A Special Photoshoot

The other day, Robert called me up on the phone, “Hey, James, you available for a photoshoot tomorrow?” After seeing Robert and Clayton working so diligently on a special project, I was expecting, and looking forward to this call!

By the next day, I had all the equipment ready; camera, lenses, soft-box, light stand, transmitter, receiver, recharged batteries, cords . . . anything and everything I thought we might need. (Many thanks to IBLP for letting me use some of their equipment.) After lunch, Robert picked me up and we were off to the Steinway shop!

Yes, I was quite excited to be taking pictures for Robert and Clayton’s new piano duet CD/DVD jacket, but I was a little apprehensive. We were in a time crunch, supposed to be in and out within thirty minutes.

Only one piano! When we arrived, we encountered another problem. The room where we planned to shoot only had one piano! After hurriedly looking around, we found a small room with two grand pianos side by side. Hoping it would work, we quickly set up, rearranged a few things, and began shooting. And what a shootout it was!

Thanks for helping out, Daniel!This angle didn't work so well . . . We will definitely have to do some editing, merging, and detailed Photoshop work to make the pictures work, but there was a disguised blessing in the seemingly negative problems we encountered. The room we were planning on shooting in had big windows with lots of light streaming in. If we had shot in there, we would not have been able to produce the incredible affect we were able to create (and actually originally looking for) in the small, dark room where the two pianos were. God certainly knows how to redirect our steps in a way that we would never have chosen in our finite minds.

God redirected our steps to enable us to use controlled lightDaniel got a few pictures taken tooMoving around the light boxI like this angle!

Look for the new CD/DVD to be available in the near future! And just so you know, I’ve reserved the best photos for the jacket design. 🙂

Beethoven's 5th SymphonyA different perspective

10 Comments

  1. Andrew Lewis March 23, 2010 at 5:13 am #

    James, interesting article regarding the photo-shoot. Glad you guys obtained the right photos! As a side-note, I love your writing style; if you’re not already working on a book, you are wasting talent! You need to utilize those skills to write some published works. And let me know when, so I can order a copy!

  2. Esther Staddon March 23, 2010 at 6:02 am #

    What an incredible example of how God works all things together for good!

  3. Keilen March 24, 2010 at 7:19 am #

    How fun! Looking forward to seeing (and hearing!) the finished project!

    God bless the work of your hands!

  4. Hannah Burnett March 24, 2010 at 11:01 am #

    Can’t wait for this CD!! Beautiful pictures.

  5. Barbara March 26, 2010 at 10:50 am #

    So excited to hear the CD and see if it’s just as good as hearing Robert and Clayton in person. Great pictures James! God bless.

  6. Crystal March 26, 2010 at 11:12 am #

    When is the CD/DVD coming out?

  7. James March 29, 2010 at 1:06 pm #

    It’ll still be awhile, but Robert and Clayton do have the project as high priority.

    As for the “published works”, Andrew, that’ll really be a while! Thanks for the encouragement, though, because there certainly is plenty to write about.

  8. The Neely Team March 31, 2010 at 5:08 am #

    We can’t wait to hear it!!

  9. Mrs. Gunn April 27, 2010 at 11:01 pm #

    Looking forward to hearing that CD, and the photos you posted were great, so I’m sure the cover will be also.
    Blessings,
    Mrs. Gunn
    Faith’s Firm Foundation
    http://www.wendygunn.net

  10. James May 21, 2010 at 9:29 pm #

    I can’t believe it! The final touches are being made on the CD and DVD. Initial release is set for June 1 at the ATI Regional Conference in Nashville. Robert and Clayton plan to play there live as well!

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