Over a year ago when my oldest child was completing college applications (and was completely stressed) I saw a common sense type article describing ways to take better control of your life. The part that had an impact on me described “controlling the controllables”. Basically, don’t stress over things you have little or no control over and concentrate on the things you do control. This is so true in photography (and applying to college I think). Things like weather, budget, fickle subjects, etc are out of my control. Sure I have to be prepared as best I can for unforeseen situations but you get the idea. So what are the controllables? Lets use this race car image as an example. I knew time and access could be an issue on this shoot. The ad agency Propeller Branding’s racing team client Primetime Race Group had rented Road Atlanta Raceway for a day to shoot a commercial, do stills, and test cars for the upcoming race season. I could see who might get the short stick here . . . So, we controlled the controllables. I arranged for a camera car to work from so I could get the angles I wanted quickly. I discussed options with a retoucher before shooting. I booked extra crew. We had scout time in advance. I convinced the ad agency we needed it all. And boy did we. A car crash, hot hazy mid-day light, and drivers more into testing cars than completing shoots (can’t blame them !) meant we had one third of the time we were promised. The first image shows one of the completed, retouched shots. The second is the same image with processing only - no retouching. I like control. And my son? Just successfully completed his first year of college. Guess he’s figured it out too.
Update: Propeller Branding is in the process of, well, disappearing. Got those nasty creditor papers from a bankruptcy court the other day. I’m a creditor! Cool. Wait a minute . . . .
