Believe it or not, this is one of the most artistic shots I've taken all week. And I have taken close to 400 frames in the past three days. Doing location shots for a documentary film producer has little to do with art and everything to do with place. Using a wide angle lens, you are expected to show the producers what a venue looks like from the east, west, north and south. What it looks like as you approach and leave it. What you see if you look out the front window or door. What you see if you turn around and look back. Composition doesn't exist and Photoshop editing is frowned upon. They want to see a place exactly as it is, not as a fine art photographer might like it to be seen. Their concerns are not artistic at this point, but technical. What cameras would we bring? Is there room for our equipment? What vantage point will we take? Most importantly, is it worth the time and money to send our people out from Los Angeles to do a production shoot in this place, or could we get by using footage from archives? These are some of the questions my location shots are supposed to help them answer.
This has been a real learning experience for me, and Rebecca, the producer with whom I've been working, is wonderful, but I don't think I'm cut out for this type of work. I'm too much of a free spirit. Besides, deadlines spook the life out of me, and I've got a BIG one coming up tomorrow (Friday) at noon. All my photo galleries need to be up and running by then (I put them up in a password-protected gallery here on PBase). Wish me luck...