This national COVID-19 emergency has taken a toll on a variety of small businesses, ours definitely being one of them.  We went from a full schedule booked for this month and next to zero. Our business and our clients are businesses. A variety of businesses. From healthcare to industrial, inland marine, culinary, architectural, tourism, real estate, you name it.  Having a variety of clients within such a specialized market of commercial marketing photography has always kept us feeling secure in having a productive income.  If the oil and gas market slows, it only affects a percentage of our overall work.  Same goes for any other sub-category, like real estate or weather-permitting assignments.  However, only something so unimagined, so UNPRECEDENTED could bring a fall like this has.

To sum up my overall feelings this week regarding my beloved little business, read below:

• A friend of Facebook asked the question:  For all my small business friends.  What are you doing?  What's your pivot point?  How are you innovating or reinventing your business to sustain sales?

I clicked on this to read comments, expecting to see others commenting with the same instant change as we've experienced.  But I did not (which was also a wonderful relief.) I did choose to comment...

• My response:  Our calendar was completely wiped out by the end of last week.  As a commercial and business photographer, all 30+ upcoming assignments over this month and next were cancelled/indefinitely postponed.  I just hope they do reschedule...

Kindly trying to pick me back up, she responded:  So what's your pivot?  How can you add assignments?

I felt tears beginning to form...

• Me:  I don't have that answer.  This week, I've been thrown into a full-time cook, maid, and homeschool teacher (private schools are keeping curriculum work due).  I think I'm still in shock with the business.  I plan to update our library of stock photography for sale online by going out and photographing more within Southwest Louisiana, WHEN I can find a rhythm to all of this.  Our clients are businesses.  Understandably, all called and emailed to cancel due to the chaos.  It all involves working in proximity anyway...  I am typically a very optimistic person who can find the creative way when no one else can... I'll get back to there... I just have not figured out the solution to this puzzle quite yet.  
• I think I'm just still in shock.  My mind doesn't know how to process such a "fail" OVERNIGHT with a 15 year old business that's always been healthy.  This feels like my oldest child (LJP) has been seriously injured in the blink of an eye.  Yet I'm thrown into a stay at home mom role... something I have never been.

It's been 7 days since Governor Edwards announced school closures.  As I know you all can relate, it's felt like that was two weeks ago.  The shock is only now beginning to subside, with a further acceptance of all these changes.

Yesterday, my office manager, Lisa, and I met at our downtown studio one last time for awhile.  We wrapped up any last small items left on our now empty pending list, shut down our powerhouse computers, and tucked in our office chairs.  We split our backup hard drives we keep archived, each for us a set to bring to our homes for safekeeping, and I packed up my cameras and drone.

The phone went silent this week.  Only emails coming in are more notices and updates from other businesses and our printing vendors.  We placed a to-go order for a last lunch together from our favorite downtown restaurant, Villa Harlequin, and over lunch, practiced what we do best:  verbal gratitude lists.  Acknowledging what we are doing is the right thing to do.  Expressing our thankfulness for our clients.  Thankful we've kept the business healthy always without loans or high overhead.  We acknowledged with gratitude our own health and well being, and (partially) joked about our personality types not going nuts staying home and doing nothing.  We are pro-active, go getters, problem solvers who don't sit still very well!  

I end all this with a project I'd like to challenge myself with.  A list of what I'd like to post, blog, share stays running with me, but there always seems to not come a time to get to it... until now.

A silver lining perhaps.

I want to post and share with you all a variety of my favorite images, a few times a week.  Many I know will come from what I haven't shared yet from my most recent cross country barge tracking assignment.  Others may be just an assortment.  I want to post so much more often than I do, but so much of our work is confidential (via the industries) and the rest I always feel I need to sit at the computer and share the story behind it in order to post.  But I've got to let go of that little "OCD" rule of mine. 

Check back, or subscribe to my little blog, ask questions, etc.  Though I am working on distancing myself more from social media than what I have this week in order to be more mindful with my kids, I'll get back and respond- I promise!

Lastly, as we all spend more time right now checking for the latest numbers from the CDC, and using social media to connect more than ever before during this socially distant time, I'd ask you to please take a moment to head over to google or google maps and leave any of your favorite small businesses a review.  This would greatly provide encouragement in these quiet days.  Though this, too, shall pass, the reviews you would leave will STILL be there, helping us get back on our feet when searches for things like a headshot or industrial photographer begin again.  I also don't know much about the new Facebook "recommendations" way of reviewing, but if you'd prefer that for our Facebook page, we would appreciate it tremendously as well!

Thanks for reading and happy social distancing.  ;)

Client:  Goldenpass LNG

Assignment:  Capture "studio looking" headshots of their VP/executives, as well as some environmental portraits of GoldenPass employees within their work space within their corporate offices in downtown Houston, TX.

Coverage:  Full on location photography (up to 6 hours)

After I got all equipment up to their floor level, we scouted for the ideal area to set up my "pop up" portable background and studio lighting.  I typically suggest we begin with these images first, as it provides a simpler assignment to achieve for each of the subjects and myself.  This provides a few moments for the photographer and each subject individually to get acquainted within these few minutes during the photoshoot, allowing for a higher success rate if they are then involved in the environmental marketing photography later on in the assignment.

