Hello! You will have to excuse me while I blow the dust from my blog...
This is an exciting post for me because I get to share with all of you my first big out of state photo gig. I am a staff member of Drum Magic (drummagic.net) and we had a huge gig to complete at the 755 Club at Turner stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Drum Magic was hired to bring drumming to 325 CVS business men and women, as well as some of the staff from the leading stores in and around the ATL and Florida. This was a celebration for CVS as well as a long day of presentations and meetings. Drum Magic was the hired as the morning icebreaker and when we left the members of the meetings could hardly sit back in their seats..
Drum Magic is a company owned by Jana Broder and it brings drumming to anyone and everyone. She is often hired for team building exercises for sports teams, icebreakers, and she even does work with mental health facilities as drumming has been proven to be a huge stress reliever and provides healing for the body.
With all of that said it is normally a pretty easy thing to setup, but problem with this job was getting all 325 drums into the upstairs club!
It took a team of 6 three hours to get all of the drums moved. The main time consumer was the distance between the loading dock and the freight elevator, it was just about 1/2 mile!!! We were able to use a few vehicles towards the end of the unload to help speed things along, and as you can see, the forklift pushing a wagon was a life saver. Once we made it to the freight elevator, it was a whole new challenge because some one had to stand and hold the button so the door wouldn't close on us. It seemed like challenge after challenge, but we luckily had an amazing group of people that some how made the whole thing hilarious. At the very least that hard work made a cold beer taste that much better once we finished.
After we finished the unload we headed back to our hotel to have a few beers and rest up for the next morning. We got the the hotel bar about 9pm and had to be up at 5am to prepare for the 8 oclock gig. I was excited to get back before the sun came up for a number of reasons mainly because I saw the potential for an amazing HDR shot that I had to get. Luckily I had an empty room and about 20min to myself, so I was able to score a couple of great shots.
Another fantastic opportunity presented itself to us as the sun began to rise over the stadium so the team headed outside for a group shot in front of the field.
Then it was on to a quick briefing with the team and the people started to pour in having no idea that they were walking into a room full of drums for a morning icebreaker!
Once everyone found their seats the group drumming started. Jana and her team, Steve Turner (givingtreemusic.com), Pierre Green, Jason Isla (www.givingworldpercussion.com), and Dave Holland (www.beatinpathrhythmevents.com did such an amazing job bringing smiles to the faces of everyone in the crowd. They are all professional drum circle facilitators and it showed when the show started.
It is amazing to think that it took a total of 5 hours to setup and break down the setup all for a 45min show, but it was well worth the work as the smiles and excitment of the crowd told us all we needed to know about the work we were doing. Once the show was over the CVS groups picked up their drums and walked them over to an area to pile them up and begin the reload back into the three trailers.
I am so excited to be a part of this company and I have learned a great deal about shooting during these types of gigs. They provide unique challenges that require me to think on my feet. If I hesitate to figure out my next shot I might miss the best one of the show. This requires me to use all of the skills I have picked up along the way in my career. The most important is knowing my camera backwards and forwards. It is so important to not have to think for a second about a setting in these events. Since this gig I also learned my weaknesses and I have started to work towards righting them. All said and done this is a huge step for my company and a huge step for me along my path as a photographer.
A big thanks goes to Jana Broder for giving me the opportunity to be a part of her amazing company.
And just for S&*#s and giggles, a pic of me!
