choirs stand on). This proved to be an impossible task (it was hard to explain to people what I was talking about and then they'd get it and be like "I don't know".) I started wondering if I could just pose people below and shoot off a balcony like I do for the weddings or maybe just pose them on some stairs. I located the resort where this event would be online, and contacted the event coordinator. She seemed cordial enough, but insisted there were no stairs, no balcony, no location. I got the feeling this woman "had no imagination" as M. likes to say, and that I needed to go to the resort in person.

Once I got out there, I found a huge staircase outside the hotel that although boring, would be perfectly adequate for the job. I wandered around more and found several other suitable locations. In the center of the pool is a large cement "pedestal" and I asked if I could get on a balcony to shoot. No, that wouldn't be possible she told me. But at least I had several options that I reported back to the company. I also mentioned to them that it often rains in September and we'd need a backup location (the stairs). The guy seemed to like my initiative and follow-through and hired me for the job at more money than I asked for. But as time went on, the group grew from 140 to 240!

The day before the event, the travel agent/coordinator wanted to meet with me to do a property walkthrough. Apparently the company head also liked the pedestal spot and this time when questioned about shooting from a balcony, the event coordinator said sure. Unfortunately, the ideal balcony to shoot from was occupied, but she agreed to ask the guests if we could use their balcony. (The moment she agreed to this, I had a feeling she might have no intention of asking, but was just being polite/Mexican. See, I'm catching on.)

When I showed up for the shoot with my assistant, we were told we needed to registar with security and needed photo ID. Now I'd been out there twice before and never needed it, and it was never even mentioned. But let's just say these things don't really surprise me too much anymore.

Everyone was late to the shoot and the first mistake I made was trying to get the first arrivers to start getting into place. 15-20 minutes later after standing out in the terrible V@llarta heat and humidity, we were ready to go. My assistant and I had asked if we could use the hotel walkie-talkies to communicate and the coordinator agreed, but strange how they seemed to malfunction during the shoot!

So these are the shots I got. Last night I was really ecstatic about the whole experience. Today all I see is a group of people standing a little too far to one side. I didn't fail, but I didn't excel either. I mean I knew I was setting myself up for something difficult, and I could have done the boring shot on the stairs much more easily. But I thought the portfolio potential was much better with this shot.



I did learn so many things though and the shots of the individual people during cocktail hour/dinner came out excellent. And that was partially because of a less than stellar shoot I did for an immigrant assistance organization event I shot about this time last year. I have to just keep telling myself that I can't get worse, I can only get better.