Rob
Regardless of what the client said, you did an excellent job with a very difficult subject. I would get their permission to use your work as an example and then make, some pages on your site, that shows what you can do. It may open the doors to some other opportunities.
I am sorry about the dose of reality in the end. Try not to take it to hard.
You do really good work. Pearls before ? comes to mind, but I digress.
What to take away from the experience.
It is important to do more prep work in determining what your client wants.
What they are trying to achieve. What their goals for the eventual images are.
It is far to easy to get caught up in the moment and give them great work, but not exactly what they want. Because I come from a PJ background, I often get the "Money" shot first and then allow my internal artist to play. In this case, the warning sign was.
>>"I want it to look like that fishbowl effect where everything's all distorted and funny lookin'. "
So, a couple of pre-shoot fisheye shots would have helped bring out the fact, that they wanted to make the place look as big as possible.
When dealing with clients, I often find myself using a form of communication that is called relative listening. Where I try to rephrase what they are saying, so that we are on the same page. So, I would being saying things like. "So, what you are trying to do is to show your work flow, from beginning to end, show that you have an actual office, with a lot of space, and a lot of employees, you only want 4 main images for a full color brochure and the images will have a maximum printed size of 5x7 each." This reflective listening plus summarization helps everyone get on the same page, helps with price negotiation, equipment choice, resolution, ISO, etc. prior to starting a shoot.
Once again, I really like what you did with the place, and keep up the good work.
Bob
Natron wrote:
I can't really help you with the lighting or ideas. Sorry about that. What I'm here to ask is...... what in the world is that guy doing with a full roll of toilet paper on his desk??
I had the same question but then I thought they may be too busy ... so ... you know !!!
By the way, my former boss who is now working in China told me that they build the toilet paper holder OUTSIDE the restroom so that people who take the paper would hesitate to waste it, that might explain a personal roll of paper is probably from a visiting worker from the US.
Lunatique wrote:
Ok guys, I promised to share everything in detail, and here we are, the moment of truth, and the aftermath.
Let's start with the weekend...
.... Big thanks to all of you that gave me suggestions, and I hope this entire ordeal has helped some of you as much as it has helped me grow as a photographer--and more importantly, proved to myself that passion, tenacity, ambition, and thorough planning can overcome overwhelming odds.
Rule number 1: Get it in writing. This is how friendships are tested. If you are good enough to get the job, you are good enough to get paid.
If you are going to move forward with this "job", I would buy a firewire card and enable my computer to use a firewire connection. I assume that you are shooting digital so I would shoot in Raw mode and color balance in post. You need to decide if you are shooting in lifestyle mode or not. If so, light the people and let the enviroment fall off nicely. If not, light the room and make that the priority. If you are not able to light the shot, you are just another guy with a camera. A "high quality" annual report is just that and it sounds like you are in over your head.
My advice is to drag the shutter and blowout the backgrounds and make it about the people and their energy.
Thanks for the comments! I sure learned a lot from this whole thing, both from the actual shoot and from the people that posted in this thread. FM is the best! (I seriously doubt I'd have gotten the same help/feedback/encouragement/kudos from other websites.)
I'm sorry to resurrect this thread yet again, but I just had to comment -- Rob, you have provided a fascinating, exciting, grueling tale of (mis?)-adventure. I know several photographers and others who I'm going to tell to read this story! Your dedication is incredible.
