I don’t normally think of photography as being hard work.  Sure there is some effort involved in getting the shot you want and then in the processing but I do not consider that work.

Yesterday however I experienced photography as hard work.  Yesterday I loaded up my stuff and drove down to Maquoketa.  I arrived about 10:00 am and started unloading.  The restaurant was warm (probably not to most people.)  So by the time I got the lights, camera, stands, others things in I was really warm.

I took about 100 images of the interior of the restaurant.  I tried a few in natural light and with strobes but I didn’t like any of them.  I then decided to shoot all the interior shots in a 5 shot HDR group.  I liked the way they came out.

So I’m trying to take the interior of the restaurant, some of the patrons who were okay with their picture being taken, some of the food being served, the owner, and trying to capture the ambiance of the place all the while trying to stay out of everyone’s way so they could serve their customers.

Of course the more people who came into the restaurant the warmer it got.  I had two fans (which I always carry with my lights) going but I wasn’t usually standing in front of them so they didn’t help much.

Still it was my first “commercial” shoot and I learned many lessons.  I had taken a couple of on-line lessons about shooting a business.  It certainly helped but as with all things there is no better teacher than practical experience.

One of the challenges I face is a language barrier.  The owner doesn’t speak or understand much English.  She does pretty good but there is a lot of puzzled looks when we’re trying to communicate.  🙂  She is a very nice lady so that makes it easier to struggle through the language.

I finally rolled out of there about 3:30 pm and I was tired.  I didn’t even stop for lunch and there were plenty of offers for food but there just wasn’t enough time.  Even with all the shots I got as I’m thinking through the layout of the website I know I’m going to have to get some more images that I didn’t get yesterday.

Hopefully I can stop there a couple of times after work and grab the shots I need and then I can start building website.  I have a general idea what I want it to look like, but of course I have no idea what the owner’s vision of the site is.  That will take some more communication.  🙂

Enjoy your Sunday.  Looks like it will be a nice one.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.