I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I conduct ” Stretching Your frame of Mind” workshops all over the place. Over the past forty-four years of shooting advertising and corporate photography, one can’t help to have been involved with some pretty funny stuff; especially in the advertising world where people tend to be weird. This was always acceptable when and if the interested parties had enough talent to transcend hard stares coming from the management side of the advertising agencies.

One project I worked on, I came in contact with one of the strangest and most talented art directors I had worked with in my career. The agency was in Chicago, and the client was Rubbermaid Sundial Furniture.

It was scheduled to be two weeks of shooting which meant a large budget,  so the account department wanted me to fly up and meet with them, the client, and the art director assigned to the project in person.

I flew to Chicago and immediately cabbed it to their building. I walked into the agency and gave the receptionist my name. I was led to the art director’s office and told to wait. As I sat down, I started looking around and couldn’t believe what I was seeing…which was one of the strangest things I had ever encountered.

Everything in his office had been covered and wrapped in Aluminum Foil. From his desk to his chair to the coat rack. His drawing board, T- square, pencils and pencil holder, stapler…everything!!!

I was flabbergasted…so much so that I started laughing..and I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff in my career. When this guy walked in he didn’t say a word about how his room was decorated…he completely ignored it and as a result, I didn’t mention it in case he wanted the satisfaction of me thinking he was one of the oddest people I had ever met and obviously had come from somewhere deep in the middle of the Earth.

The shoot involved having two trucks loaded with Rubbermaid’s entire line of furniture following Gary and I down the coast highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and allowing me to do anything I wanted. As it turned out, we had a great time and he was one of the most talented art directors I had ever worked with.

FYI, the above photo has not been post-processed in any way. Straight out of the camera, and shot on Kodachrome 25 film.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

One of my favorite posts to write is about all the funny stories that have happened to me during my fifty-three career as an advertising and corporate photographer. During that time I also shot a lot of Pro Bono photography for various organizations. I was always eager to help out if it could make people’s lives a little better by taking these photos either for ads , brochures, or magazine articles for the specific charities.

I was asked to shoot the Annual Report for the Salvation Army in Houston. As I tell my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet. The best thing you can do for yourself is to scout ahead of time. Going to a location in advance is just the ticket in taking your photos what I always refer to as “up a notch”. I call it pre-visualization, and it’s on my “did it do it list” for good composition.

One of the photos they wanted me to represent was the activities that were offered to all the people that relied on The Salvation Army for part of their daily lives. when I went to their offices they sent me to a small building where they held a dance every Friday night. Of course it was empty and fairly devoid of any useful photo opportunities; I was sort of stumped.

They wanted a photo that talked about the dance, and how so many people that didn’t have much in their lives to look forward to, came dressed up and ready to swing!

I asked my contact that was escorting me around what kind of people came to the dance and was there anyone special that came to mind. His eyes immediately lit up and said, “Of course, Josephine comes every Friday, and loves to dance.” “Great,” I said, “I’ll be back at seven the day after tomorrow. Don’t tell her anything because I don’t want to alter what she wears or does in advance.”

It was in the summer when it didn’t get dark until well after the start of the dance. I went a little early to try and find some way to light her using available light. I found the perfect room that had a large window that faced North, and as luck would have it an upright piano.

I set up and waited for Josephine, and I didn’t have to wait very long. My contact brought her into the room. I immediately fell in love…how could you not? It was the way she dressed every Friday and it could not have been more perfect; especially since I’m a sucker for women in a red dress, red dress, red dress.

We started talking and it didn’t take long for me to realize that she was very shy (believe it or not) and hesitant to be photographed. We made a deal!!! If she would let me take her portrait, I would stick around and dance with her.

So we danced, and danced, and danced…the night away. I had a great time.

Btw, after we danced she gave me a goodbye kiss, and it was sweeter than honey!!!!!!!!!!!!

🙂

Visit my new website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I put this story on facebook a while back and I had sevral people ask me to post it again on my blog which first came out seven years ago. Here it is again in its entirety:

I recently started a new category I call Anecdotes. These are funny or interesting stories or photographs that actually took place at one time or another during my forty-five years of taking photographs for editorial, advertising or corporate clients.

Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent, or those people that may not be the brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy. If you take my online class with the PPSOP, or my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” Workshop I conduct around the planet, you’ve probably heard a couple.

I use to be called on by Texas Monthly magazine for all the assignments that were weird or dangerous,  These were usually written by their senior writers whose articles were…weird and dangerous. Since they knew I would always come back with something out of the ordinary, I would get first pick.

I absolutely loved the challenge, and to me the weirder or more dangerous the story, the better I liked it. Editorial photography was always my favorite because I would be given the writer’s text, and allowed to do anything I wanted.

The above photo was part of a story on a man living in San Antonio, Texas who offered exorcisms to those whose family members souls were taken over by the devil, or Satan, or Beelzebub, or Lucifer, or The Prince of Darkness, or whatever name you want to give The Evil One!!!

I called him and said that I was the photographer the magazine had hired to come take his portrait. This man, whose name I can’t reveal (not that he’s still alive) had a stroke and his clientele started going elsewhere. He had just returned to a somewhat normal state and had no problem being photographed for PR sake. In fact, he loved the idea of being in a magazine.

My assistant and I drove to San Antonio not knowing what he looked like, where he did his exorcisms, or what to expect. When we arrived, his protege led us into his office, as it were. and I freaked out when I first laid eyes on his outfit. It was just toooooo good to be true. I introduced myself and started up a conversation.  I had him explain the complete process of evicting the Devil, and he went over esch and every one of the tools he used to force the demon out of the body…any body. As he was demonstrating each one I had an epiphany.

I asked him if he would preform the entire exorcism on me!!!

He agreed so I put my “forever go to” 20mm lens on, got down on my knees right in front of him and had him go through each step while I shot on continuous. I usually like to light with a soft approach, meaning umbrellas or soft boxes, but this time I wanted it to be as raw as I could make it. I had a couple of one thousand watt quartz lights and I placed one to the left and aimed it right at him with no diffusion in front of it, and the other to bring up the exposure in the room.

What you see in his hand is some incense burning in an old soup can with a bare light socket sticking in it. As he waved it back and forth holding the frazzled exposed wire, and screaming at the devil to leave my body…all in Spanish, I was shooting. After twenty minutes or so, things got weird. All the dogs in the area started howling…not barking but howling. It really creeped my assistant and I out.  Goosebumps formed all up and down my arm and I started sweating. My guess was the hot quartz lights in a small room with seven foot ceilings????

It has been one of my all time favorite shoots. One that to this day, I can still conjure up a metal picture of the room clouded with cheap, sweet smelling incense.

Ok, I’m sure I’ll be asked if it worked, and all I can say is who really know for sure. 😉

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and be sure to check out my 2013 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime, I got a million stories.

Don’t forget to send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@gmail.com

JoeB

Every once in a while I find myself going through old images and will generally stop on one that brings back fun (and not so much fun) memories.

I was hired by Lowell Williams design who was hired by an oil company in London…Oil Tools Limited. They were to begin drilling in Asia and wantd to create a high quality tabletop book that they could give out.

They sent the designer and myself to Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines to photograph whatever I wanted that would visually represent the culture of the countries.

We had a driver that would take us all around the cities: Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Manilla, Philippines. We would also travel around the countryside outside these three cities as well. If I saw something interesting I would tell the driver to stop while I got out and took pictures.

We were driving down the highway outside Kuala Lumpur and I looked out into the field and saw this young woman tossing water on her Water Buffalo. I asked what she was doing and our driver told us that she was keeping the animal cool; it was very hot and humid.

I jumped out, threw my Nikkor 300mm F/2.8 on an F3 motor drive, loaded a roll of Kodachrome 25, hooked it up to my tripod, and started running out towards her. I made it about thirty yards before I started bogging down in the mud.

I quickly set up, started waving at her, and began shooting. I can only imagine what she was thinking since I was pretty sure I was the first one to ever do whatever it was that I was doing!!

