Is there a doctor in the house!

Today started off with a bit of surprise. Snow was falling and it was coming down hard! Then as I was about to run my son off to daycare, I received a phone call from my doctor friend, Maggie. She was wondering where I was. I guess there was some miss-communication and she and 15 others, doctors, nurses, techs and a mom with two little ones were waiting for me at the hospital for a photo shoot. The docs needed some stock photos to put in the Medical Post, the National medical magazine. Cool.

I had it in the books to do this tomorrow morning but one has to be flexible! So I rushed to pack my gear and my son in the van and hit the snowy roads.

I quickly realized I was not going to make time driving fast on the fresh snow so I slowed down and kept my cool. That is until I got to the hospital parking lot and ran with my gear bags in up to the new maternity clinic.

Once I arrived I was happy to see some familiar faces and everyone was relaxed. The room on the other hands was tiny. Maybe eight feet wide at the most and I had to fit 15 people in the shot. Hmmm... How to do this. The shot above is an idea of the confusion while I was arranging the lighting. I ended up using a shoot-through umbrella with my speedlite on maximum power which was just enough. The top photo is the end result.

Once I was satisfied with the group shot, Maggie asked me if I could do head-shots of the staff. Why not. So I had her as my test subject while I set up the lighting again. She was getting fidgety about the time as it took me about 5 shots to get things set the way I wanted. Then I had it. And after that I had the rest of the staffs' shots done on the first try and in about 3 minutes. Woo-hoo.

After I had finished packing my gear, another doctor asked if I could do the maternity shot for the clinic. But of course. I can't wait! There are going to be some great shots of moms to be, and moms with babies on display there soon...

So even thought the photo-shoot happened a day early, I made the best of it, people liked what I did and I made connections, leading to more great photo work. And to top it all off, I got to spend the rest of the day with my lovely wife Nina and have a nice lunch date! :)