On Location in OK

I’m in Oklahoma for the next couple of weeks for one of my favorite parts of my job: working with Brandi Simons on book photos!

Just about one year ago we were driving all over the Tulsa area looking for the perfect spots to photograph the jumbo toys in Huge & Huggable Mochimochi. Sometimes (yes, more than once) a clean bathroom was all the location we needed. That’s Brandi with the camera; her friend Sheri is waiting for her closeup (she was an excellent model); and my sister Leah is helping with the reflector. Maybe you can guess what the project is?

I love taking snapshots of Brandi at work. We have so much fun on these shoots, and I want to remember what it was like behind the scenes of her great images. So I always try to take pics with my phone when I get a moment, although those moments pass by so quickly when I’m also trying to suggest angles, make adjustments to the toys, and check out the results at the same time.

Looking back at my iPhone photos, I’m remembering shoots that we did in all kinds of interesting places. It took a little negotiation, but we were able to do a shoot at an authentic local burger joint. I learned that greasy food and knitted toys aren’t an appetizing combination… but it was fun!

Another location was a first-grade classroom. I haven’t stepped foot in an elementary school in years, and this really took me back to my early education days. (I didn’t go to this particular school, but a different one in the same town.)

We also shot photos in a movie theater, in a library, in a used car that we had to get a grumpy antiques dealer to open for us, and in the middle of the street during rush hour. It was an exhausting and exhilarating two weeks, and I can’t wait for everyone to see the finished work.

THIS week and the next, Brandi and I will be shooting photos for another very exciting top-secret project (one that doesn’t involve crazy location scouting). I hope to share some behind-the-scenes photos on Twitter and Facebook as we work. I can’t wait to begin!

By the way, this trip means that I will ship all orders of physical goods (books, kits, buttons, etc.) on October 2nd when I return to NYC. (PDF pattern downloads will be unaffected.)