Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/13

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] A day in the life
From: Harrison Mcclary <harrison@mcclary.net>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 21:12:44 -0600

Well, for all of you who want to be a location photographer, I thought I'd
tell you about my day, an average day in the life of a location
photographer.

Was on assignment shooting photos for a multinational corporation's employee
magazine, a magazine they distribute world wide.

Got to the location around 8:30am to start setting up lights.  Plug in the
first one and it will not fire.  Just a little pop is all.  I am thinking "I
just had these lights overhauled in December and they have worked flawlessly
since, heck they worked great Friday?" Anyway I try reinstalling the flash
tubes, does not work.  So I figure my head is dead and switch to a brand new
one, just bought it last week.

It does not work.....I fiddle around with it and it makes a few strange
noises so I QUICKLY unplug it.  Have messed with the lights for about an
hour so far.

The store manager comes up and tells me that the regional Vice president,
who I am supposed to have already photographed, is waiting and needs to be
leaving...so I take him outside to shoot him with a little on camera fill
since I can't seem to make my strobes work.

Go back inside and start fiddling with my lights again, in a different
location this time thinking something may have been bad with the previous
plug.  My assistant is holding the head (the new one that I just bought last
week) and sets it down after we have been testing it, seems to be stuck on
full power. BOOM the damn thing blows up.  WOW never had that happen before.
Scares the s*&@! out of everyone in the place including me.

At this point I am about ready to SCREAM One dead, and I mean DEAD, strobe
and one that is not working properly.

Call Ben Chapnick at Black Star to appraise him of my problems and concerns
about pulling the shoot off in time for deadline....heck in 1.5 hours I have
destroyed half of my lighting gear!! Have not done that in 15 years of
shooting.... Call White lightning and go over my problems with them for
suggestions.  We check voltage and resistance and such on power....all
checks fine they think it maybe condensation, something I don't buy. Anyway
we fiddle around for another hour and somehow get two strobes functioning.
Call Ben back and tell him I have enough gear working to do shoot so no need
to call client.  Needless to say blowing up a strobe and having one go flat
on me frazzled me and started my day off badly.  Nothing worse than to be
shooting and not be trusting your gear.

Spent rest of day shooting inside, outside, from lift truck 60 feet up in
air, around shop.  Only only one more weird thing happened with the lights.
Plug in light inside and the modeling light begins to go from dim to bright
rapidly....QUICKLY unplug light and plug it into voltage regulator and it
works fine.  So I guess they were having some weird power surges there today
and that is why my strobe blew up.

Took the dead strobe and wounded one to White Lightning and talked with
them.  I go back tomorrow and pick it up.  I hope it is covered under
warranty, else I lost money today.

Go home package up film and rush to Fed-Ex to meet shipping deadline.

Ah well the joys of Location photography.  No matter it beats the heck outta
working for a living.

And what did I learn today?  ALWAYS carry voltage regulating power strips!!
Do not want this problem to reoccur....

I just turned on my outside light above my back door and it blew
out.....think someone is trying to tell me something?
- -- 
Harrison McClary
http://www.mcclary.net