This shoot was fighting for its life from the start.

We were scheduled to fly to LA right as Dallas decided to become an ice rink. After a casual 8.5 hours of delays—and a fun little moment where we had to deboard because the crew forgot a security check (love that for us)—we finally made it into the air.

Naturally, my lighting modifiers did not.

And because the universe wasn’t done yet, I realized mid-flight that I had taken the power cables out of my Pelican (which contained the lights)… because it was one pound overweight. Where did I put them? Oh, just in the bag with the modifiers. The ones that didn’t make the flight.

So at this point I’ve got lights with no cables and modifiers in another dimension. Perfect.

Luckily, Profoto uses one of the most universal power cables on earth, so I made a very glamorous post-flight stop at Home Depot in LA to rebuild my career.

Now… lighting. With no modifiers.

Yikes.

I had to figure out how to make this work without making everyone look like they were being interrogated. Thankfully, my assistant in LA is a legend and had picked up a 6x6 scrim, which basically saved the entire situation and my reputation.

The setup:

4 lights total
Bare head as the key (raw, chaotic energy)
Another bare head fired through the 6x6 scrim to soften things
One light bounced into the ceiling to chill everything out a bit
Final light behind the subject, firing over the seamless for separation

Honestly, this could’ve gone very, very badly. But thanks to an incredible crew who problem-solved on the fly, we pulled it together and made something I’m genuinely proud of.

Moral of the story: always double-check your bags… and maybe don’t gamble your entire shoot on one pound. 🍻

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