Location Shooting

After the plane landed with the photo crew, stylists, art director and models aboard, I was the first one off. I spotted the client waiting at security, all smiles.

“Did you get all the permits?” I asked.

The client’s smile faded.

“Can we shoot downtown?”

“Not quite yet,” the client said.

“The national park location?” I asked.

“Not exactly.”

“The heliport?”

“Well ...”

When shooting on location, assume you’ll need a permit for everything, and each permit will take longer to get than you hoped. As a commercial venture, you have none of the freedom ordinary tourists have to take photos (especially on public land). You can’t expect to operate “under the radar” of law enforcement either—the glamorous look of a photo crew working on location seems to attract the attention of passing law enforcement officers who will stop, smile and ask for your papers.

How difficult is it to get a permit? I’ve found private entities (e.g., companies, individuals) are usually accommodating and helpful. Public entities (e.g., cities, states, federal agencies) may be another story. For example:

• Our location for shooting a home catalog’s cover was a remote and lovely waterfall in Oregon’s Cascade mountains. Unfortunately, nobody could figure out who owned it. Federal, state and lumber company officials all thought it might be theirs, but weren’t sure. We finally got the lumber company to issue a permit on the theory that any permit was better than none. And yes, a smiling Forest Service officer did show up and ask to see our permit.

• Our location for photographing the new products for another home catalog was on national forest land. Unfortunately, the regional office recently underwent some budget cuts, and stopped issuing photo permits for three months while it caught up on other work. We shot elsewhere.

• We were taking outdoor cover shots on private land, but the land bordered a public lake. For one shot we needed to put the tripod in the water a couple feet from shore to bring the distant mountain and apparel model into proper alignment. The permit to place the tripod in the water had to be reviewed by four different federal agencies, and took two months to get.

Hire a Local Facilitator

The young lady hopped in my rental car, lit a cigarette, cranked up the car stereo and pointed casually out the back window. “Head up there,” she instructed.

I blindly followed her instructions as we drove farther and farther into the hill country above the tiny town of Hilo on Hawaii’s big island.

“Turn!” she called. “Now there!” And finally, “Park!”

I got out, looked around and gasped—it was drop-dead gorgeous.

On a location shoot, one of the best things you can have is a local facilitator, someone who knows the local area where you plan to shoot and is willing to help during the shoot. I’ve worked with and without them—and with definitely is better.

• On a photo shoot in Alaska, our facilitator was the client who had lived in the area for more than a decade. She knew everyone and every place in town. By the time the photo crew arrived, she’d already arranged for a plane, a boat and permits for local parks.

• On a photo shoot in central Oregon’s desert, our facilitator was the photographer himself. He’d camped, hiked, canoed, hunted and photographed the area since he was a child, and knew its every nook and cranny, as well as how to live with just a tent and campfire.

• On a shoot at a world-class luxury resort, our facilitator was a resort executive, assigned to us for the sole purpose of making our life easier. She had keys to local homes we could shoot in, arranged for bales of hay to arrive from the local riding stable when we needed them for photo backgrounds, and provided us with a bus and driver for quick location changes.

Consider Trades

“It costs how much?” I gasped.

The helicopter company manager wrote the hourly rental rate for his helicopter on a sheet of paper and showed it to me. It exceeded all my other expenses for the shoot combined.

I thought for a moment. “How about a trade?” I asked.

A handful of catalogers are prosperous enough to simply write a check for whatever they need on a location shoot. But for the rest of us, location shooting is a delicate balancing act—getting the shots we need while avoiding shooting huge holes in the budget.

One way to save the budget is to trade. Remember, the person you’re talking to may have the helicopter, boat, house or land you need for your shot, but you’re bringing a professional photo crew, art director, stylists and maybe even models to this location. A trade often is possible.

• We spent an afternoon shooting on-figure apparel aboard a large yacht. At sunset, with the models off the clock back at the hotel, the photo crew shot a flaming-sky-at-sunset promo shot for the yacht’s owner.

• After flying to a remote location to shoot apparel against a dramatic background, the photo crew directed the aircraft through some maneuvers to get a dramatic shot for the aircraft owner’s personal use.

• The location was a spectacular living room whose walls were solid glass above a gorgeous lake. Afterwards, the cataloger produced a custom version of its best-known product, personalized, to thank the delighted homeowner for her help.

Carefully Select Models

The photographer called me aside. “We’ve got a problem with the model.”

I glanced at the set, puzzled. “She looks OK to me.”

He shook his head gravely. “She’s not getting enough attention,” he murmured.

When any photography shoot— whether outside or inside—includes models, your life is more complicated. Try to book models that someone on your photo crew has worked with before. This might protect you from models with difficult personalities or awkward working habits. But even cooperative, flexible, hard-working models can present constant challenges that must be handled quickly and smoothly so the shoot can continue.

• Our male model was gorgeous, fit, tan—and had his 8-year-old son with him on the shoot. His ex-wife couldn’t keep him that day. Our first few shots all showed Dad peering nervously off-camera, trying to see what Junior was up to. We stopped the shoot and found a nearby kids’ camp to enroll the boy for the day, which got Dad’s mind back on the shoot.

• The female model on a long, tedious shoot had a great, pouty look, but couldn’t seem to find it one day. A quick conference with the photographer (who’d worked with her before) identified the problem: She wasn’t getting enough attention. She wasn’t egotistical or demanding—just young and feeling lonely. I assigned myself as her personal assistant and brought her beverages, personally selected and bought her sandwiches, and drove her to locations in an air-conditioned rental car. Her great-looking smile reappeared.

• On a remote location shoot, our model wanted to extend his stay by an extra day, and we agreed on a reduced day rate that fit our budget. Unfortunately, his agency didn’t agree. As the shot was being set by a gorgeous mountain lake, I was arguing on my cell phone with a modeling agency a thousand miles away. I told them if they didn’t like the rate, to fly their boy home. They bent a little; I bent a little; we agreed on a rate; the model smiled, the camera clicked, and we moved to the next location.

It’s all in a day’s work.

Susan McIntyre is president of McIntyre Direct, a catalog consulting company based in Portland, OR. She can be reached at (503) 735-9515.