One of my popular areas for on location photography studio setup is a kitchen or kitchenette if the boardroom is in use or houses a table too large to move for the needed space.  

(I always find this amusing;  what office employee doesn't visit the kitchen at least once throughout the day, which always quickly gets the "buzz" of the photographer being in house moving quickly down the hallways!)

(Click on any of the below images to view in their delivered cropping format.)

The second portion of my time spent on location was dedicated to the environmental portraits of employees within their workspace.  These highly flexible images are able to be used in a variety of ways, whether in print within brochures, annual reports, online website areas with testimonials, or for business opportunities offered.  There are both internal marketing uses as well as external.  

After using three of our six hours of coverage for the VP/executive portraits, we moved onto the next set, jumping in and out of several offices throughout their floor, as well as popping into the conference room to stage a few images there.  It was all in all another highly successful marketing photoshoot!  

I don’t photograph many residential homes. (Our architectural clients tend to focus primarily in commercial design.) But this southern gem was incredible:  a Southwest Louisiana farmhouse nestled among the fields and marsh south of Lake Charles.

As a cajun girl, when I began to hear the specs of the home for the assignment and learned it was raised above ground, I thought, “A fancy camp!” Ha! But as I drove through the brick gates and down the tree lined entrance, I instantly understood the owner’ verbiage of a working farmhouse.  Cattle, fences, and a massive barn also came into view.

This stunning lady of a home immediately earned my respect for her righteous name as a farmhouse, complete with a garden and pigeonaire! 

Assignment:  To photograph the exterior of the home and the interior primary living spaces 

Obstacles:  Capturing the inside late enough in the day to allow the most balanced quality of light in for the best showing of the views through the windows, but not so late as to intrude on the allotted time I needed to fully capture the outside before and during sunset.

What I couldn't have done without:  My solid tripod, manual Nikkor Tilt-shift lens, Godox AD400 pro strobe on a stick, and my wireless Tether Tools tethering to my iPad Pro.

I arrived at about 5:00 and unloaded inside before accepting the owner's offer of a tour.  This gave me the time to briefly "relax" into the space while also encouraging her to share any special features or stories about the home that would provide me the empathic perspective I always love to have.  (The primary client, architect Randy Goodloe and I had previously had a meeting to discuss his favorite areas and materials within the home.)

Photographing the largest and most time consuming area would come first - the view from the west side of the open floor plan living area looking towards the fireplace and wine bar.  With the high ceilings and long length, it was imperative to utilize my specialty tilt shift lens to aid with distortion.  I filled in shadows and unevenly lit areas walking and capturing with my iPad tethered to the camera.  This allowed me to instantly see any adjustments to lighting, as well as any small details that may have been overlooked and needed straightening.  (I love being able to include the homeowner in what I'm photographing and light painting through her ability to view the captures and adjustments with me on the iPad!)

I then moved to celebrate the smaller areas within the large living space:  fireplace seating area closest to the wine bar, the secondary sitting area for after dinner coffee and visits (as well as additional room to move the two massive wood dining tables to accommodate up to 24 guests), and lastly the stunningly massive kitchen island with bar seating, and kitchen itself with the matte black La Cornue stove commanding the otherwise light and airy space.  The client was so respectful of the homeowner's time, as was I, that our goal was not to fully capture every detail within the home, but to capture the key areas enough to tell the story of the layout and build.

The homeowner and I headed outside about 6:30 and I setup my tilt shift lens once again at various angles, documenting the home throughout the stunning sky changes from a cloudless sky blue all the way into an incredible array of purples, oranges, and pinks as the sun fell below the horizon.  This was gorgeous seeing the property come to life once again with it's landscaping lights illuminating the trees and home.  I'd also had the request of photographing the home from the air, so I did what I do best and managed both ground photography and aerial photography interchangeably throughout the next hour.  I absolutely love the results.  

P.S. - If you happen to notice a pigeonairre alongside the home, yes, we will be revisiting the property to photograph this little beauty in the springtime when the homeowner's garden is not in the transitional state it was in October... I can't wait!  :)

Architectural design: Goodloe Architects 

Interior Design: Jeanne Barousse Designs

Oven deserves its own credit: La Cornue

The assignment:  To create a "base" for marketing images that fully encompass the detail, care, and level of perfection the LL team carry into each and every project, beginning with documenting their largest and most valuable asset:  the team!

Location:  Landlocked Aviation's Lake Charles location at Chennault International Airport

Shoot:  Full day on location photoshoot beginning with environmental headshots of the supervisors, VPs, and management team, followed by a photojournalistic focus on the current shift of employees taping and marking up their current private jet aircraft project for that week.

