The Start & Adapting

January 12, 2022

In the last couple of years, work changed dramatically as did life. A few months into the chaos I had embraced this time to get more in touch with myself and those that mean the most to me. In some ways I have found peace and comfort in the forced separation from always being in “go mode” and having work on my mind at all hours.

I love product photography and love the creative advertising community but it can be a challenge to always be anticipating that next move. During lockdowns and with restrictions on travel as well as on set we were able to step back, take a pause and figure out what we can do to provide a safe work place and remove some of the stress associated with what everyone seemed to be telling us what we can’t do. We found ways early on to produce remotely with either a small crew on my side or even by myself.

Being a product photographer in many ways helped me seeing as I can do things much more independently not having models, stylists, hair & makeup, etc on set as much as other photographers. Before all of this and especially today, we can produce a shoot from a studio with as few as one assistant to help me. I can document all the elements and props we are working with along with the clients product and share them via Capture One Pro using Zoom and screen share or simply share small jpegs as we shoot throughout the day to collaborate on ideas for the project as we go. When the creative and client are comfortable with that final jpeg I do the last little tweaks and clean ups and shoot the high res finals along with plates if needed and have the creative sign off on the hero image then we can strike and move on to the next shot on the shot list.

We are already getting back to working and collaborating along side each other in the studio as well as in person preproduction meetings but there are still a lot of agencies and clients that prefer to not gather groups of people in person. This leaner way of working may stick around keeping costs down by lessening travel and production budgets. No matter what we will all still be able to produce great work together