Well, the photo Gods were with me that day. She smiled and continued throwing water while I was shooting.

I waved to her and headed back to the car with a huge smile spreading from ear to ear. I couldn’t believe my good fortune as I thought I had at least one good shot; hard to tell in those days since it was on film and no way to see what I had shot.

I got back to the car and needed to change my jeans and tennis shoes. I set the camera and still attached (very big) lens on the top of the car while I changed. I was still very excited at the amazing experience I just had, so excited that I jumped into the car and we drove off looking for more photo ops.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that the camera and lens were still on the top of the car; just where I had left it.

I was panicked to say the least. I didn’t want to yell at the driver because he might suddenly slam on the brakes and any chance of rescuing my equipment would be compromised.

With a very slow, steady, and low voice, I explained  what was going on and would he take his foot off the gas and slowly come to a stop; which he did.

Now came the moment of truth when I opened the door and nervously looked up (with both eyes barely opened) to where the camera had been. I couldn’t believe my luck…it was still there!!!!

The photo Gods were looking out at this fool that day.

Btw, I’m always telling my online students with the BPSOP and my fellow photographers that join me in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops to always know where your equipment is at all times; and to always check the area around you before you leave.

Visit my new website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me some time.

JoeB

For those of you new to my blog, I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I also conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops all over the planet.

I love writing these posts because they bring back great memories of when I was working as an advertising, corporate, and editorial photographer; that would be right after the last dinosaur disappeared.

That period of time when everything had to be one click, one exposure, on one piece of Kodachrome film; ‘Adobe’ was a type of house in the Southwest part of the USA.

The New York Stock Exchange called me to shoot a portrait of (at that time) the youngest recipient of a heart pacemaker.

Since this little girl was so young and more than likely shy, I had an idea for the shoot and had my studio manager call her parents to find out what she loved doing and what she wanted to be when she got older; also, did she dress up while playing?

We were told that she was taking ballet lessons and wanted to be a ballerina when she grew up. Perfect I thought, and we instructed her mother to have her come fully dressed in her balet attire.

I had a location scout locate a place that would work for the environment, and she came back with the absolutely ideal room; and it was only a mile away at Rice University.

I scouted the room and found that the row of windows face west so the light would be perfect if we shot late in the afternoon.

Being a firm believer in covering my butt at all times and Murphy’s Law, I decided not to trust whether it was going to be a clear sunny day with golden light streaming through the windows.

That said, I was able to secure additional monies to bring in my own lights; two 12K daylight balanced HMI’s (used in television commercials and motion picture films), a really big generator, a grip, and his assistant; and a fog machine just for the hell of it!

The day of the shoot, the sun was hidden behind a dark overcast sky so we went for plan B and through the window I lit the room with the lights I had brought in…and smoked it up a touch.

The little girl arrived wearing her favorite outfit and held tightly by her mother on one side and her father on the other…not good!!!

As I predicted she was very shy and her mother giving her directions didn’t help. So, what do you do? You make the parents leave the room, that’s what you do.

At that point I wasn’t going to try and direct her so I composed the shot the way I wanted by aiming the camera towards the mirror, putting on a 20mm lens, and left my camera on a tripod. I then attached a twenty foot cable release  to it…and walked away.

I turned my back to the camera and started a conversation with my crew. When the little girl realized that no one was watching, she turned towards the mirror and started pretending. As she was doing this I started firing off shots.

Visit my brand new website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

For those of you that might be new to my blog, I was an advertising, corporate, and editorial photographer for over forty years and for the past ten years I have been teaching an online class with the BPSOP, and once again traveling the world only this time conducting my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops.

Over a glass of wine or martini I will often talk about some of the stories that would happen during my shoots; and they would usually make me laugh.

I was shooting the Quaker Oats annual report for Genisis, a graphic design firm in Denver, and one of the companies subsidiaries was Fisher-Price.

I loved working for Mike Miller (the owner) because he would just give me a list of photos he wanted, and then just turn me loose to come up with an idea that would visually illustrate the company.

