The old stock market adage “sell in May and go away” applies to commercial photography as well. Most commercial photographers that I know that shoot for similar ad agencies and brands as me are usually slow during the summer months. It seems that many ad agency folks and corporate execs take their vacations during this time and not much work gets done. Many large corporations also have fiscal years that begin on July 1st which puts a lot of budgets in limbo around that time. During this time, for a photographer, a lot of personal work gets shot, websites get updated or revamped, portfolios get some fresh pages and photographers themselves take some vacation time. Once the middle of August rolls around, we usually start ramping up pre-production and then hit the ground running by September.
Grandfather and Granddaughter
Golden Gate Bridge
Beach Boy
Polaroid!
How I love the Polaroid. Most photographers do. I shoot it less and less these days—my stock of Type 55 is getting low. It used to be that I went through boxes and boxes of this stuff. It was the norm for us to go through 20-30 boxes on a shoot. Mostly I used it for composing and proofing but sometimes as the final product. Especially the 8×10 Polaroid you can scan and make a 24 x 30 print, no problem. The sheet film Polaroids are very sharp—something not usually associated with Polaroids. Lots of guys used Type 55 specifically to check focus on the razor sharp negative that it produced. The Polaroid has that “look” that is so organic and beautiful. It’s hard to duplicate that look with digital or even with the Fujiroids—it can be done but it’s a whole other process that takes place with agonizing ones and zeros instead of shoot, pull, wait, peel, amazement.
Every so often I come across boxes of exposed Polaroids around my studio. Here’s a batch I found today while doing some organizing. Along with Polaroid dying, so did the common print. It was so nice to hold these in my hands today. I still print once in a while but they usually go into a portfolio and frame. Back in the day, you would have stacks of prints to rifle through. Pin one up on a board. Mail one to a friend. Now almost everything is lost into the digital abyss. Stuff goes on Facebook, Flickr, iPhoto—you upload and share and then it is forgotten about and most likely never seen again. Here’s some from my find today that I’m glad I still have: