Jewelry

I have been very fortunate. The one thing I can't stand is boredom. I love to shoot but the high end jobs don't come every day. I landed a new free-lance job working for a high end jewelry catalog house. It's helping to fill in the empty days between the big jobs and keeps me doing the thing I love, studio photography. I've taken three days to fine tune my shooting to they way they like and now I think I'm ready to shoot for production. The company I'm working with is great. The people who work there are wonderful and the work is fun. Hey, it's making money with a camera. What could be better?

On being "Green"

Eco-fascists - leave us alone!
I am happy to report that Bill Truran Productions is pretty green!
We have been increasingly digital since 1994.
Leaving film and processing behind has been a big help toward caring for our environment. Film used to involve acetate, silver and tons of chemicals. In the 1970's we shot a lot of Kodachrome 25 film because the colors were amazing. Kodak had to discontinue making the film because the chemicals used to process the film were deadly. Less scary Ectachrome and Tri-X used massive amounts of chemicals for processing. The labs that served commercial studios poured tons of chemicals down the drain in the 70's (who knew or cared?).
In 1994, we began the journey that was digital photography. The first step was to replace film and processing with a digital chip and CD's. That was a big step toward eco-health. The chips capture an image with no waste. No film and no chemicals for processing. Digital cameras since 1994 have even greatly reduced their energy usage, from large AC power supplies, to fire-wire and rechargeable batteries. Today, there are many ways to recycle old computers. Not everyone loves old Macs like I do. We still have our first Apple 8100 (we don't use it, we just can't part with it).
I would say that in the last year or two, our industry has improved even more.
Each year between 1994 and 2006, we saved client's images to CD or DVD and Fed-Ex'd or messengered disks to them. We then printed out bills and mailed them.
By 2008, almost all of our clients access their image files from our ftp server (no waste) and accept bills vis email (no printing).
Our company owns just one lowly Taurus wagon. We've discussed it in past blogs. This car is set up to hold a gurney with all of our studio equipment, a photographer and one assistant. No truck, no pick-up and trailer. We just drive to the location unload and park.
I think we have eco-improved greatly, with no damage to image quality. It's a win - win situation that I am very happy with.