World......Meet the Q12.

Good friends can sometimes bet he best path to work. One of my commercial clients here in Indy is Ultrasun USA. One of my best friends is the General Manager there, and wasn't happy with the photos he was recieving for marketing materials from over seas. Thus as simple as it sounds my relationship with Ultrasun was born. I've photographed just about every bed that they have, and am waiting for them to recieve more of their new line. The Q12 in the picture above was the first like it to be in the United States. There are much larger plans for the photos than just posters and online galleries, but that's a story for another blog.

Shooting something like a Tanning bed is about as difficult as shooting a Car. You need a large white space (big enough to cover all sides in most cases), because the bed is very reflective. You can definitely shoot a car without a large white space, and you can even do it with only a few little lights as the Strobist proved a few weeks ago. For Ultrasun's purposes that wouldn't do though. Brad and I had to prove that we were smarter than 5th graders and construct a large white cube. It turns out this was the biggest DIY photo project ever, and was a lot more difficult than it sounds...... I think it was 13 hours, and 4 pizza's later we got something that worked in a way to provide the photo you see above. Tonight we started to shoot the Q8, which is another bed in the new product line. Unfortunately our box looks like it needs a little work after a years worth of use......



The box used to be all taught, and nice looking. Cube like. Gravity affects everything though I guess.... The really tough part is that no matter how long you've been doing something you can always have problems. Brad and I have been shooting these Tanning beds for a little over a year now, and we think we've got it pretty much to a science. It never fails though, and no matter what you've planned for; something can always go wrong. Some issues are small and can be fixed quickly, while others will end your shoot completely. Tonight our shoot was ended completely. We have a large circular disk on wheels so we can rotate the beds easily. When that breaks We are done.....It happens. Tonight, the worst happened.



We know it's bound to happen. It's still no fun though. The bucket is there to help hold the bed up until the service guys can repair it tomorrow. It all just goes to show that Patience is part of this game. It sucks, but we'll just have to start shooting again tomorrow or next week. Without patience you can't do photography. Brad and I ended up shooting tonight, but not a tanning bed. Think Convertable.....think Video......More soon.