Moving Forward

This is probably the last photo from the Televators' trip to Wire Recording--Luminaria is on Saturday and I fully intend to bring a change of subject to VsOfTx ASAP.

I've pulled this trick before, but only with the aim of temporarily blinding an unsuspecting victim. After taking some flash photos in the studio I was relaxing on the couch and chatting with Bex when our producer (Lee Popa) came over for some reason. My flash (with wireless triggers) was sitting in my lap, but in the dim studio lighting I was sure he hadn't noticed it or know what it was all about. I handed Lee my camera and asked him to take my picture, while casually aiming the flash up at my face. He fumbled around at first, clearly lost with a DSLR, so I explained that there was NO zoom ring on that particular lens (50mm F1.8) and that you had to use the viewfinder instead of the LCD screen. He framed up the shot and found the shutter button, and because the viewfinder blacks-out during exposure probably didn't notice my flash popping. What I wanted (and got) was his reaction on reviewing the shot on the LCD. His excitement was wonderful as he exclaimed "I don't know what I did, but this looks amazing!!" and started showing it around. Eventually let him in on the trick, and that moment was one of many that brought us closer and instilled trust. His job in the studio or mixing sound live is to do tricky things that let musicians of all skill levels achieve surprising results. I had set him up to achieve something that was completely different from what he was expecting, using my camera.