I went to the local Toys-R-Us and shopped around for ideas. I saw this teetor-totter seesaw and immediately envisioned a shot. Btw, whenever I saw clearly something in my mind, I could always create it.

Scouting around neighborhoods looking for the best light to hit in an area late in the afternoon was a challenge. Since the prettiest areas were covered with large trees, finding just the right spot would take some doing. As was always the case, I would use my Sunpath program and  a hand bearing compass called a Morin2000.

With these I could pinpoint to the one degree exactly where the light would hit, what time it would, and how long it would be in the same spot; as it turned out my front yard was perfect.

My idea was to have two kids playing on it and since  there wasn’t a lot in the budget for professional models, I was just going to use my two daughters…they wouldn’t work for free, but for a dollar plus they got to keep the seesaw, we struck a deal; or so I thought.

When the time came, my daughter that was a year older decided that SHE WAS NOT going to come outside!!! Knowing that I had just a few minutes, I brought Lucy, our dog out with a leftover cheeseburger in my hand.

As luck would have it Lucy weighed more that Blair. I pointed to Lucy to get on the seesaw and gave her half the burger and told her to “stay”!!!

I ran back to the camera and was able to get off a couple of shots before I would have to run back and give Lucy another bite. I was able to do this a few times before I ran out of Lucy’s modeling fee. As you can see by her looking at me she was ready for either more cheeseburger or she was done. At that time she promptly got off and ran back to the house…and that was a wrap!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I just announced my New York, New York Workshop beginning September 17th ,2019 and ending at noon on the 23rd. This will be my second workshop there and this time we’ll be shooting in all the five boroughs.

JoeB

I love writing a post for this category. It conjures up such great memories that I can re-live through this blog. It’s also a story that I will sometimes share with my online students with the BPSOP, and also my fellow photographers tha join me in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet.

Many moons ago, I was asked by the advertising agency that handled the Shell account to shoot the upcoming yearly calendar. Once a year truck drivers from all over the country gathered in a city for the chance to be picked for the calendar; and party in the evenings at the same time.

Among eighteen-wheel super rig truck drivers this is a really big event, and usually a couple hundred of them show up. They spend several days in a huge truck stop washing their trucks, polishing the chrome, and adding Armor-All to their tires.

They do all this for the chance to be one of twelve that make it, since the calendar is distributed all over the country.

To back up a little, every year after they have decided on a city they would rent a huge warehouse that was opened on both ends so each truck could drive in, park in front of a huge white seamless, be photographed, and drive out. I knew that it was going to be hard and time consuming with literally no feeling of accomplishment; creatively speaking that is.

That year they picked Nashville but I told the art director that I really wasn’t interested, and gave him an alternative idea. “Why not let me take each month and come up with an idea for it and shoot all twelve on location; and shoot a portrait of the truck’s owner in front of his truck?”

He liked the idea and ran it up the chain of command. Well, low and behold the top guy loved it and approved the fairly large budget.

I sat down with my producer/location scout and told her my ideas for each month and to find me several locations that would fit the bill. I sent her a couple of days ahead of time to start the proces. The art director and I arrived and while she was still scouting, that the art director and I walked around and picked the twelve trucks that we liked the best.

For October I wanted to do something that said Halloween, and found the perfect red-orange truck for it. Needless to say, the owner was thrilled and honored, and when I told him what I wanted him to do and wear, he just looked at me and a very big grin began to run from ear to ear.

We found an old cemetery and obtained permission to shoot there one evening. I rented several small one thousand watt spots and positioned them behind the truck and various headstones. We dressed him then I used a small softbox for his face. The final touch was to fog it up so all the lights would be backlit and the ‘very scary’  mood set.

I have to say that in all the years of shooting, this is right up there for the most fun a photogrqpher could ever have.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I just announced my New York, New York Workshop beginning September 17th ,2019 and ending at noon on the 23rd. This will be my second workshop there and this time we’ll be shooting in all the five boroughs.

JoeB

For those new to my blog, I was an advertising and corporate photographer for almost fifty years, and now being semi-retired I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I also conduct my personal “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around our planet.

