How to be flash - Story of a Saab

If your name is Raymond Engmark and you are an educated photographer, there is a big chance that your mind is somewhat analytical, actually borderline to crazy. I simply beleive that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing it thorough.

After my return from UK my Saab 900 on English plates was just sitting there and I needed the money. The sensible thing to do when you are asking about 300 quid (3000 NOK) is to snap some shots with your phone, and just place a quick ad. Again; not if you are Raymond Engmark.

First of all, I wanted to try to light a car properly, and to edit commercial style once again (this being a used car for sale, I could not retouch it, only adjust light and so on). Second of all, I strongly beleive that there is always someone who will remember you for your worst picture - so keep even your worst pictures good.

I washed the car good since I could not retouch it, and I took a quick drive to find a decent location, and after a while I found a nice spot with good texture and tonality that would work with the car. Most of my equiptment was back in the town, so I did this shot with a Canon 580 EXII (on camera flash), transmitters and a 15 year old plastic tripod that barely can hold my camera (shivers like hell).

The picture is made up from 12 different flash settings, making the "RAW" file 1,7 GB before I started to edit. I have not received my new iMac yet, so all this was done with the cheapest Dell Laptop you could buy 4,5 years ago. I spent about 3 hours shooting an preparing, and roughly 8 hours editing.

Before:

After:

It must have worked, because just a couple of days after the car was gone for 300 quid. But then again, 300 quid for 11 hours of work in this business woun't even pay for the batteries in the camera. But hey, the shoot came out pretty nice, I could renew my skills and if this is my worst picture - it's pretty good.

This blog will have more updates in the future, but the fact is that I am working my ass off these days just to get started with my company. But I will try to get something in here at least once a week even now. Here it is more easy to publish things rather than to evaluate if it should go into my portofolio on my webpage or not.

Fun fact? I am working my ass off, but still it does not feel like a job. I guess it's ment to be.

Slowly becoming a studio

I have been working around the clock just about every day since I returned from London, but I have to admit that I have been very fortunate as well. I have been back in Bodø for just over three weeks now, and it just feels like I've hit the jackpot every day.

News on Request which is a big movie production company took me in to their place and rented me a studio on extremely fair conditions. And if as that wasn't enough, I had a meeting with the bank today, and they decided to finance my studio and my company on the spot.

Having secured the finances was a big relieve. This mean that I don't have to cope with equiptment that will barely do, and even though I am not anywhere near rich, I can get what I need to secure that my customers will get a good experience from working with me. Shooting alongside clients and having something act up is a situation I need to avvoid.

This picture does not lie, the studio needs a lot of tidying up. But I am making progress every day, and I am expecting to be there full time from August 1st. The studio is about 9x5 meters, and the only downside is really the height which is about 270 centimeters. But with the average model I will have bout 90 cm to work with, and that should be enough. I may also have access to a studio with about 5 meters height somewhere else in the building if I need it for a task or two.

Sparebanken Nordnorge (the bank) did treat me so weell today that I really need to mention their name. With the financial backing I got Raymond Engmark will be a corporation rather than a freelance photographer.

The only thing missing now is more jobs. When you are trying to start a business it's not any good that July is a public holiday in Norway. That means a lot of out-of-office replys to mails I need people to read. But I know there is a humongous potential in these areas, it's just a matter of working hard to get a toe inside one door - then the neighbours will follow.

First job : Trygg Luft AS

When you are trying to start a new business it is important to have both good friends and a network that beleives in what you do. Luckly I got both in my friend Aleksander Jakobsen who also just started a new business in Bodø called Trygg Luft AS (English: Safe Air). I wish to thank him for giving me the first assingment to get started in a "new" place.

Trygg Luft deals with the air most people breathe most day; the air inside your house. There are big advantages for both your health (specially asthma and allergy) but also preventing fungus and other humidity problems inside your house. After living in London, it is very easy to understand why you would need it.

The company have been installing a system on a building site in Bodø which benefits everyone in so many ways. It saves space, keeps dust and humidity to a minimum and keeps the whole building warm. When you have a construction site efficiency is important, and they wanted some pictures to show how little their system intrudes with the activity inside the building.

Aleksander first tried to take his own pictures of the installation while rushing between important meetings, and much like driving your car with only your feet; just because you can doesn't make it a good solution. Most of my lecturers have a rule - make every effort to make your next picture your best one yet. You might not acheive it, but it is a matter of professional pride.

I spent a total of 13 hours on nine pictures in total. It was about one hour of driving, just below two hours of planning and shooting, and ten hours processing the images in photoshop. I am sure that Aleksander would have been pleased with just a quick process, so we agreed up front that he would only pay for three hours of work.

I think that is a good system that we both benefited from. He gets better pictures than he paid for, and I get to push myself and know that I milked the last drop out of those pictures. It's all about professional pride.

Nowadays marketing is more important then ever, and it is really about finding that small leveredge that will make you stand out in the crowd. It's about getting your customer to pause at your webpage or ad instead of the one of your competitor. Below you can see the before pictures taken by Aleksander, and below there is the after pictures taken by myself.

If these were ads, which one would you pause at?