The "Pic of the Month" is a fun look back at
the behind the scenes stories, antics, and events from some memorable architectural
lighting images. Enjoy.
(If you would prefer to not receive these stories, please email me and I will
remove your name from my list. Accept my pardon for intruding.)
Welcome, this month, to all the wonderful people I met in New York at Lightfair...
Getting Lucky at 4am...
Sometimes the ones you think are straightforward and simple, are the ones you
work the hardest on...
Client: Luminae Souter Lighting
Design
Lighting Project Manager: Thomas Skradski,
Lighting Design Collaboration: Thomas Skradski and James Benya
Lighting Award:
1990 - Award of Distinction, Edison Award Competition, General Electric
The Story...
September 1989, starting at 6pm in the early evening at this Montgomery Street
location in the heart of San Francisco's financial district, the two of us were
fresh with excitement. The historic Russ Building is one of San Francisco's
more remarkable structures, reflecting back to a time when charm and elegance
were the norm. (See links for a more detailed history.)
Thomas Skradski, of Luminae Souter Lighting Design, was the project manager
and principal lighting designer of this lighting project. Thomas & I gathered
at the site at the end his normal work day. Two weeks earlier, we had photographed
the building interior. We had hoped to be finished around 9pm or so. In order
to keep costs to a minimum, and since this was going to be quick, my assistant
for this "simple" evening was Tom. (Photo assistants can come in handy.)
Our shot would need to be taken from the middle of the street. We noticed that
evening, that PG&E(Pacific Gas & Electric), was doing a fine job of
working in a large hole adjacent to our shot. . Montgomery street is one way.
They were stationed next door to us, outside, and in the middle of the street.
They had set up a line of orange traffic cones along Montgomery street to divert
the three lanes of traffic down to one on the far side, away from us. So, the
cones helped to effectively block 2 of the three lanes of traffic for us. We
felt like everything was coming together to help us out. We elevated and mounted
the camera on my sturdy aluminium ladder. We placed the camera out of harms
way, but ready to go. We hoped that PG&E would be kind enough to turn off
their "glare bomb" work lights at the critical moment. There was so
much light trespass that the shot would not be successful without their cooperation.
Technically, when you do a street shot on the streets of San Francisco, you
are supposed to secure and pay for a "permit" from the Police department.
Since my work is on such a small scale, and generally quick(relative to motion
picture work), I usually avoid the cost and wasted time of the permit process.
The Gonzo style works well here, along with a quick apology, should I have to
explain my actions to the police if, they do come by. Usually it is not an issue.
On this project it was not an issue.
After pondering our PG &E situation,we decided to get fussy about the "up
lights" on the buildingš The up lights needed a bit of focusing, so we
started there. All was proceeding with normal speed until... We adjusted the
second and third up lights on the right side, from a ladder we borrowed from
the building manager. We began to notice that everywhere we had touched, with
our hands, we saw large yellowish streaks against the enameled terra-cotta facade.
Actually, they were not streaks. Everywhere we had touched revealed, the underlying
true building color, laying beneath a heavy layer of street soot. What had appeared
to us as a grey stone exterior, was in fact a marvelous warm toned terra-cotta
building. (Terra-cotta, favored by contractors of the past, was used to clad
buildings because of its light weight, and its proven ability to withstand fire.
Gladding, McBean, the Bay Area's leading terra-cotta manufacturer, developed
a tile called Granitex, which could be colored to look like stone.) The color
was beautiful. Tom & I decided the exterior had to be cleaned. OK, 7pm and
not a volunteer in sight, except the two foolish guys taking the picture. (An
assistant sure would be nice.) Out came the tallest ladder we could borrow.
We took turns brushing the exterior and standing on top of the ladder to reach
as high as we could. We were using an old 14 ft rickety wooden ladder. (You
know the kind.) My push broom head served as a brush, and we were now cleaning
the entire facade, within the limits of our camera angle, from as high as we
could reach from this not so sturdy ladder. We worked from the top on down.
Hours later, we had successfully revealed an exquisite glowing building beneath
all the gunk. Our arms and legs were covered with the stuff, as well as the
ground. Tom began sweeping. Most of the soot was swept away, but some lingered.
Our attention now turned to the windows. When the building was greyer, we paid
little attention to the windows. With the exterior now glowing we noticed the
windows were in need of cleaning. (For photography purposes the windows sometimes
need to be extra clean.) So there goes Tom up the ladder again to clean as many
windows as he could reach. Some showed more dirt than others. 1:45 minutes later,
windows cleaned. Now to the pavement at the bottom. It looked dry and lifeless.
I suggested we wet it down. Tom found a mop and bucket to wet the granite down.
More time passes. He soon found out that there was still a sufficient amount
of soot on the ground. When mixed with the wet mop, the soot on the ground still
looked quite ugly. It was like black tempera paint. So Tom proceeded to mop
and mop and mop... The stuff took forever to come up. Finally he was successful
and we continued to the camera portion of the shoot. Tim was flying by.
Well, by then it was 4am, PG&E had finished for the night/morning and was
quickly closing up shop. It was 4am and time was running out. Our security was
going away. The sky would start to get light by 5am. The PG&E "glare
bombs" went out, and the orange protective safety cones were quickly gathered
back. We were now in the street with very little protection. Our safety cushion
was gone. Now Tom was transformed into the traffic control guy. Waving his hands
to fend off motorists, one cabbie stopped by to tell Tom, "you guys are
nuts" (for being out in the middle of a not so quiet street, on a ladder,
with a large camera) . We were beginning to shooting film. Meanwhile, as I'm
shooting the first of six pieces of 4 x 5 film, I noticed, and mentioned to
Tom that the granite foreground was drying out. Would he be so kind... He quickly
applies another light mopping, while I guide traffic around the camera and we're
on to the last sheets of film. I hurry to finish the shooting before the granite
dries out again. Tom spends the "exposure time" waving his arms(looking
like a mad man) at the approaching traffic from down the block. This is done
to keep the headlights of the cars from showing in the glass doors. In between
exposures we allow the cars to pass. In the era prior to "Photoshop"
any retouch was costly. My goal was always to make the shot complete, at the
time of the shoot. Most clients do not like paying for retouching. The shot
we started at 6pm thinking it would be a couple of simple hours, turned into
an 11 hour marathon for us. By the time we finished and packed up, it was 5:30am
and we went home...
Tom explained to me recently, that he fell asleep in his driveway after he got
home. He awoke 30 minutes later to find the car still running. Fortunately for
Tom, he was not in an enclosed garage, otherwise the story would had a different
ending.
Thank you Tom for all your hard work. It shows...
Enjoy the shot...
Peace
Douglas A. Salin Photographer
647 Joost Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94127
415-584-3322
415-227-6600 Pager
dspeoe@pacbell.net
http://www.dougsalin.com
More on the Russ Building:
http://www.webnexus.com/users/vlp/sfbay0004ref_20thc_009.html#235_montgomery
http://www.shorensteinsf.com/propdescfacts.cfm?bldgid=18
http://www.hathawaydinwiddie.com/projects.asp?chvPageName=landmark&iPageNum=5
Thomas Skradski:
http://www.designfinder.com/skradski/index.html
James Benya:
http://www.benyalighting.com/