On the final day of PhotoPlus 2008 I attended two discussions. The first discussion was Creative Portrait Lighting by photographer Bobbi Lane. Bobbie Lane showed examples of her work and then proceeded to a live demonstration of Portrait Lighting. She demonstrated an extensive amount of various lighting scenarios using various lighting equipment. Her ability to flow from one scenario to another was awesome and the images she created before our eyes caused the audience to applaud.
After lunch I attended my final discussion, Lighting for Commercial Productions by photographer F. Scott Schafer. Mr. Schafer displayed many of his works and went into detail regarding the various stages of process in regard to his projects. His average photo shoot production cost averages $100,000. Several of his shots that he went into detail about exceeded $500K in set creation alone. One particular set creation involved ten days of construction on a very large scale. I was amazed to see the final result after learning how much physical set creation went into it. I think the way Mr. Schafer produces his work has about 2 years left. Everything will be done digitally in that time. Why create a $500K set when it can all be done in CGI for $5K and in half the time? He has never owned a camera in his 14 year career and rents all his gear on a per project need. Considering the scale of his projects it is very understandable that he rents his gear for each production, but to be a professional photographer and not own a camera seems absurd to me. From my perspective that would be like a professional musician that does not own the instrument that they play. Obviously no personal photography projects are being pursued by Mr. Schafer. His work is well known and most have seen some of it. I like his photography, but I as far as the process I see a dead end for Mr. Scott
Schafer regarding photography in the near future.
My first time visiting PhotoPlus was a success. The sessions I attended were all good. I defiantly walked away with some useful information and gained quite a bit of perspective from those who are doing photography full time. The great range of experiences shared by the professional photographers in only three days will have an impact on my upcoming work. I’m looking forward to see what comes of it.