JWilsonphoto
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 p.94 #18 · Mustang Air to Air: The Sequel | |
Hi Nick,
Well all this does figure into my "retirement" plan, ......sort of  I've done campaigns like this for Andersen and Pella windows, Elk and GAF (commercial and residential roofing products), and several commercial lighting manufacturers. I shot ELK's products for 25 years and we completely revamped the company's image, bringing it to a highly profitable and very sought after producer of residential roofing materials. So sought after in fact, their nearest competitor, GAF did hostile takeover, running stock prices through the roof and ultimately buying the company. Grrrr, that was another one of a dozen opportunities where my insider knowledge would have made me millions. I knew every move that was being made for two years during the take over battle, could have loaded up on stock. I was traveling with the CEO the week a huge lawsuit was being settled between GAF and ELK toward the end of the take over, two days later it was announced and the stock went through the roof. I was focused on my work, and, I never liked orange jumpsuits anyway........
So, back to the photography of the big marketing campaign. Those kind of assignments take a special type of temperament, you have to be nimble in planning and execution because elements, especially weather are constantly in flux. The photographer has to be able to scout, figure out angles and lighting, come back and capture those angles efficiently and then sit down with the weather and an airline schedule to figure out where to go next. There have been many instances where I was in California and the next location was in the same state, but the weather was only cooperating on the east coast, so, you jump on the next flight east, shoot and start the whole process again. One of the challenges is to keep one's perspective as you plod through the location list, because fatigue and boredom can really affect the quality of your work.
You have to stay on top of sequential billing too, because a couple of weeks of that schedule and one day you wake up with an extra 30 or 40 grand on your credit card and you don't want to get hung out for that. Generally there's very little chance of that when the clients are the market leaders I've mentioned. I like working directly for the company because ad agencies will stone wall an invoice for 60 days and use your money in the interim.
Yes, the suppliers and manufacturers spooling up is a great sign that the economy is going to be strong for a bit. Here in the states the prosperity is somewhat localized. Areas that are generally conservative politically are experiencing an unprecedented boom in residential and commercial building and job creation. Locales that have favored the opposing views struggle with inflated prices, ridiculously high taxes and overwhelming debt from over spending and entitlement programs, all of which severely hinders growth, other than in governmental areas, which just aggravates the cycle. My old home state of Illinois is a perfect example, they have followed California's playbook and that has put the state in a situation that it is unlikely to recover from. "Trickle Down" is real, no matter what people want to believe, every invoice I have sent out in the last 40 years is evidence of the validity of the theory. What's trickling down can be awful, or great, just depends upon what is going on above you in the food chain, either way the theory is valid.
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