(Continued)
Where was I?
Oh, right.
Welcome back to "Bob's Wacky History of Model Rocketry".
When we last left our hero, he and Paul Hans had finished working on five new AeroTech kit prototypes.
Running on four hours sleep and adrenaline, Paul and I packed up our cars and drove to the photography studio on a cold Saturday Phoenix morning, arriving just before 8:00 AM.
This was a pretty good sized building. It had offices in the front and a large studio in the back of the building. I was told that auto makers would bring their cars here for photography.
The studio had a twenty-foot ceiling and no windows. It was also freakin' cold inside there!
It was a pretty neat place. The 'stage' area was raised off the ground about one foot and supported by an assembly of struts and supports. The backdrop was a single sheet of heavy paper ten feet wide and running from the back on to the stage platform and secured to the front of the platform. Flood lights, mirrors, filters were positioned around the stage. The photographer had about four/five assistants to help him and he shot the pictures while standing on a ladder or movable platforms.
Paul had assembled a group of friends to act as 'models' to pose with the rockets (They were all paid the going rate). One of the models was Paul's oldest daughter, another was a former military special forces member and one was our graphic design artist. I think there was six/seven of them.
One thing the photographer admonished us about was not to walk on the paper. A 'walkway' would be laid out for the models to get on the stage and into position and then the assitants would remove the walkways before the picture taking began.
Much time was spent getting the lighting just right. Mirrors, flood lights would be moved and repositioned for each picture.
After a few pictures were taken, the photographer decided he did not like the backdrop color. The stage was cleared and the assitants immediately begin to paint the backdrop and stage a different color. The staff worked fast and photography resumed in less than thirty minutes.
One neat photography trick I learned was that just before all the strobe/flood lights fired to take the picture a pre-strobe would fire to eliminate the 'red-eye' effect on the models. I had brought my personal 35mm camera to take pictures and ruined a shot by taking a picture with my flash just seconds before the actual picture was taken. I was told not to take pictures when the photographer announced he was ready.
The hardest part of the picture taking was getting all the models (people) in position and holding still for the pictures. The photographer was always calling out to the folks on stage where to look and what not to do, etc. With four or five people on the stage it could take awhile to get things right. It was not a job I would want to do.
Things moved along and by noon the building had warmed up enough so everyone was now in shirtsleeves (The models were always in shirtsleeves when on stage. Brrrr).
Photography went on until about 5:00 PM that afternoon. There was still a few pictures that needed to be taken so everyone had to go back to the studio on Sunday morning to wrap up the photography.
Things were just getting started and the race was on to see if everything would come together in time for the LA RCHTA Show! Stay tuned.
Attached are some behind-the-scenes pictures I took at the studio.