Last week I had a really neat assignment in San Antonio, TX!!!

I’ve photographed several assignments for the US Grains Council recently. So I was excited when they asked if I could handle a very cool promotional project they had in mind. The main trade-show they attend each year is the Commodity Classic. This is America’s largest farmer-led, farmer-focused convention & trade show! They asked me if I’d come to San Antonio, TX, and create a greenscreen photo oportunity at one end of their booth to attract attention and draw interest.

Being an international organization, we created 5 different digital backgrounds for them that folks could choose from, each representing parts of the world where the USGC has strong influence: Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Panama, and China. Individuals, couples, families, groups of co-workers…everyone had a BLAST, and our booth was a huge hit! I even had the four young men that star in the new movie Farmland (due out this spring) stand on the Great Wall of China!!!  Everyone’s prints were then mounted into custom folders that also served as a brochure, giving lots of information about the US Grains Council.

My setup was designed to be simple, efficient, and above all…wireless. The trade-show had over 7,000 attendees!!! We didn’t want anyone tripping on any wires. Lighting consisted of a gang of SB-800 speedlights, all triggered wirelessly via RadioPoppers from my SB-900 master. I photographed everyone with a Nikon D4, which instantly sent the images to my laptop using the WT-5 wireless transmitter. At the laptop, participants could pick their favorite image, and choose their background. Then literally 13 seconds later their beautiful high-resolution 5×7 print popped out of the DS40 dye sublimation printer. Everyone LOVED the instant gratification of walking away with their photo in hand.

Many thanks to my good friend (and greenscreen guru) Gary at Coleman Photography for helping me put all the pieces together.  The event was a lot of fun for me, and a huge success for my client. We’ve already talked about doing it again next year!!!