Bottle Fish

When you first start out as a photographer, you never know what your going to have to take photos of when your a commercial photographer. Some of my first paid jobs were of boats. When you live in South Florida, your going to have to take jobs photographing boats. Once when I needed to shoot a runabout boat, you know the boats that always have two beautiful young women hanging out of them--and I mean hanging out--out of the boat and out of their clothing, what little there was. Now this was a print ad, and the client did not have enough money to pay for models so you have to come up with something different. Well the client wanted an overhead shot, so into a crate I climbed that was picked up by a fork lift, rather precarious and dangerous wouldn't you say? This is just to let future photographers know that sometimes you get dangerous jobs, and you have to decide whether the shot is worth it or not.

Now I have had simpler jobs, like the time a lady asked me to photograph some of her bathing suits. Great job don't you think. So, on the appointed day I met her and two young ladies on the beach in mid morning; not the best time to shoot, but that was when the client wanted the shoot. Everyone was introduced, and we selected areas to shoot. Now I had not noticed that the young ladies had tops on over their swim suites, but when it came time to take the shots I could see why they had not taken off their covering. As the coverings came off, what was revealed. They were wearing crocheted swim suits. The suits were beautiful, the girls were beautiful. But within two minutes of their taking the covering off, we had a crowd. I mean a big crowd. Half way through the shoot, a police officer came over and ask if we had permission to be on the beach to do the shoot. The police office dispersed the crowd. The ladies put their tops back on, and I got the shots I needed for the full color brochure that was later produced from the shots. What the designer did not know, she being from Sweden, is that she had to add an under liner in the swim suits in America.

Not all shoots are exacting or frightening. The image below is just as challenging as the other shoots but quieter. This image called "Bottle Fish" was shot in my living room near the front door into the house. Question. Have you ever seen a fish with eyelashes?