The Swamp

Background

In May I shot an image I had been in preproduction called "The Swamp." It is another in a series of scenes utilizing the act of searching as a narrative device. It is a project that was born from this image:

Read the blogpost about this photo shoot here

On location

This was a challenging shoot. It was a windy & hot day. The location was along the Santa Ana River bicycle trail in Riverside, Ca. We were a crew of seven people with about 150lbs worth of photography & lighting gear. The plan was to shoot in three formats: digital, medium format film, and large format film. The first issue of the day was that the large format option fell through. Unfortunate but nothing that would break the workday. Then came the wind which until that day had been non-existant in Southern California for weeks. Again, it was something that could be handled without much reorganizing. The largest hurdle of the day was lighting. I had rented two Profoto packs & four heads to use in addition to my Elinchrom lighting. The issue? None of it would work reliably. Pocket Wizards were failing and sending false triggering signals left and right. I made the call to cut the Profoto lighting which was relying on the floundering Pocket Wizards and move to just the Elinchroms.

What this ultimately meant was a dramatic & fundamental shift from a six light shoot to two. From calling action on set and having three seperate scenes take place at once to going from one moment to another and having to setup lighting per section. From single image to composite. From according to plan to "we need a new plan."

Once I made the call to go from six lights to two we were a go. Going at a slower pace yes, but moving and that was what was important. Over the next two hours we would setup/shoot, setup/shoot, and setup/shoot. All the while lights were flying (thankfully we had plenty of hands on deck to make sure things were ok), talent falling in a river, and various seedy drug deals happening in the bushes to the side of us.

The important thing though was that we got the shot. We because this is a photograph that alone would not have been possible.

The take away

We had a plan that unfortunately, through a series of issues (either in or out of our control), fell through. However, we knew we had to act and alter that plan and use the knowledge gained from doing this many times before to to ensure that at the end of that day we had our shot.