Shot a commercial project this week…..3 cities in two days.

The day before we left for the shoot I thought to myself: “Great. Roadtrip. Blog material”.
I charged up my little point and shoot, studied the maps, packed the rest of the gear and
hit the road. We left at 6:45 Wednesday morning, Kingston bound.

I took this shot as we rolled down Bronson Ave., on the way to the hiway:

The next day, on our way back from Brockville I took this, the next and last shot
from the roadtrip:

That’s it, that’s all. (Except, of course, for all the portraits I had been commissioned
to shoot for St Lawrence College. Shot those, they looked fine.)

Which leads me to the subject of today’s post: State of Mind.

I used to wonder what the reason was when the photos from a shoot didn’t turn out as
well, or interesting, or correct (pick one) as I thought they should. After lots of pondering
and trials and errors I arrived at the conclusion that, almost without exception, it’s because
of the state of mind of the photographer.

Some days (and weeks) you’re hot, other days (and weeks) less so. Of course, on commercial
shoots, failure is not an option. If the shots don’t turn out there’s no one to blame except the
photographer, no matter how many art directors, clients, stylists, etc. were on the set. The pro
will work to make sure the client (at least) is happy. The total pro has standards that are high
enough that, even if he’s not totally satisfied, the client will be. Force of will, experience, tricks
and just plain hard work can substitute for inspiration.

And I ask you: “Who’s inspired all the time?”

Anyway…..

I intended (I really did) to do a blog entry about 3 cities in two days. This is it.