A very hot day on which to scout a location. Now hibernating.
I thought to show buildings, cloud dotted skies or mannequins but
I thought maybe a very, very early attempt at portraiture
might work just as well. Circa: 1979
Used all the gear I owned at the time. Which would have
fit in a large shoebox...
Holy-Molé. It's freakin hot outside.
I have an assignment to photograph the Seminary of the Southwest on the 10th of September. Well, when I say "photograph the Seminary...." I really mean photograph the faculty, new dean of the college, students studenting, librarians actively libraricizing, and all the other nuts and bolts that need to go on a website, etc. In fact, when I toured the new library I suggested that they have the architecture firm who did the project hire a top notch specialist to make those beauty building shots and share those expenses with the architects.
I've done work with the Seminary for years. The campus is located just north of the UT Law School, in the middle of the Hyde Park neighborhood. The Episcopalians are congenial clients and I enjoy the break from a relentless line-up of commercial/corporate clients.
When we connected a few weeks ago my client suggested that we scout the new library and maybe take a quick tour around the campus to refresh my memory. My last shoot for them was pre-Covid and it was good to see how much had changed and how many new photographic opportunities there are.
The whole time we scouted I was making mental notes of how I'd position people in new classrooms, a new library and even a new student run bookstore. How would I light the spaces? How would I leverage the inevitable compromises between moving quickly but getting each set-up right? With all the stuff we want to get done it seems most effective to bring one rolling case of gear and just a small complement of highly portable lighting gear. And since we identified some opportunities that might be evening shots and others that might be early morning shots we talked about scheduling multiple days. While the new buildings are important our real focus is showing people in the spaces and engaged in the learning process as well as the interaction between students and faculty.
I really love scouting a project because you see where the time eating choke points are and can pre-plan how to prevent the almost inevitable slowdowns. I like seeing where the light comes from and what the interior lights are all about. I even use the compass feature on my phone to estimate when the sun will be where. And it gives the client and me a chance to talk in more detail about what the goals are as we walk from space to space. It's also nice to be introduced to various faculty and staff who will be involved in our sessions in a few weeks.
This was an unusual day for me. I usually get up and am out the door by 7:45. I usually hit the 8:00 swim practice every day. Instead, this morning I slept in and started the day in lazy mode. Lingering over breakfast. Reading the news. Checking on investments. And driving over to start scouting at 10:00.
It wasn't my intention to skip swim practice altogether. Now that the kids are all back in school our athletic club has started the noon masters swim practices back up so we now have three time slots in most days to choose from. I figured I'd hit the pool at noon, on my way back to the office and get in a couple of miles. Today I wimped out.
It was already 100° when I got in my car to leave my scouting mission and drive back to the neighborhood. The heat index was five degrees higher. It felt gruesomely hot outside. And, with B. out of town, there was no one around to paint my back with sunscreen. I parked the car at home and it was 102°. Right now, at 3 pm it's 104° and the heat index is steady at 109. When I weighed the pluses of exercise against the heat and UV exposure ... heading home for a quiet lunch and a cool afternoon in the office was a much better bet.
It's supposed to start cooling down tomorrow. I hope the weather folks are correct. We're shy of the record high temperatures for this week but we're pretty darn close. Even inside in the air conditioned spaces the heat outside is oppressive. And this week the allergy triggers are off the charts. Better to eat some fruit salad and quaff some iced coffee. Maybe read on the couch...
Getting ready to shoot more stuff with the SL2-S when it arrives. Leica M to L mount adapter is ready as are some really adorable M series lenses that are just begging for a trial run on the new (to me) camera.
If you are in the Northern hemisphere I hope you are keeping cool and hydrated. Heat kills more people than any other kind of harsh weather. Take care!