I’m thrilled to share some of our recent on location marketing headshots we captured of the aircraft resurfacing specialists at Landlocked Aviation’s Lake Charles location! On this segment of our full day photoshoot, we started by focusing on the upper management, then we moved into capturing the dayshift team at work later on. I’ve loved getting to know this incredible business and their impressive turn around time required; their primary clients are large commercial aircraft that must be fully processed typically in 7 days! This requires 24 hour work, 7 days a week, multiple shifts within each process, and a precision and perfection in their services and products that has only further intrigued me the more time I spend out there! (Four shoots and counting so far!)

It’s the evening of Tuesday, May 14th.  After another chaotic and adventurous day chasing a tugboat through Tennessee, Illinois, and now Kentucky, which has kept me extremely occupied this week, my mind has also drifted back towards home...

I’m on assignment for one of my absolute favorite clients, Canal Barge Company, who continuously keeps me challenged and honing my “on the fly” creative photography skills through these cross-country endeavors!  However, I was also asked to be elsewhere today:  back in Lake Charles on the runway of Chennault International Airport in front of Air Force One, capturing the CEO of SempraLNG greeting his most honored guest - President Donald Trump.  I - ME - I was asked to be SempraLNG’s photographer for one of their company’s most monumental moments with our POTUS!  

This started just a few days ago…. Within Terminal C of the Houston Airport headed to Memphis, I’d been locked into the game of “willing” the DELAYED FLIGHT monitor to update.  After I’d lost multiple rounds (total gate changes and countless flight delays - all on Mother’s Day), I decided to move my attention elsewhere and do a check of work emails.

Understandably, I was immediately filled with emotion upon seeing the email:   excited, honored, and humbled quickly moved into frustration upon realizing I could not be in two places at once.  My thoughts were racing.    The following flashed briefly through my head:  “You can still head back home and cancel this if you REALLY want to have the honor of accepting the ‘once in a lifetime’ assignment.”  But I can’t.  I knew I couldn’t.  I mean, technically, I could… but my heart would not allow such a decision.  I committed to my barge people.  I told them yes.  I knew within seconds of ingesting the two line email that her request was not going to happen.  But I then had to call the company and “reject” their assignment offer. 

*Insert a brief moment of Serenity Prayer mantra in a calming and confirming effort, another moment to find pride in my decision, and a third pause to acknowledge I’d begun cold sweating in my airport seat for long enough to regret my choice of a light grey shirt…

After a tough phone call, we hung up, both disappointed.

Trying to comfort myself and affirm the decision, I resumed the recital of the Serenity Prayer, over and over.  

I couldn’t change the situation.  I couldn’t change the fact that two wonderfully diverse assignments were converging on the same date.  I couldn’t make the barge stop and wait for me.  Nor could I ask the Sempra CEO, nor Mr. Trump, to hold off until I return.  I felt for a half of a second like I couldn’t control ANYTHING within this personally disturbing “first world problem”!  And this frustrated me, too!  Thus returning back to the Prayer.  Change your thoughts, Lindz.  “Glass half FULL.”  Look there.  Thankfulness, gratitude for even HAVING such an issue!  Now what ELSE can I change?  What else DO I have control over?

And then the RIGHT solution that would not leave either of us hanging came like a light bulb that manifested over my head in (now) Terminal B!

I called her back.  “I still can’t do it, but I may have another solution.  I know a guy….

A wonderful friend and fellow media photographer I’ve worked alongside for professionally photographing other high security assignments will be the perfect alternative!  He is my first choice when I need a hand during this type assignment, as well as with heavy/extra challenging jobs.”

Fast forward and by the time I finally landed in Memphis that night, Sempra LNG’s CEO had a photographer ready who was contracted by Lindsey Janies Photography (they receive all the same client benefits now as if I was the photographer - including my offer manager Lisa handling the logistics, details, security clearance info, etc).   And my contracted photographer received an awesome assignment and some bonus compensation for his last minute accommodations to their request.

Whew!

So President Trump visited Lake Charles this afternoon.  He deplaned with the Sempra CEO.  They shook hands, visited, did important business stuff, and Lindsey Janies Photography had a photographer there for Sempra’s big day.  I was not there, but instead delayed by high waters holding up my beloved barge, but I wasn’t biting my lip, wondrously staring off, anxious and regretful of not being at Chennault. 

I spent today’s “water’s-too-high-to-move-today” delay creating B-roll time lapse videos, learning the lay of the land along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, seeing wild turkeys run/fly across the road, and realizing how much a flooded Northern Mississippi River looks just like the swamps of my homeland in Southwest Louisiana.  (I've decided "permanently flooded" is just shortened down here to "swamp".)

I’d think of where I could have been, where I was briefly tempted to be.  But I was so very content with exactly where I was, where I chose to be.  

And sometimes, even within keeping gratitude a constant practice, we need life to “up the ante”.  Challenge us a bit MORE.  Help us in looking harder in the mirror….cleaning the glass with something that will help show where we are and if we’ve stepped off of our Christian and ethical path we hold ourselves to.   Are we still making the choices our ten-years-older-then-now us would be proud of?  Sometimes, we may just need the POTUS and a cajun river barge to aid in a self “check up”.