Piecework

I had the pleasure on Saturday Hundreds of share buyers of the FC St. Pauli bond to photograph. And a completely different level of creativity was required than is usual in my other photography jobs. It was also the first endurance test my new Profoto flash system.

My job was to take a photo of everyone who bought the bond upon request - with the player, of course. So I had Timo Schultz, Carsten Rothenbach, Fin Bartels, Lasse Sobiech, Fabian Boll, Ralph Gunesch, Patrick Fink, Benedikt Pliquett, Charles Takyi, Helmut Schulte, Mahir Saglik, Florian Bruns and Sebastian Schachten in front of the lens. That was the pleasant part.

The stressful part was getting it all done as quickly as possible, because the players weren't just there to take photos, but also to sign the bonds. Since I around 8 shareholders in 800 hours I took photos and the players weren't available to take photos the whole time, you can imagine how quickly I took the pictures. I was kindly assisted by three good-looking ladies who picked up my memory cards and then transferred the pictures directly from the card onto photo paper. 4 Canon Pixma printer - unfortunately I don't know which ones were used, but there were three different types - completed the printing job, 6 CF memory cards were used. While taking photos, I of course made sure to keep my eyes closed and pay attention to the reflection of the partially framed bonds of the flashlight, explained the process of issuing the images to those who asked questions, shortened the time for those waiting and fulfilled special requests, such as an additional photo with my own iPhone. Everyone present was totally relaxed and in a good mood, that's all I'm used to from this club...

My camera settings I adapted it to the printers as best I could - their quality isn't really great when it comes to sharpness and contrast. But you can set that in the camera. I also flashed an SB-900 from the side so that it would be a Edge light and the optical contrast impression is somewhat enhanced. I then used my Profoto with 60cm octabox from the front. And I really only needed one battery and not the whole one. OK, that only worked because the modeling light was powered by a separate power connection, because the modeling light "eats" quite a lot of battery power.

I have to change the Eneloops on my SB-900 in the meantime, even though this flash flashed with significantly less power - edge lighting doesn't need that much power...

Hence the first one Endurance test was really positive. And the modeling light on the AcuteB flash head was of course super practical for detecting the reflections before firing.

By the way, I took the photos with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 at aperture 4 and ISO 125 at 1/200s exposure time. I'm really happy that I was able to use the lightest lens in my camera bag, because over the course of a day even the lightest equipment gets heavy.

And I am glad that my esteemed colleague Selim was there for the press, otherwise I would not have any photos from the day itself - the memory cards were always deleted immediately after printing in order to optimize the workflow and make the work easier for the "printer girls".