If you are simply passing by and wondering what it would cost to produce these images, this was only attainable with my $1500 price point and the breakdown is below
Set construction:
Set Material Receipt- $550
Set Build + Time - $500
Horse Handler and rental - $150/hr (x2)
This is where any reader can simply jump to the next browser while I externalize my thoughts leading up to this shoot.
I: The memoir
Ever since I was a child I had alwa— KIDDING. I am not going that far back. I often find myself breaking down movie posters, billboard adds, and most cover shots on magazines to try to understand how the images were produced. How were the subjects in the images lit, what retouching was done -and there is always retouching-, and of course, where is the location.
Location, Location, Location
Getting the location you want is often not as easy as you want it. Where I grew up, Cowtown, USA, unless you were looking to produce images of sunflowers, cows, or corn, you were SOL on additional locations, and you can only shoot on a seamless backdrop so many times, Unfortunately, moving closure to the Bay Area did not produce the golden results that I would have hoped either due to coughcough-carbreakins-coughcough which also just so happened to occur in front of a police station which I thought would be a safe place to park. With my $18,000 insurance claim in hand, I knew that I wanted to control the environments that I was shooting more than I had been. I wanted more control, and security for everyone involved. I wanted to build my own sets.
I had seen incredible work by others that had a manicured look, such as Gemmy Wood-Binnendijk renaissance imagery to Justin Bettman’s set in the street. Their images were deliberate and intentional, while I would find myself intentionally photoshopping things out that were out of my control on location.
I own a saw, and so I knew what I needed to do.
II: Set Construction
I found a client that was looking for something original, and I made my pitch.
I went to the weekend warriors homestead and purchased MDF, baseboard, crown molding, paint, light fixtures, and battery powered RGB lightbulbs and began the process.
Step 1: Cut and paint the frames.
Step 2: Match Color Palettes
Step 3: Buy your dad lunch so he helps you put it all together
The entire build of the small set took approximately 15 hours of “hands on” time not counting paint drying.
III: The Shoot Day
Well, technically this was the 2nd shoot day because the original day was rained out. The client arrived to a completed, and ‘never before seen ‘scene’’. And at this point, the rest is really history. But it was truly, absolutely awesome, here are some images to remember the day. Let me know what you think of the process down below!
