This Week in Photos 10/5-10/11 2008

This past week has been pretty busy with the production of Foothills Magazine on top of putting out the daily. Just when we think a big project like Foothills is finished another special section, Women In Business, comes across our plates. All good. I look it as job security and it’s fun to do profiles on business owners in our community to see how they run shop from behind the scenes.

One story for WIB (Women In Business) is a profile on photographer Shirley Borba who has been running her business in this area for several years. I have to admit I was a bit nervous to take her photo considering she has been voted best photographer five times in our Best of The Best special section. For her photo shoot I wanted to keep it simple with just her and a camera. Nothing fancy, or over the top, just simple and clean. Upon walking in her studio for the first time she was very nice and seemed excited to finally meet the photographer whose work she sees in the Journal almost every day. Likewise, I too felt more complete after putting a face to her signature work. After all she probably dominates the majority of senior portrait requests in the area and produces excellent photography.

The actual photo shoot was fun and she allowed me to use her lighting equipment including a device I was pricing online for myself earlier that day called a Pocket Wizard. This wireless device allows a photog to fire a set of strobes, an off-camera flash and even a second camera all without cumbersome wires. Ironically Borba had two of these cool little toys I was just looking at and let me hook one up to the hot-shoe of my camera and the other to her lighting scheme. Borba already had the lights set up from a previous photo shoot so I didn’t have to adjust anything except the exposure on my Nikon. I just sat her on a stool and posed her with a camera. The Pocket Wizards worked flawlessly and it was so cool to walk around her studio, able to work without tripping or tugging on any wires.

After a few ice-breaking photos and then some more serious shots later she looked at them and approved. I felt a sense of relief that it all worked out and it was a bonus that she liked the photos. After all taking a photo of a professional photographer is always strange, because normally they are behind the lens, working with subjects to construct their image, not the other way around.