Poo-Poo Platter

On Sunday night, over 50 Seattle Flickrites gathered in Hangar 30 at Magnuson Park for the first of (hopefully) many shooting events sponsored by Chase Jarvis. About a month ago, we had a brainstorming session at Chase’s studio, and one of the suggestions that came up was getting a large, relatively private space for photo shoots. Chase used his connections to rent out one of the large military hangars at Magnuson Park and offered it to the Seattle Flickrites to use on one night. How could we say no?

The event was massive. There was 13,000 square feet of open space in the hangar. We “limited” the shoot to 50 photographers. Jeremy and Ted booked 10 models, and a couple of people brought more. Everyone brought lighting gear. Some people only brought a single flash. Others brought enough to fill an entire portrait studio. Chase had some of his guys running around with still and video cameras documenting the event. And David Hobby made a surprise appearance.

With something of this scale, you’d think it would be mass chaos, but, somehow, everything ran unbelievably well. People grouped together based on trigger types (i.e. Nikon CLS people in one area, Pocket Wizard Plus II’s on another area, etc.). The more experienced shooters took the lead and helped out the newer people. Models rotated through the setups as needed. And everyone was very courteous and helpful. Frankly, I was amazed. The last few large shoots I went to left me feeling frustrated and annoyed. This time, I had a blast.

I ended up working with only a couple of models during the evening (you can see photos of Faye and Matt in previous posts). I was there mostly to hang out and help people as needed and to see all the cool things people were shooting. It was also great chatting with Chase and David when they weren’t too busy running around to the different setups. I didn’t get to speak with Chase during our brainstorming meetup in December (I showed up late, and there were just too many people jockeying for time with him). And I hadn’t talked to David since he was in town for his Strobist seminar back in August.

Although I didn’t do much in the way of portrait shooting, I did spend some time working on a jump shot (pictured above). It was a cool space that I hadn’t shot in before, and I figured it would make for a neat twist to my series of jump shots. I was going through a few test pops when David walked over and asked if I wanted some rim lighting. I said “Sure!”, and David placed himself in the corner. Then Shawn came over and offered one more light to make it an even 4 for a bit of wrap-around lighting. It would’ve been great to get one more light behind my head, but I think this one worked out pretty well anyway.

All in all, the meetup wasn’t really anything that different from what we’ve done in the past. It was just much more well-organized, and we had Chase Jarvis sponsoring the event. I wish there was more variety in the types of setups we had — everything was portrait-related — but it was still fun and interesting to see. The photos that are rolling into the Seattle Flickr Meetup pool are looking pretty nice, and I know there are 1 or 2 videos in production right now. Can’t wait to see those.

I think this is a good start to having more large-scale, organized, sponsored shooting events in the Seattle area. Chase got a chance to see us all in action. We’re getting more practice coordinating everything on the backend. This isn’t going to replace or even supersede the normal monthly meetups, but it is a good addition and extension of our already-massive photography community. With the exposure we get from Chase Jarvis and David Hobby, we could move into bigger and more exciting things in the future. It’s no longer just about taking cool pictures and hanging out for beers afterwards. We’re getting bigger and bigger every day, and we’re ready to do something bigger. What that “something” is has yet to be determined. I, for one, am excited at the possibilities.