Grand Opening & Giant LEGOs.
Since we opened the new studio back at the end of June, we've put a lot of work into making the space welcoming to visitors, functional and complete. It certainly took much longer that I wanted, but we finally got enough accomplished to hold an open house Grand Opening on November 3rd. We invited fellow photographers, models, clients and family - friends each and every one. I was humbled that close to 30 showed up to wish us well and check out the place.
At the Grand Opening Party. Photo by Works of Brian.
The 680 lbs of blocks came on a pallet
If you look closely at the back of the photo, you might see something strange. It's a little secret that I held back until the Grand Opening. You see, when I decided to make the back of the warehouse my main studio, I had to choose exactly how I was going to separate that space from the storage and workshop in the front. I could have built a conventional stick and plaster wall, which would have cost a grand in materials. But I truly despise doing mud-work. (plaster and tape) Plus, that's a sunk cost. If I outgrow this space in a year, that's left behind. I looked into modular building materials and settled on Everblock. These 6"x6"x12" plastic building blocks are basically giant LEGOs. It cost more than a traditional wall, but I can take it with me when I move on. More importantly, it gives a very unique feature to the space. Togs and models are already interested in shooting in front of the wall, which includes a scattering of illuminated blocks thanks to some generic LED strip kits and creative wiring.
Underside of a translucent block showing LED strip lights and one of the two controller modules
It was a fun project to design and construct the wall, which is 16' long x 10' high. Ryan helped with the wiring (and rewiring) of the pieces.
Two control modules can generate 256 different colors for the 8 blocks each illuminates. Those modules are wi-fi controllable from a mobile device. If I get bored with this pattern, I can always take the wall apart and rebuild something different.
Someone once said that if you haven't grown up by the time you turn 50, you don't have to. What does this say about me?