I recently travelled to Los Angeles and was able to plan an hold a great fashion photo shoot while I was there. In making travel plans, I procrastinated making the car reservation. After all, how could LA rental agencies be out of cars? It is California and a big city, after all. Well, yes, it even shocked the phone agents who tried to help me, but LA can run out of rental cars during Christmas! It was a good thing my wife’s parents had a car they were not using the day of my shoot. So I was all set, plane tickets and a car.
Before I left for this trip, I spent countless hours working on the details of the photo shoot. This was no small production. First, I found and hired a stylist to help with the look of the shoot. We e-mailed and called back and forth a bit to help define the look of the clothes and my vision for the shoot. Then I booked studio space in downtown LA near the Staples Center. After countless hours of searching for and contacting potential models, I was able to find three stunning models for the shoot. The last piece was ensuring I had rented the right equipment. It was a tremendous amount of work to pull together all of the elements for the shoot, and I accomplished all of it before getting on the airplane to get to LA.
The night before leaving for LA was a great time to dial in my equipment and ensure everything was functioning properly, clean, and ready for the big day. So I forged ahead with cleaning the sensor on my camera. This is a nerve racking process—if you truly mess up, you might as well throw the camera away. This is not a option for me! Well things were going well until a brush I used left a big smudge on the sensor. I could not seem to lift the smudge easily, and did not want to try more aggressive options. I was now well beyond my confort zone and needed help. Yes, I was fit to be tied, but I thought that if I could get out of Aspen before a winter storm closed the airport and arrive in LA, I would be ok. There is a Nikon repair center there and a few large camera stores in the greater LA area. Surely, I could find someone to help me.
The next day, I was set to fly from Aspen to LA at 1:30 pm and a winter storm advisory was set at to begin at 2pm. I thought it might be wise to see if the people at the airport would let me fly on the 7am flight to beat the winter storm. I got up very early and went to the airport to check, but had no luck. So, I was left in town hoping I would get out before the storm hit. I got to the airport on time and checked in, and the flight was only 5 min. late. When we boarded the flight 20 min after it was set to take off, I was thinking I still might have plenty of time to make it to LA to get my sensor checked by a professional and cleaned before my shoot the next day. After sitting on the plane literally on the runway for two hours, we finally took off. Now things were getting interesting. Jenny was already in LA with her dad to pick me up, and they had an extra two hours to kill before I arrived. They figured out that the best place for me to go when I arrived was Samy’s Camera. We got there a little less than an hour before they closed, and got my camera sensor lined up for a cleaning the next day, the day of my shoot.
The morning of my shoot, Jenny and her dad would take one car from Palmdale to LA to see her mom, a little over an hour away. They left at 8, and I was not too far behind them in the other car. I wanted to spend some time at the camera store before my 1pm call at the studio. About 20 minutes into the drive, I thought I ran over something on the freeway or that something came off the car. Just a minute later, the car’s battery light came on, and I knew instantly what had happened. The car had thrown the alternator belt, and sure enough it was also connected to the power steering. Lucky for me there was an exit up ahead, and I was able to get the car safely into a parking lot. Now I was stuck, two hours away from my shoot, with no camera, 5 people waiting on me, and no transportation.
I called my wife, and they were now almost to their destination in LA. We quickly figured out that Jenny’s dad would drop her off at her mom’s and then would come and rescue me from the remote parking lot with the busted car. This was going to take a little over an hour to get to me and then a little under two hours to get to the shoot in downtown LA, via the camera store and all the gear. With luck I could s t i l l, a l m o s t, make it to the shoot on time. Assuming no big traffic delays in LA.
Well, I did make it to the shoot about 5 min. late, with my cleaned camera, all the gear and a new photo assistant/ driver/ father-in-law. The shoot was a ton of fun and work. The results are stunning, look for them soon!
ML