One of my favorite categories to write a post in is Anecdotes. It brings back great memories of the assignments and projects I used to shoot on a daily basis.

Back in my youth, as in my very early thirties, I shot a lot of assignments for a magazine called  Texas Monthly. When they called me to do a photo essay on the Ringland Bros. & Barnum and Baily Circus, I was all over it like a cheap fitting Lassie costume.

I decided to shoot a series of portraits featuring the clowns backstage and use a large softbox on a Bogen boom that had wheels, so I could just roll it around behind the large arena; from clown to clown; worked like a charm!!

I asked the boss clown if I could be made up and go out with the rest of the clowns on what they called a walk-around during the intermission. My assistant and I did two shticks:

We were in the group of seventeen clowns that were piled into a very small car, and when we all popped out there were “little “people” waiting with big, soft mallets to hit us on the heads. In the second shtick my assistant and I walked around with an oversized book that said, “The history of aviation” on the cover. We would walk up to the kids and open it revealing a large fly; why, I had no idea!!

I loved the idea of my true persona completely hidded, so much so that I would up shooting the portraits while still in my clown make-up.

Here’s a sampling of some of my portraits, and by the way, the photo at the top of the blog is me on the left, the boss clown in the middle, and my assistant on the right.

Enjoy:

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of my blog. Come shoot with me sometime and we’ll clown around together.

JoeB

I just love going through old files looking for ideas to write about. I always hope that I’ll come across an image that will bring back fond memories of the time I was traveling two hundred and fifty days out of the year. One of these images I came across was from a campaign for Conoco.

Once in a while I’ll bring out a photo to answer a question one of my students that are taking my online class with the BPSOP has asked. I always keep a folder of these to show in one of the daily reviews I have during one of my personal workshops I conduct all over the place.

This image was taken during a ten day print and billboard campaign I did for Conoco. We produced most of these in Kansas City, Missouri (my hometown) since the largest advertising buy was in the midwest.

During a weekend creative retreat up at my lakehouse several weeks before, we came up with several ideas that would later become either a two page spread or a billboard. We also saved some time to come up with ideas that we had not thought of and if time permitting would create; a dream assignment!!

We spent some pre-production time in KC to scout possible locations in case we came up with a story that would match it. Btw, the building in the background is actually a museum, not a residence.

That evening we were having dinner in a Chinese restaurant and suddenly an idea began forming in my mind. I quickly began telling the art director what I was thinking and he immediately was all over it; like a cheap suit.

The idea involved using the museum as a private residence and having Chinese takeout being delivered..all we needed was someone Chinese to be the model.

It was too late to call a local modeling agency and because of the schedule we had only the next afternoon if we were going to pull it off. The   actually the uncle of the local hair and make-up person we had on the shoot; and the suit was actually his!!!

Since we were in a Chinese restaurant, surely we could convince someone to be our stand in. Especially since we had money in the budget for just such a thing.

Sitting over in the corner was a couple that just had their menues delivered.  I sent my producer over to ask the man if he would be willing to be our model and that we would pay him five hundred dollars in cash. After explaining my idea to him he thought it would be fun to do; and the money was a big factor.

We spent the next morning gathering props, a property release, vehicle, and wardrobe so we could be set up and ready to shoot in the late afternoon. So what you are seeing was only happening in my imagination and not actually a part of real life.

Unfortunately the client didn’t want to spend additional resources in producing this ad so it wound up on the pervebial cutting room floor…but I still have the photo and memory to enjoy!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedue at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Back in the do-dah days when I was traveling two hundred and fifty days a year on assignments, I always made time to donate my photography with orginizations like the United Way, The Salvation Army, The Red Cross, and others.

It was a win-win proposition for both sides. I got to shoot what I wanted and they got me at no charge.

I was helping the United Way with a brochure on their Houston facilities, and after I filled their immediate needs I asked if I could take a few portraits of some of the workers; of course that they could also use.

I was granted permission provided the people said it was ok with them. The people living there were severely challenged but had jobs, i.e., putting packs of sugar in boxes. It was good for them to be doing something meaningful and made them happy. It also gave the people that were more cognizant of the world around them some self-respect.

