Breadcrumbs

 The result of a broken wine glass on set

I have a friend.  Won't say his name.  He has his monkeys on his back for sure.  Head barely above water. Airplane vodkas in his satchel. You know, for that early morning snack.  He throws these "I'm going to kill myself" sentences with abandon.  I'll be shocked if he did but not surprised.

Another phrase of his is, "I've lost my shit, man."

This one I understand.  I took an eight month period of time away from commercial photography, got a large wine job and found I had lost my shit of what I've been doing for the past thirty years.

Started to take little snappy poos of the breadcrumbs I had left behind just for this time when my tao was off center.

This lens shade I made, I call it "Infinahood".  It's a black velveteen rubberized fabric taped to the lens.  The front of the shade has a bendable wire in it.  I can shape the hood as fits the occasion.  The tape allows it to be used on any of the lenses.

I take it off quite often during a shoot and put it on the viewfinder.  The tape has etched the surface.

I once did a bunch of Oral B (my overseas readers, that's a toothbrush company) work and these were part of a set.  Plexi-1inch thick.  Probably have 20 of them.   They make the greatest blocks.

On set, lifting up the top surface three inches.

The little control box on the camera stand.  There are four remotes that control four strobe packs.  You can dial up and down the power from behind the camera.  I use white tape to mark where the packs should be.  The wooden structure on the left is where I used to store 4x5 polaroids and the holder.  That loupe in the middle I've been using for 30 years.

This also has a home on the camera stand.  It was important during film days but not in the digital days.   But damnit, I told myself to save it so save I do.

This is how you make a fake leg on a fake table in a fake photo set.

A set in the morning light.

I did come up with my new way of getting wine into a glass on set.  Gooseneck pitcher is the new part.

A stick of sorts in the funnel, wine gets poured in a controlled manner, the stick takes the wine into the glass without creating splashes.

I was told I should not use the house gooseneck pitcher as it puts in the taste of wine and needs a wash to rid it.

The heads have a number at the head and again at the pack.  You need to know what head goes where.

I rigged up the camera I shoot with now on the rail of the camera I don't shoot with now.  The view camera rail.  I can rack the camera forward or backward while maintaining the same proportion of camera to set ratio.  Here's it's racked way back so I put a C-Stand under it keep from moving around during multiple exposures.

All these things I've been doing and using forever were looking alien to me.  I had to relearn how and why and when and what again.  I was telling the same story to everybody in my sphere.... don't lose your shit, man, because once you lose it, it may not come back, ever, like my friend's shit isn't coming back and if it does come back, it's not going as good. 

Annie finally held up a metaphorical mirror in front of my face.  "Get back to the center, you know where it is."

 

Morning sun through wine glasses under my feet.

 Skylight on viewfinder

The objects needed to change the size of the softbox light.

A brief interlude.  Made a wine rack and cut way too many slats for it.  Pissed me off that I missed it by that much.  So to use them up, made a rack for John.  Dropped it off today.

Seems to me, the world has lost it's shit.  There's something big going on right now in mankind.  Have no idea on what it is though.  I can see the breadcrumbs that we've dropped for when we get lost.  They're right there, right where we put them. 

Hope they are still there for when we decide to find our way out of the abyss.

Boom arm of the softbox.

Strobe cords and duvateen

And working in The Photo Shop.