Marty’s photo of the day #4452: My wife, Deb Essen, is one of America’s premier master weavers, and she has a three-book deal with Schiffer Publishing.
My first two books, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents” and “Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico, feature my photography, as does my highly successful college show, Around the World in 90 Minutes. So, technically, I’m a professional photographer.
Even so, I’m a wildlife photographer, with equipment aimed towards wildlife, not indoor tabletop shoots. Nevertheless, I’m doing most of the photography for Deb’s three weaving books. Her first two books were fun for me to shoot, because we added personality to those books by taking her completed weaving projects into remote Montana locations and photographing them “in the wild.”
Deb’s third book, based on her creation of Swatch Critters (amazing animals made out of squares weaved on a tiny pin-loom) is going to be a huge hit, because it doesn’t require a big loom and almost anyone can do it.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing the tabletop photography for Deb’s Swatch Critters book. This involves shooting photos for every step of every project—literally thousands of photos, which Deb will pare down to the best of the best for the book.
When I buy my photo equipment, I select good gear, but not top-of-the-line gear. That’s because the real expensive stuff also tends to be heavy, and I’m a mobile photographer who prefers to sneak up on my subjects rather than stand far away with a big honkin’ lens. My current primary camera is a Canon R50. It’s a fine piece of equipment, but I selected it primarily because it’s the lightest multi-lens mirrorless camera that Canon makes. I can carry it places that would simply be impractical with one of Canon’s heavy, super-expensive cameras. Besides, skill makes the photographer, not the camera.
For Deb’s Swatch Critters book, I don’t have the ideal equipment, so we’re making do with what we have. For lighting we are using two light panels that she bought, and we both use, for doing shows via Zoom. I also have to use the flash on my camera to prevent shadows. On top of that, every shot has to be consistent, so the background stays exactly the same shade of gray.
That brings us to today’s photo of me on a ladder. We converted our son’s old bedroom (which we turned into a library when he left for college and has morphed into a storage room) into a studio. For larger items, such as this not-yet-completed octopus on the table, I have to get as high above as I can to eliminate shadows, avoid flash wash out, and keep the colors consistent.
We have one more day of tabletop shooting before completing this project. Yes, it’s tedious and boring, but I can’t wait to see all the photos in Deb’s book!