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

For those new to my blog, I was an advertising and corporate photographer for almost fifty years, and now being semi-retired I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I also conduct my personal “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” around our planet.

When you’ve been shooting as long as I have, fifty years and counting,  one can’t help but to acquire a certain amount of stories along the way. Some funny then and now, and some only funny now.

Thinking back, the not so funny stories usually came from bad decisions made by one person or another. Having said that, I’ve found that the best stories almost always come from said bad decisions. This story didn’t follow that guideline, in fact it’s one of my all time best memories.

I was hired by a graphic design firm to shoot an annual report for a company that made joint replacements. The idea was to shoot famous celebrities or sports heroes that had a replacement of some kind, and Ella Fitzgerald was one that had a hip replacement.

For those of you too young to remember, Ella was an American Jazz singer who was referred to as the “first lady of song”. For more than a half a century Ella was the most popular jazz singer in the US, winning thirteen Grammy awards and selling forty million albums.

My assistant and I, along with the designer, flew out to LA and met Ella at her home in Beverly Hills. Her publicist informed us that Ella wanted to be photographed in her backyard. I went outside to scout for a suitable spot to photograph her. Afterwards we waiting on a couch in her formal living room for her to appear, and after thirty minutes Ella finally came down the long stairway that led into the large room where we were sitting.

I had only known her as a rather large woman that could belt out a song to very large audiences; from Carnegie Hall to Las Vegas. When I first saw her coming down I had no idea that it was Ella. She was very thin, but still looked great…and healthy.

We went out to her backyard and after fifteen minutes I felt I had captured her and told her so. Well, that seemed to go over big as she invited us for breakfast. Well I have to tell you that when she personally started cooking for us I couldn’t believe it; eggs, bacon, toast, juice, and coffee.

After we all cleared and washed the dishes, Ella took me into her special room where she had all her Grammys, awards, posters, and walls of framed gold records.

One poster stood out to me in particular. It was of Ella appearing at a famous jazz club, and she had been drawn and signed by Picasso. It was amazing that it looked like he had, in a matter of seconds, represented Ella’s essence with just a few scribbles; it was Ella Fitzgerald and it was awesome!!

A few weeks later Ella’s assistant called me and said that Ella loved the portrait and could she purchase one for her room. I thanked her and said that I would be willing to trade…a framed portrait for one of those posters.

I couldn’t believe it! She said yes, and now I have a fantastic poster signed by Picasso and Ella on my wall.

This February in conjunction with the Santa Fe Workshops, I’ll be returning to Cuba for the fourth time. My next springtime workshop will Berlin next May; an incredibly beautiful city.

JoeB

I’ve been a professional photographer for almost fifty years, and the number of anecdotes and stories I’ve encountered along the way still pop into my head at one time or another. Since I teach an online class with the BPSOP I’m constantly going through my files looking for photos to show to my students for any number of reasons; mostly to show an alternative way of looking at similar subjects or ideas.

Sharing a glass of wine or a martini while talking to some of my fellow photographers that take my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops planet will usually unleash a story or two.

There’s been enough time pass by so that the bad experiences have mostly melted into any lasting memory I might have had since so many years have passed. The funny memories and anecdotes will hopefully always remain in my mind, no matter how much time goes by.

I was shooting a series of posters, centered around a tennis court, for Prince Tennis rackets that appeared in pro shops  around the country. The campaign’s slogan was let the games begin, and it referred to the fact that people would do anything to play tennis, even shovel snow off the court. I was to produce four different posters, all at one time which made it logistically difficult since one of them had to look like it was shot in Winter while the others had more of a Spring and Summer backdrop.

Since the time of year was during the Winter months, a decision was finally made to shoot three of them in Santa Barbara, California while one of them needed a location somewhere in the North where we could find some snow; easier said than done…why?

I had hired a location scout around the Santa Barbara area to find just the right court. A court that would get either very early sun or one that would be a good place at sunset; to obviously get the best (golden hour) light. I was also suppose to send a scout up north to find the same thing. This is where a serious dilemma would play a big part.

