One of my colleagues described us a the “Photosaurus’s of the photo industry”.

Years ago I got a call from a creative director from one of the largest agencies in Phoenix with a real challenge. The creative director who called me was someone that I had had worked with in the past. As time went on I wasn’t the photographer of choice for the agency. The CD told me that they were using younger talent because they had a newer point of view {Definitely felt like a “Photosaurus”} Anyway the photograph that the Creative director wanted me to shoot was Fking impossible. That’s why he decided to call me. I always was a problem solver and could figure out how to create any type of photograph.

The photograph was for “ KidCare”. The photo they wanted was of a 6-year-old little girl, in a kitchen climbing up a stack of toys to get to a jar of candy that was placed outside the child’s reach. Ha ha!. Ingenious kids, what they will do to get the candy!

The photo had some major problems to solve. First off it had to be shot for a poster that was 40 inches. At the time of the photograph the largest digital camera available was 6 megapixels. Because of the perspective view of the shot I had to use a 4×5 view camera. I needed high quality and a camera that could give me an incredible depth of field. Oh Boy, got to shoot film.

The second problem was safety. We had a 6-year-old child balancing on stacked up toys to reach the jar of candy. This was a major problem. Photos like these can’t be winged. They have to be planned out to the 10’s. When safety is an issue you can’t just throw a kid on top of stacked up toys and think your going to get lucky. The thought did cross my mind, and then reality sunk in, LOL.

Lets complicate the photo just a little bit more. I decided to have my dog in the photo. You know a great photo always have kids and dogs in them.  I always try to bring more to the table than what was asked for.

The shot went like clock work. Everything was thought out and every problem was taken care. I made up a thought process years ago “ Pessimistic Optimism”. Think about every thing that can possibly go wrong and make sure you have the solutions.

The final photo, we must have shot 60 sheets of film. I had to make sure I got the expression on the little girl as well as the dog. Every aspect of the shoot went seamlessly, including post. The creative director was thrilled. My only complaint :0) is that when it comes to the impossible, I seem to get called. Ya know it would be nice to be called on some of the REALLY DIFFICULT shots, like a photo of a baseball on a white seamless. They seem to pay about the same amount of money.  I guess I’ll just have to lie about my age and wear my pants below my butt.