Every year my assignments keep getting larger and more complex, and this year is no different, with my main industrial aerospace photography client. I was asked by Relativity Space if I could photograph another of their 3D printers that they use to create rocket ship housings.

They said it was big but, until I saw it, I did not realize how big it was. It was a semi-flat black round disc that was about 25ft tall, we had one day to shoot it and two days to deliver. They also wanted a nice blue glow behind the printer and to include people in the photograph.

I immediately thought about how many ways this could go wrong, because there was only one way that I thought it could be lit, and that was with a suspended 20X20 ft silk lit with 10 1000 Watt Profoto mono blocks mounted on two giant 25ft stands. Yikes!!!!

I had to call in three assistants John Robert Horton, Travis McCoy and Dana Koseff,to help me do this. I knew in theory how to do it but my assistants have worked on car and movie shoots that were of similar scale.

The whole thing took 12 hours to shoot from beginning to end, even with the additional ask of the client to include a 4th setup. But it worked and we got out on time and on budget. Wow!!!

I love work doing industrial aerospace photography because of the unique challenges it presents, but his was my most challenging industrial photography assignment I have ever had; if only because of how many ways it could go wrong and all of the moving parts that I had to control.