At business events where I am the designated photographer, I am often called upon to take a group photo (sadly sometimes referred to as the “team photo”…I am of the opinion that teams wear uniforms with numbers and compete against other teams, but I digress!) and it’s one of my specialties. My goal is always to survey the landscape, evaluate the lighting, find an elevated location (that’s one of my trademarks), and make the actual photograph itself take as little time as possible. This week I was in San Jose for a digital sales training, and I was asked to take a group photo. The original plan was to find a location inside of the conference center, but it was a beautiful, warm California evening, and there was a large white building (giant diffused light source!) adjacent to the grass. I couldn’t appropriate an upstairs room (they were all occupied) or a scissor lift (I love those things!), so I went “old school” and got an 8′ ladder. I secured my tripod to the top, and got everything metered and waited. When it came time for the actual photo, I made it as fun as I could, and if you click the video window below, you’ll see what the herding process looked like, and the final product is below (click it to see it larger).
By the way, the video was filmed with my Canon 5D Mark II (which was taped to the ladder) and the actual group photo was made with my Canon 1Ds Mark III, which was on the tripod. The whole thing took about three minutes.
Leave a reply