What an incredible project. I did so many shoots for Canadian Airlines.
When they bought a brand new Boeing 747 400 Series, they asked me to shoot the brochure. So we lit the airplane on the taxiway in the Vancouver airport with 6 - 20K HMI lights and a generator truck for power. Next we shot their in-flight service for Business Class on the second or upper deck of the 747. We had a door open with only a safety wire across and we had a 20K on a cherry picker to simulate sunlight coming into the cabin. Models, flight attendants, food, the whole show. What I learned that day was that jet fuel is heavy and drops to the hangar floor. So all our seaway power cable connections had to be up on apple boxes so the connection could not spark.
Which brings me to this WIng Walker. The cost of shooting this shot in 8 x 10, all in one shot, with models on scaffolding outside of an airplane and models inside with enough strobe to light them was going to be was $93,000.00 in 1989. I suggested we assemble in in computer and I shot the plane at the airport in the sun and shot everyone else including simulating the windows with a photographic print with mylar for glass, in my studio.
Great project. They were billboards across the Gardiner Expressway on Toronto’s waterfront.
Flying a Boeing 777 - Full Simulation
CAE Annual Report with Concrete Design.
We flew to Binghamton, NY to shoot for CAE who makes flight simulators for every airline all over the world.
They had an in-house photographer and usually that never goes well. They can be threatened by an outsider.
But we were there to stir the visual pot. I’d shoot 4 x 5 film, so we could get lots of tilt / shift focus and then I was going to cross process the film. Pretty gutsy when you are sent all that way. You better come home with something good.
We loaded my Profoto strobes into the simulator, I was only going to use the model lamps dimmed. 5 windows means 5 TV screen and the lights on the cockpit instruments.
I sized up the lighting, set my camera, took a meter reading, I have 5 people behind me on the gangway and I shoot a Polaroid. We waited for it to cook. I peeled it. And, the in-house photographer said…
Holy crap, I have been trying to shoot that for 15 years and I could never do it.” I said, “If you let me just get the shot, I will teach you how I did it.”
The computer / flight simulator programmers heard me say that to the photographer and at the end of the shoot, after I had taught him, they said, “Are we good?” “Then let’s get you equipment out of the simulator, we will let you fly the plane.”
OMG, OMG, we flew under full simulation into Mt. Hood where Boeing is located. I did it. I was fine. I got too excited at the end and hit the terminal - I was a little too quick.
They said, where else do you want to fly, I said, Kowloon, let’s land in between the buildings. He said, “You cowboy.” This time I wasn’t doing as well, so he touched the screen, ( before any of us had touch screens ) and suddenly I was 50 miles out in another direction to try again.
What a blast. What an honour, but I get why they paid it forward, because that day I taught someone how to shoot what will be useful to them for years to come.
You never know when you are entertaining an angel.
Nobody Works For Me For That
It was 1983, and I had just finished a promo piece that consisted of a 4 photograph calendar. It was to be sent to potential clients in the Toronto area.
I had decided that I would send 30 promo pieces to 30 of the biggest names in graphic design in America. Like throwing them to the wind, you never know what finds fertile ground and takes seed.
Lowell Williams of Pentagram Houston was in Toronto to do the leasing brochure for the Bank of Nova Scotia’s new tower. He was the best at shooting architectural models and placing them into the skyline. So, he had a project where he needed help shooting alongside of Bob Hare from Hedrich Blessing in Chicago. Hedrich Blessing was one of the best architectural photography groups in the world, let alone America. And Bob was the genius who knew exactly what Lowell wanted.
So Lowell came to my studio. If I had seen the limo waiting outside, I might have been intimidated. He looked at my work and then he asked me what my day rate was. I told him $600.00 a day back in 1983 and he said to me…”Nobody works for me for that, I’ll give you a $1,000.00”.
We worked for 2 weeks together with Bob Hare. I loved every minute of it. They were so generous with the knowledge and Lowell sat in the backseat of my car, the whole time, singing…”I ain’t afraid of no ghost.” as the movie Ghostbusters had just come out. Thank you.