| About Michael Maersch and the Phoenix Lightroom Enterprise | |
After a couple of years working as a Photographer's Assistant I began getting hired as well by a local Properties Master and Stylist when she needed a hand on television commercials she worked on. Two additional years in the Film Industry introduced me to the production service, Location Scouting. In 1984 I set up my own company, the Arizona Land Company, and spent the next 25 years traveling throughout the West and parts of Europe exploring and making pictures illustrating the landscapes, interiors, roads – whatever my film Director, Advertising Agency or Commercial Photographer colleagues needed me to find for them to craft the stories they wanted to tell.
Decades of shooting and hundreds of projects produced tens of thousands of images all tucked-away in folders stored on multiple hard drives. Though early-on I began using Photoshop to process my digital images and build very basic web galleries to post online for clients, I was quickly building a real headache for myself by constantly adding images to my overall picture library with no reasonable solution for organizing the mess I was building! In 2007 Adobe released its first version of Lightroom and my life as a photographer and image manager was made A LOT easier! Adobe Lightroom is a component application that allows photographers to import, archive and organize all their digital images as they creatively – and unlike Photoshop, its parent application – intuitively process images in a non-destructive manner. With Lightroom I was also able to quickly and easily design professional looking, customized web galleries and easily upload them to the Internet, never leaving Lightroom to accomplish this. My life as a professional photographer was changed virtually overnight! |
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When 'The Great Recession' brought down the commercials industry from its high-flying run of non-stop ad campaigns I found myself with more 'free time' than I would have cared for – and the opportunity to explore this remarkable application, Lightroom, more in-depth. Over the past two years (2008-2010) I have explored, run with, experienced all the amazing tools and features Adobe Lightroom developers have built into what is, in effect, a photographer's toolbox for making the best pictures possible from each and every camera capture we import to it, organize an ever-expanding Catalog of images and then craft impressive presentations for others to view online as a slideshow or as a print! Lightroom is, by far, a more essential application to own and work-with than is Photoshop – for every digital photographer! Photoshop is unarguably important to learn as well, though daunting a task this has become, especially as it has morphed into the 'Swiss Army Knife' for all digital imaging applications. Late in 2010 I launched the Phoenix Lightroom Enterprise as my present and future endeavor, to help others learn through structured classes and One-on-One training how Lightroom is the essential source for use in their own work as a professional, a serious photo enthusiast or their work in Art School at College or University. |
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What is: - The 'Art Department' on a feature film or television commercial production consists of the Production Designer, the person who creates 'the look' of the project being filmed, a Set Designer, Set Builders, the Props Department, other craftsmen and, especially in Europe still, the Location Scout. In the 1980's, in small market Production communities like Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Boston, Atlanta, etc., location scouting was often simply a part of what the Art Department handled when a production came to town. - Location Scouts are often called even before a project is awarded, when Bidders or Executive Producers are initially crafting proposals in response to a brief they have received from an advertising agency producing a television commercial or series of print ads. Our input, based upon years of travel, research in advance of our scouting assignments and past explorations help these folks build reasoned and informed responses in order to help them land the job. - A 'Bidder' is someone who puts together numbers – expected costs and expenses – for a producer or production company executive pitching their bid for a television commercial's Ad Agency brief. - Executive Producers are, depending upon the size of the production company, perhaps the President or Vice-President of the company (along with the company's featured Director) and, in some cases, also considered the 'Head of Production' – in charge of every aspect of every project that comes to the company. Executive Producers are 'the face' of the company they represent. |
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