When I first started setting up the Ant Farm project, I built the grid in a portrait orientation because... well... I don't really know why I did that. It's simply the way I started arranging the pieces and that's how it got locked into my brain.
To provide myself with a large, almost-real-time representation of how the project is developing, I print out a low-res shot of each model and tape it to a large piece of foam core. This also gives me something to show to models when they first arrive so they can get a feel for what other people have done and how the project will ultimately look. Last night, however, something rather dramatic happened when I picked up the foam core to move it.
I accidentally rotated it 90 degrees.
In an instant I realized that the portrait orientation was completely wrong and that it needed to be landscape. This is one of those things that was so bloody obvious once I saw it, but it had not even crossed my mind until that moment. Yes, this meant that I instantly created about four hours of Photoshop work for myself to rearrange all the elements, but it was time well spent. Once I finished that the project simply looked better. It's hard to explain why, but it just did.
I guess the point of this is to remind myself to occasionally step back and question why I'm doing things the way I am. Chances are there are decisions I made purely out of habit that should now be re-evaluated. Assume nothing; experiment often. And above all, don't forget the valuable lesson the Brady kids taught us:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyooALwfxO8
I knew that once summer wrapped up I would need another large project to keep me busy until the warmer weather returned, so I devised something that I'm currently calling the Ant Farm.
You can read all the details on this page, but the quick pitch is that 100 people will be depicted crawling all over a large structure. The structure is made of 100 boxes, some horizontal, some vertical, all arranged into a tight grid. As with previous multi-person projects, I'm mostly leaving it up to the individual models to decide how they want to pose. This just makes it all the more interesting.
The one thing I'm doing slightly different this time is my approach to finding models. In the past I've hit up my circle of friends repeatedly until enough people agreed to pose (if for no reason other than to just shut me up). This time, however, I'm finding that word-of-mouth is providing most all the advertising I need to keep a steady stream of people coming over. Most of the emails that I'm getting start off with saying something like "My friend just posed for your project and now I want to do it!"
In actually executing this project, I'm finding that my most valuable tool is not my camera or the set pieces I use, it's the spreadsheet that keeps track of all the people I've shot, the ones who are booked, and everyone else who has expressed interest. If I lost this I'd be sunk.
I shot my first model for this project on October 16, and as of today (November 26) I've shot 38, I have 14 people scheduled over the next couple weeks, and another 22 who have expressed interest but have not yet scheduled. Altogether, this represents 74 people, though history tells me I shouldn't really count anyone until I've actually taken their picture. Even people who are really eager to participate sometimes can't work it into their calendar.
