Post Production

After conducting a short interview, I wrapped up photography and production on this project on Thursday. I underestimated the toll the project would take on my body. I am now sore from spending the days running a camera up and down my pole rig.

My big challenge now is organizing the images. My planned file organization scheme did not take into account the multiple reshoots or repeated shots needed for my successful completion of this project.

The Process

I wanted to give you a glimpse of what lies ahead for John Hagen and the Digital Totem Project: lots of computer work.

After each shooting session I download all of my images and review the shoot. This is a screenshot of my Adobe Bridge window from one of recent sessions. It should be fun to work with all of these files in the very near future. The take shows a sort of bracketing I use in the process. When the painter poles are extended, there is a certain amount of instability I have started to over shoot the high the pole gets. It has been taking me just under 400 photographs to document each 16' pole.

First Shoots

Here is my rig in action. I have it set up in front of a totem pole at Lookout Park in Haines, Alaska.

My first attempt at shooting one of these poles was hampered by the poor weather. Snow was building up on the totem faster than I could shoot it. I would not be able to stitch the photographs together properly. The snow would not merge correctly.