Communicated via walki-talki.
I will often tell my students that take my online classes with the BPSOP and also my fellow photographers that join me in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place of the many stories (funny and not so funny) that have happened to me over a span of fifty years of being a professional photographer. It’s always great to dabble in my photographic past and remember all the shoots from so long ago.
Way back when, there were projects and advertising campaigns, then there were what we called “Plums”. These were the projects that most of, if not all the photographers I use to compete against would kill/die for…with very big budgets!!!
I was fortunate to be awarded many of these types of projects, but one of the all time greatest was a coop campaign I did for United Airlines, and the Hawaii and Hotel Tourism Board. A coop campaign was one where different clients that shared the same needs would split the cost to create a certain amount of print ads that would be spaced throughout the coming year.
After sending my producer/location scout for a week to shoot several locations we had talked about in a production meeting, my two assistants and I flew out for the start of a five week shoot that covered four Islands: Oahu, Kauai, Maui, and the big Island, Hawaii.
I had told my producer to check out all the traditional tourist spots as well as others she heard about while there. The reason being that we would be out there before sunrise when the tourists were still asleep, and at sunset when those tourists were at a restaurant having dinner.
One of the locations was a well know lighthouse on Maui, and after a preliminary scout from a well known tourist car pull out, I had an idea. After bouncing it off the art director from the agency from Chicago and received a smiling approval, we proceeded to make it happen.
We chartered a large sailboat and I placed one of my assistants on it with a walki-talki and the rest of us went up to the tourist lookout and set up; a body on a tripod with a 600mm Nikor F/4 lens.
The plan was for the captain to come around the point and tack back and forth next to the lighthouse. I was able to communicate (keeping both my hands free) what I wanted on the walki-talki by talking through a set of headphones with a voice activated mike connected to it.
On this particular afternoon there were several tourists standing there and when the sailboat came around they all started yelling to one another while grabbing their little point and shoots. When the sailboat turned and went the other way they went “nuts”! Adults jumping up and down.
After seeing this sailboat continue to stick around, one of them came up to me and asked if I were getting the shot with my long telephoto lens…and how lucky I was to be there to capture it.
As I nodded and started talking to my assistant this man realized that it wasn’t luck at all and began telling everyone there that I was the one directing the sailboat to go back and forth. It didn’t take long before I was surrounded and might I add mobbed… asking me if they could all talk to the people on board….while having their picture taken.
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.
In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.
Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?
JoeB
