Dream Coming True

This last week I was asked to do a photoshoot and get paid for it! It isn't much pay but it is the beginning.

Bryan Thacker is the buy who played Chauvelin in the Scarlet Pimpernel with me. We have actually become pretty good friends. He went to school for cinematography and been doing some freelance stuff. So far he has done commercials for some local business and even for the University of Utah. Recently he has been working on starting a full time business and marketing his services. As a part of this process he ordered some business cards and wanted some pictures to put up on his facebook page and website.

For some reason he asked me to take the pictures for him.

I was flattered when he asked me. He had seen some of my stuff on Facebook and apparently thought I was good enough to hire to take pictures for him. I was pretty nervous though. As a perfectionist I really feel bad getting paid for sub-par work, and with my inexperience I wasn't sure I could create great photos. I definitely was not going to pass up this opportunity though. It was a great chance to push myself and also get a little money for it. The deadline was a little stressful too. He gave me the cards to take pictures of on Tuesday and wanted the pictures done by Wednesday night!

I spent some time looking up good techniques for product photography, examples of business card photos, and some Do-It-Yourself lighting setups. I spent a few hours on the computer and then a couple of hours more searching around the house for material and experimenting with different setups. Finally I found something that gave me pretty good results and was able to really play with creativity and composition. As a side note I don't think I would have been able to do this without the flash. Thanks for letting me have the flash for this long Dad! (I will try and get it back to you when I see you guys next.)

Here are some examples of the pictures I took:

I was actually pretty proud of the way they turned out. Especially since I had to figure out how to work around all the limitations in my skill, equipment, and time. Bryan was actually really impressed as well and told me they were better than he was expecting. He actually asked if he could use me in the future for other projects. YES!! Of course.

So there it is, my first paid gig as a photographer.