Even if the location scout were to find a snow covered tennis court, by the time my crew and the people on the agency side arrived, there was no guarantee that the snow would still be there; and a lot of money would have been wasted. Having thought through that, I came up with an idea. Since the other posters were to be shot in Santa Barbara, why not just cover a local tennis court with snow? It would cost about the same as everyone flying up to who knows where and maybe not getting the shot.

Well we had good intentions, but as my mother use to say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. The client had approved $4500 for enough shaved ice to cover the courts, but the day of the shoot turned out to be a record breaker and the temperature climbed to ninety degrees when we started laying out the ice; $4500 turned into $9000 and by that time we were committed.

The account executive on the account was freaked out when we told him what was happening, the client took it pretty good…why?

He was pre-occupied and had something else entirely on his mind. Right before I climbed into the giant crane so I could shoot straight down, he came up, pulled me aside, and asked me for a big favor.

He asked me if I would take a quick picture of this blonde he had met the night before in a bathing suit. It seems that he had met her in a bar and promised her stardom in exchange for…your guess is as good as mine!!!

Since he was willing to pay the extra $4500, it was the least I could do…I took one for the team…literally.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime…I got a million stories.

Send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@gmal.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

I love writing posts for this category, although I never know when an anecdote will pop into my brain. A story will come to mind when I’m going through my images looking for one that will help explain something to one of my online students with the BPSOP. While sitting at some restaurant having  glass of wine with some of my fellow photographers that has signed up for one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop a story will also come into my head.

I can tell you that over the course of my nearly fifty years of shooting there has been many. Some funny now but not so funny then, and some that are funny no matter how much time has gone buy.

This is one that wasn’t so funny then:

I was shooting a series of ads for Alpha Romeo, and the decision was made to shoot at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. I had shot there before so I knew how it looked and thought it would be perfect for the kind of simplistic environment the Art director wanted; he wanted something Zen.

Through the Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) my producer secured a permit to shoot. A contract was signed and one of the major points , if not the most important point, was that it was to be left exactly as it was when we got there; they were and still are very proud of the Salt flats and woe to those that mess it up in any way.

When a photographer is selected for the shoot, a car prep company is assigned, and it’s their responsibility to handle the car.

They unload it where you want, they take care of the detailing, and they load it back up in the car truck when the shoot is over. The photographer and his crew never so much as touch the car with their pinky finger for any reason; some of these cars are prototypes with no motors.

The two guys assigned to this shoot were from California and not the brightest stars in the galaxy. The hero car was in a long trailer pulled by a big truck, and I told Sandy where I wanted it unloaded. The salt flats are very hard in the middle and it gets soft the closer you gt to the edges; which is why it specifically states in the permit to not get close to the edges…which is exactly what Sandy did, immediately getting the back tire of the truck and the back end of the trailer stuck.

For the rest of the day he tried everything to get the tire out of what was then a small rut. Finally, after the rut became bigger, he went into town and rented a tractor to pull the truck out. Well it didn’t take long before the tractor was deep in the rut that was now closer to a gully.

So the next step was for Sandy to go back into town and rent a large back-hoe that would surely do the job…one would have thought…one would be wrong. Now the large back-hoe, the tractor, the truck and the trailer were all stuck in what was now a canyon.

After two days we finally dug everything out leaving a thirty foot crater. Needless to say we took the car, set it where it would go, slept in the rent cars so we would be ready to shoot the next morning.

As you can see from the photo above, the shot turned out great. We had to use the back-hoe to put the dirt and mud back in the crater as fast as we could and make it look like we were never there. If it hadn’t looked like we were never there, I would have been banned from ever getting a permit with the BLM…anywhere…a little too stressful for my taste.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. On July 30th I begin my 29th year at the Maine Media Workshops. I’ve had the same week since the beginning. It’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. It offers a completely different set of photo ops than one would expect when coming to photograph the coastline, lighthouses, and fishing villages of Maine. Come join me and spend a week completely immersed in your love for photography.

Send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB