 Welcome to a new monthly rendition of Rory's photo adventure. This happens to be the first episode and aims to give a proper back story to how some of my favorite photos were created. You are welcome to opt out at the bottom of this email, or, if you are curious about photography or what I am doing with my camera, then look forward to receiving one of these nerdy/artsy emails once a month. If you know someone who wields a camera and wants to learn more, you are welcome to forward this to them for their entertainment, too :) This Episode: Delight, Intrigue, and a 200 lb Disco Ball The Brainstorm Chonda Pierce took a risk in hiring me to shoot her latest DVD cover. After suggesting that the tentative subject might be "dance", I automatically recalled to legend of a 200 lb disco ball that my buddy Travis Walker said existed across town. The mission was as follows: 1. Find a huge room 2. Load in a fat disco ball 3. Light the set like an old dance hall 4. Release Chonda to dance around, in front, and on top of the disco ball as a means to illustrate freedom and liberty, in a spiritual and literal sense. It was a snap to imagine in my head, but making it a reality was not so snappy :) When I visited the rental company for a quote and suggested that I wanted my subject to sit upon the ball, I was met with a most negative grimace. The ball is composed of Styrofoam and glass, it turns out, with no internal support structure. To sit upon the ball means to crush the ball and fill the fanny with small squares of glass. Hmm...perhaps I would need to re-think things. Travis to the Rescue "Have no fear!," "the show must go on!," "the answer is always yes, the question is alway 'how?" were the mantras that followed in my head. I started to snoop around at the rental company like Columbo, minus the cigar and trenchcoat. "Perhaps we could create the illusion of Chonda upon the disco ball?!" I imagined using a ladder that was shaped like an "A" but with a flat top. After spending a few hundred dollars at Home Depot and a few hours with a drill kit, I was disappointed to realize that the Gorilla ladder I had purchased could not be secured in the shape that I had imagined, and it would also be likely to fall over laterally. Hmm...how would we raise Chonda to the height of the disco ball? This was necessary because her perspective relative to the camera must be from the exact height of the disco ball, since the lens distorts in a way that would reveal any devilry had she sat on the floor for the photo. So I called upon my old, MacGyver-like friend, Travis Walker. It was he who suggested that we use a section of truss supported by some really, really, heavy thingamajigs to raise Chonda up to the level where she would be if she was actually sitting upon the disco ball. Nice suggestion, Master Travis! Room for Rent? The solution for the big room was solved after driving about in East Nashville, peering into empty buildings in the heat of August. (Nashville broke a record that month with a string of 40 100+ degree days!) I found one that was completely empty, absolutely soiled, and void of effective air conditioning. It was perfect! I contacted the landlord and procured electrons and keys for the day. It was a space that was more suited for hot magma swimming than a photo shoot, but experience would have to be my teacher, unfortunately. The date was set, the equipment rented, and the space filled for the big shoot.
 The Set After building the set, we took a test shot to see if it would be as cool as I was hoping. Indeed, it had the makings of a funky photo. For this image, we distributed water across the floor to see if it would help make the old, dull, checkerboard floor liven up. In the end, I had to build more tiles into the photo using Photoshop instead. (The floor was missing tiles in the foreground, and our shooting position was limited, forcing me to find an unnatural solution :p)
 Setting the Light for the Subject For lighting Chonda, I figured we would end up having to chase her around with a softbox and a key light of some sort since she was going to be in multiple places. The ambient lights would stay in the same location. We used head with a 16 inch reflector and a grid for a key, and filled in with a strip box. My buddy Drew came out and modeled this fab Tab shirt. This was our light test to have a chance to see how long the shutter would need to be left open to mix the strobes (on Drew's face) and the gelled hot lights. In order to err on the safe side, the aperture was set around F11, forcing the shutter to be left open for over 1/8 second. I had to communicate to whoever the subject was to be very still, since movement was recorded from hot lights reflecting off of their bodies/clothes during the 1/8 second. Notice the glistening of Drew's skin. No, that's not glycerin. It was 9 o'clock at night and over 100 degrees and climbing because of the lights. Oh my!
 The beautiful Annaliisa arrived to give us a chance to test the truss theory. As you can see, there is no disco ball below her, but she is elevated to the relative position that she would be in had she been sitting upon the disco ball. She had a fresh hair cut and arrived looking like a doll to an unbearably hot, stinky, and sweaty room. Her charming, buddha-like pose does not reflect this, however. She is truly graceful.
 On the fly, and before a very late and overdue dinner, did a quick photoshop rendition of what it would look like to mix the disco ball with our subject. Indeed, with a little work, the idea was going to be a success! Phew! The following day we worked efficiently to accomplish the final photo. I am ever grateful to my crew: Travis Walker Brady Keeling Cameron Conant Donny Smutz Drew Tilghman Annaliisa Maki Without these diligent workers, this photo would not have been possible. See you next month! Rory | 
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