Photo Day.

The day began at 4:15am after all of maybe 3 hours of mostly restless sleep.
Grumble grumble, hit the On button. Coffee Please.
5am drive to East Oakland. Pack car
6:30 hello Birkenstock office... Novato, where am I?

 Yesterday I assisted on a photo shoot.  It started early.  So early that throughout the year I see 4am as a bed time more than a wake up time.  Oh my heck it was early... and oh my heck I could not get to bed before midnight, or stay asleep... so let's just say I was a little blurry for a good chunk of the day.

The Birkenstock offices are beautiful.  They're in a renovated Air Force hangar, high ceilings, pretty 'natural' furnishings, lots of windows and comfy chairs, tables and tables full of product (shoes)... although really all you need to know about the Birkenstock offices is that the walls are fuzzy.  They wallpapered with some kind of suede material, if I worked there I would probably pet a bald spot in my wall.

I helped dress models and clip price tags, I hauled heavy bags... we set up on top of a hill in Novato before sunrise hoping to get a shot of our models running as the light crept up above the horizon.  Instead we were greeted with fog.  The foggiest soup you can imagine slowly turned the world bright white as the light emerged.  Hopefully the photographers got some cool shots even if they weren't the shots they were hoping for. 

We had several set ups, lunch around 2pm (my dry and probably not the best sandwich tasted AMAZING by then) and relocated to catch the sun as it fell down the other side of the Earth. 

As the sun set, barn owls began their hunt for small creatures.  One skimmed right past us, looped the loop and plunged down on the other side of the bushes to catch a rodent on its last day.  After ten hours of photography and on minimal sleep, the introduction of hunting owls was rather similar to bringing a dog into a second grade class room.  Somehow the stalwart photographer managed to keep on task as the light crept away to nothing and our attention spans with it.

All in all, it was a tiring but good day.  The Corporate types, the photography team and the loveliest models imaginable all made the process enjoyable and painless.  I think I could do this again.


More sleep before the day would be helpful I think...