Hitting The Ground Running : 145 Minutes In Paris

Web: www.stevenfrischling.com — E-Mail: fish@flyingwithfish.com

03/03/2009 – Hitting The Ground Running : 145 Minutes In Paris

As a traveling photographer I have often had to land, overcome jetlag, time-zone deadline differences, logistical issues and simply hit-the-ground running to ensure my assignment is completed within a very real deadline. This past weekend was my first real venture out on a long-haul flight since dealing with personal health issues.

While travel this past weekend was not based on a photography assignment, it was a corporate travel-security logistics project, however I needed to get myself back in the rhythm of shooting specific assignments under extreme time constraints. Being able to handle photo assignments while tired, hungry and dealing with very real time constraints is something that needs to be practiced. The time to get ‘back in the game’ is not while shooting a specific project for a client. While I have extensive practical experience in working in difficult deadline situations, it has been a few months since my last hit-the-ground running project.

During my schedule on Saturday, I knew I’d have roughly a four-hour gap in time where I’d not be able to do any research for my travel strategies project. Factoring in the travel time from the airport to Paris was about 45 minutes each way; I planned a challenge for myself. My challenge was to photograph architecture in a non-straight forward manner in the areas surrounding the Les Halles, George V and Invalides Metro Stations.

So with a loaded Run-Kit on my back, which I wrote about here : 01/03/2009 – Traveling Quick & Light : Packing A ‘Run Kit’, and a camera on each shoulder, I headed off to find a minimum of four cityscape/architecture photos I could be happy with.

With only 145-minutes of shooting time in Paris, shooting in three different locations I came up with more keeps that I had set for myself. Nine images that met my initial intentions and one image that satisfied my craving for news-feature images.

I know many photographers love to spend days looking for the perfect photo, this ideal scenario rarely if ever happens ‘in my world.’ For me I arrive and start the countdown clock running and it would seem that despite my health I haven’t lost a step along the way (which makes me very happy!)

Next time you head out, be it down the street, across your town or head over to a city an ocean away from home, try imposing a strict deadline on yourself and see what you come up with. I love the challenge of shooting photos against a set period of time and I think it is something photogs should challenge themselves too do often. Don’t miss what you see now, right this moment, because you’re waiting for a perfect moment that may never come.

Below are 10 photos from my 145-minutes in Paris.

Happy Flying!
–Click Images Below To Enlarge Them–