Pickerill Creative: Bend, Oregon - A Whilrwind Adventure

About a year ago while visiting my wife's family in Bend, Oregon and shooting some senior portraits for one of her two sisters, her other sister asked if I would come up and take the pictures for their high school senior prom next year. She went on about how the guy they hired to do the last one was terrible and everyone hated the images, etc... No problem I replied without even really thinking about it.

Cut to 8 months later and I get a phone call, hey this is Trudy from "Central High School" in Bend, Oregon, we're looking forward to having you come up and I wanted to iron out the details." Oh yeah... I totally forgot about that "Yes Maam, what is that date again?" As it turned out it was the Saturday after Corina and Martins Wedding. My plan was to do the wedding Friday night, get on a 7:00am flight to Portland, then a connecting flight to Redmond/Bend putting me there around 1:30pm. The dance starts at 6:00pm and they wanted to get some shots of the girls before the dance.

So after we figured out all of the details it was time to reserve my rental package. I knew we we're going to be doing formals at the dance so I was thinking a basic three light setup, with a muselin as my backdrop. I got on the internet, and one hour and thirty two phone calls later it was official, there are no equipment rental shops in Bend, Oregon. Ok, no problem, there has to be a neighboring city with a shop. Nope, the closest rental shop in in Portland three hours away. Okay, if I want to use it I'll have to bring it.

I did the wedding Friday night, got on a 7:00am flight to Portland, then a connecting flight to Redmond/Bend putting me there around 1:30pm. I Went straight to the dance hall, set up and lighting, then back to the family's house where 14 of the girls friends we're coming over for some pictures and then taking a limo to the dance.

I ended up carrying 2 Alien Bee strobes on the plane in addition to my regular kit. In hind sight I think I could have got away with using my Quantum and Speedlights but I didn't know the size of the room and many other variables...

I also ended up checking several light stands, umbrellas, and misc grip equipment in a regular suitcase.