This guy and his wife are a stable in Leslieville. They have matching personal mobility scooters fully decked out with canopies, cup-holders and HUGE mirrors. Unfortunately I couldn't catch both in the same frame. Someday though, someday.
Perhaps the real test is to see who can read these signs without snickering. I mean come on, the hand illustration on the left sign even looks like a ‘shocker’.
Who says nuclear scientists don’t have a sense of humour.
This will be the first of two posts today. I’m sending this to test something and welcome the lovely weather here in Toronto.
The summertime brings more than just buckets of sunscreen to photo sets. There’s also the wave of new assistants and photo interns who arrive fresh-faced from school and are, perhaps, unaware of certain etiquette and conventions that us grizzled old-timers take for granted.
I took the above photo on a recent job after I’d asked the eager, but very inexperienced, assistant to, “Please tape-down the cords.”
Now, I am not sharing this image to belittle them or any other new assistant. On the contrary, the fault here is mine. This ‘newbie’ followed my instructions to the letter…. Literally.
My assumption that they would straighten out and group the cords before applying tape might seem like common sense, but for someone with little to no on-set experience, the fear of being reprimanded for doing something that wasn’t explicitly requested over-ruled their gut instinct. I had hastily assigned a ‘simple’ task without clarifying exactly what I needed done and why.
So, when dealing with new talent, the lessons here are: assume nothing, communicate fully and TEACH the reasons why things are done a certain way.
Which I did with this assistant; but not before I snapped a few more photos of their abstract masterpiece.
I look forward to meeting your newest assistants/interns and hopefully sharing some useful knowledge with them on your next shoot.
Cheers,
Eric
Huge thanks to Chris Chapman and the whole Silverline Studios crew for hosting an awesome shindig tonight. Free food, free booze and free spirits. Is this what the Toronto photo scene was like in the 80s?!?!?!?
Even if it wasn’t, I welcome it and look forward to more!
So, the world didn’t end today.
But, I found it appropriate that I spent the day on a photo shoot at the new Corus Entertainment building where I had to pass this room everytime I left set. This clock just screams ticking-bomb, self-destruct, the-world-is- going-to-end timer, no?
There was more to the message at the beginning but it had dissipated too much for me to make it out. Did anyone else see or photography it?