If you discount the fact that the Universe is expanding, if you just confine your area of
observation to Planet Earth, you know that space is limited. (That’s why people tell you
to buy land….because they’re not making it anymore, except in Dubai.)

Tight space is a given in magazines as well. There are only so many pages for editorial
and the photo editors and art directors have to squeeze all that information onto them.
Things get chopped and squished.

If you’re a photographer (or, at least, if you’re me) you’ll be saying: Just cut the copy,
make the pictures big. Of course we don’t live in that kind of world…..this is one tough
planet.

PHOTO GEAR

Last summer I had to shoot a 737 on the tarmac. For some reason I had to buy my
own safety vests. I got 2, one for me and one for Ben (the assistant). After the shoot
I figured I might as well leave them in the trunk. After all, you never know when you’ll
break down, they might come in handy.

A few months later we found ourselves driving down a bike path to get to a location.
I actually thought it was a road, it sorta looked like one. Pretty soon, though, it became
apparent we were driving a car where no car was supposed to be. I was damned if I was
gonna backtrack, park the car way far away and wheel the cameras, lights, stands and
my generator all the way back. So I just kept going and pulled over to the side when
we got to where we needed to be.

Got out and started to set up. Well, let me tell you, those cyclists gave us some
dirty looks. What the hell were we doing with our car on a fricken bike path? I
said to Ben: “Lets put on those vests”. We did and the dirty looks stopped. We
were (or at least seemed to be) official.

Couple of weeks ago I needed to shoot a truck on a city street, during rush hour of
course. We positioned the truck over by the curb but I had to be in the middle of
the next lane to get the angle I needed. Once again we reached for the vests. Ben
stood in the middle of the road, the traffic came to a stop and I shot ’til I was sure
I had what I needed. Not once did a horn blow or did any of the stopped drivers
get out and tell us to fuck off. Official, I tell you.

You should get a vest and keep it around.