Solar Array Industrial Beauty Photo Shoot
They say taking the first step is always the hardest. Overcoming our fears and pushing through can seem impossible, but it is so rewarding to come to the other side with some beautiful images to show for it.
Reaching out to a large, regional power cooperative was indeed intimidating, but what did I have to lose? The hardest part was making that first phone call. A cold call into the unknown brings butterflies to my stomach, and as the phone rang I could hear my heartbeat thumping in my ears. Every time I feel nervous, I just remind myself that I’m really just excited, and this could be amazing if it all works out. I was passed from person to person and finally left a message. I thought for sure whoever this unfamiliar voice was, they would tell me no straight away, because who am I in the big scheme of things?”
The next day my call was returned by Geoff Oldfather, AzGT Cooperative Communications and Public Relations Manager, who is also a 4th generation Arizona native. We had a wonderful discussion where I explained my class, this assignment, and what I was looking to accomplish.”
Stefanie Spencer
is a member of Project 52 Pro System.
Stefanie is a photographer, writer, designer, and pilot.
She lives on her ranch in southern Arizona, and is available for assignment.
The process would entail many hoops to jump through, and the first one was an email with my school info, teacher’s name, personal info, portfolio website, social media links, and even personal references. Having a notebook immediately at hand was important as he quickly rattled off the list of everything he wanted. I kept thinking in my head, there is no way this is going to work out, but here I go anyways! I sent over everything that evening and waited for a response. Waiting, those moments of silence filled with self-talk seems to be the most trying on my confidence.
My biggest fear was that I had zero, zilch, nada industrial photos in my portfolio. However, my personal rule is to never apologize for being who I am; so I said to myself, it will be however it is meant to be. I still have nothing to lose! To my surprise, he replied very quickly, “Received, thanks. You have some wonderful images, I love the vineyard shots on your homepage, Jim is one of my favorite people, and his Zinfandel is one of my favorite wines!” You just never know what is going to strike a chord in someone, so the best advice is to just be yourself.
We then moved into the next phase of challenges: the phone calls.
“Call me Monday at 11 am to discuss.” Since I have my trusty to-do list app on my phone, it was no problem; schedule the call and reminder, done.
I call, “Sorry, I’m in a meeting, call tomorrow at 4 pm.” Schedule another reminder. Next call, “I’m in Indiana, call me Wed at 2 pm….” and on and on. I don’t know if this was just a test of my professionalism and organizational skills, but I called each time, exactly on time.
Finally, we did have a discussion, and he would be able to let me into their new solar array, but there would be too much red tape to get me into the actual power plant. Knowing that relationship building takes time and patience, I was quite happy to start here.
Being unsure of the best time of day for this shoot, and unfamiliar with sun-tracking solar panels, I did a couple of scouting runs, one at sunset and another at sunrise. It was nice to be able to capture these photos at my own pace, no pressure, and just take in the views to see what was out there. Both options have their own beauty, but with the bigger mountains to the east, and also the fact that an evening in the next week was going to have a moonrise right at sunset,
I asked for that specific evening, which he was able to accommodate. I also looked over every inch of their website to see what images they have used on their news pages and in last year’s annual report. I carefully analyzed each image like a detective looking for clues.
“What’s the plan?”
In a quick matter-of-fact bullet list, I rattled off my proposed shot list around the solar array, returning the serious look. Funny thing after that, he smiled and quietly breathed a sigh of relief. I’m sure he wanted to know that he didn’t spend all of his time and drive an hour and a half out to meet me for nothing; I had a camera and I had a plan. I helped him feel confident in my abilities through my demeanor and preparedness. Now mind you, this plan was all speculation. I have never been inside a solar field, never shot anything industrial, and only just started P52 a few months ago!
They say to be bold or go home, so I was bold!
Other than knowing where I wanted to be at sunset, and where the moonrise was going to be at a certain time, I didn’t really have a set plan. I started from where we entered and drove around looking for reflections, lines and angles, and anything that caught my eye. I loved the story of the solar in the foreground and the vintage coal plant in the background, future, and history met together. I spent about an hour and a half looking for unusual angles and views, but it felt like it went by so quickly. When the moon broke through the clouds right where I was lined up for it to be, I had that brief moment of satisfaction of a plan coming together. There we more shots I would have loved to take, but he needed to go, so we called it a night.
Before leaving he asked when he would have the images, and that he needed to see them all as they would need to be approved for security reasons. Right then I felt a lump in my throat, why didn’t we go over all of the contract paperwork before the shoot? I was so caught up in sealing the deal, getting the shoot, that I totally forgot these important details. I quickly backpedaled and explained; I shot with exposure bracketing, so many angles for each shot, and so on.
I would provide a gallery of the best images, but not all of them. He gave me a serious thoughtful look, a long pause, and let’s just say, this was not the best time to be having this discussion. Lesson learned, work out these important contract details first, even for gratis work!
When I arrived at home, my feeling of accomplishment soon turned into uncertainty. Did I get the shots that I needed? Would he be happy with my work? Does it fulfill their needs and what they like? As I began to edit the photos, my preparation from editing the scouting shots helped calm my nerves.
I kept that same theme going, looked for bold and clean colors and lines, and just slowly worked through it. The feeling of self-doubt and negative self-talk always tries to creep up, so I just reminded myself that he liked my portfolio just the way it was. I just need to be me, trust my vision, and let it go.
After waiting for what felt like an eternity, which was actually 3 weeks, I was finally able to get a contract signed; turns out this needed to go through their legal department. We then scheduled the online meeting to review the gallery (I was waiting until I had the signed contract in hand). Even though it was more difficult to schedule a time than it would have been to just email over the gallery, I wanted to do a live conference so I could hear his initial reaction to each photo. As we went through them, I was elated to know that he really did like them.
It is important to show something they have never seen before, which is a huge challenge. The photos that he really liked weren’t the ones that I thought were the most beautiful, but the ones that showed a different perspective. I captured some from underneath the solar panels and added some color grading. I also had some high contrast images that I provided in black and white, which he really loved. Those were probably images that he hadn’t really been shown in the past, so it felt new and exciting.
With that chapter complete, I’ll have to be patient to see where they choose to use the images. He also said that he would contact me later to photograph the interior of the power plant, which is quite a privilege and will require even more paperwork and perseverance. Getting access to a large company like this, especially with the security requirements, is a long-term game. I believe though, if you have the dedication and professionalism to get in the door, they will probably be quite loyal, since the barriers to entry are so high. I’m excited to see what the future may hold!
Stefanie Spencer is available for assignments in the greater Southwest.
Email: stef@topazphoto.com
