I arrived home on Wednesday morning after a three week trip to Asia and for the first time since October I have no immediate travel plans. I have to say that fact makes me very happy as I have been traveling for this Microsoft campaign for a total of five months and I am really looking forward to focusing on my own personal work again. The experience of doing this job has been an incredible journey. I had started talking with the agency back in July of last year, hired a producer and put in several bids before an answer arrived. I honestly did not think I would in the end be awarded this job and it had started to seem like they were stringing me along as this process took over 3 months. There was so much uncertainty around whether it was going to be me or not. Initially, they were thinking of going with two photographers due to the enormous nature of the campaign - 34 subjects in fifteen countries. I was actually pushing for this split but in the end they choose only one. I think I nearly fainted when I found out from both excitement and anxiety. I had never done an advertising job before let alone a photo shoot in fifteen countries. I had only a week and a half to prepare before setting out for Berlin back in the middle of October. The first couple of days on the job were very intense for me and back then I didn't think or know if I could make it through the rigorous travel and work schedule. I remember being in near tears after my first pre-production meeting having never before even knew what a pre-production meeting was and entailed. I still don't much like them and my understanding is not many people do but they go quickly and of course after over 30 meetings I now have got the pre-pro thing under my belt...
I have "climbed that mountain"and returned home a more experienced and hopefully better photographer. All of this of course could not have been done without the help and collaboration of a great crew. My first assistant - shared by both my friend Wadley and then my partner Seth were an enormous help and my fantastic producer Mary Pratt could handle and resolve any difficult issue or situation that came up with calmness and grace. Being able to work with local crews from so many different countries and meeting so many new people was rewarding, as was working with the agency people from McCann and the clients representing Microsoft -all very nice down to earth people. In the end I am so happy they choose only one photographer- me! and that they produced an entire advertising campaign of real people in eight by ten large format with all natural light- all extremely rare and unusual in this business especially in the digital age.
Getting a little too close to the Wisner in Taipei...
photo courtesy of Mary Pratt
