Smoke and Mirrors

The shoot aint over until the smoke detector goes off.

 

 

 

My buddy Ian Curcio and I got together a few days ago in his hometown of Spartanburg, SC, to do a little shooting and a lot of socializing. He had invited me down to shoot a couple of models he knows from Converse College and had also arranged for us to shoot in an old house the school owns.

 

You can tell how a shoot is going to go by the equipment you take with you.

 

I personally packed a couple bags of light stands, a set of dyna-lites, a plethora of softboxes and umbrellas, two bags of cameras and lenses, a couple beauty dishes, a vagabond battery and a ringflash.

 

Ian didn’t have as much gear as I did, but he was close.

 

Between the two of us, we could have easily opened our own rental house.

 

That morning we loaded our cars full of gear, drove to the house and unpacked. To speed things up during the shoot, we set up as much of the gear as we could in a hallway: softboxes and a gaggle of lightstands. As it usually goes, over half of which sat in the hallway unused.

 

Along with the models and the house, Ian had also managed to procure the piece de resistance: a smoke machine.

 

For the record, smoke machines will set off smoke detectors. Make sure you have a ladder handy and preferably not up a flight of stairs and tucked away in a closet.

 

The day was a blast. We explored almost every nook and cranny in that old house: from the old furnace in the basement to the very colorful bathing facilities. They ranged from pink to purple to baby blue. And then some.

 

 

Needless to say, we both had fun and are ready for the next time we can get together to do this again.

 

I just hope by then I will have learned my lesson about overpacking.

 

Somehow, I have this funny feeling it’s a lesson I’ll be repeating again. And again. And again….