Colorado photographer Eric Bakke recommends taking a tape measure on assignments

For the most part I am a pretty good planner. Logistics, daily agendas, meetings and the like I normally have under control. I learned pretty quickly in my profession that good planning and sometimes even rehearsals make for a better end result when you are working on a important photo assignment or any aspect of business for that matter.

So on the morning of May 20, hours before I was scheduled to photograph the staff and players of the Denver Broncos, I was down at a Denver art supply house purchasing some large foam core. In fact it was two sheets of four foot by eight foot foam core board which I planned to use on the location set to block any errant light which might spill over onto my photo subjects.

The team of two clerks at the store was kind enough to wrap the boards in brown paper so they would not soil in transport. The congenial duo even offered to carry my purchases out to my vehicle but I hefted them to one side of my body, thanked them for their help and shuffled toward the front door.

From the moment I left the office some thirty miles west of the supply house over an hour before, it never crossed my mind that I had the wrong vehicle for the project. I had loaded up my 1998 Nissan Pathfinder with all the appropriate lighting gear, cameras and accessories and had plenty of time and room for my planned purchases. I quickly learned in the parking lot of the store, however, that I had been thinking all along that I had the width and height of  “Old Blue”, my 1991 Chevy pickup used primarily for the ongoing house restoration projects that have taken over all my spare time in the past ten years.

It didn’t even dawn on me until I raised the back hatch to load the panels that no matter how hard I tried those babies weren’t going to fit in the rig. Umpteen angles were tried to no avail in a matter of five to ten minutes. I eventually threw in the towel, laid the foam core on the roof  of my car and head back to my support crew hoping they would have some material to help tie  down my over sized purchases topside. The three of us got them secured and I slipped behind the wheel ready for my trip to Dove Valley. We all agreed I would not be able to carry my new cargo along Interstate 25 south so I mentally planned my route through the back streets of Denver.

All was going splendid. The paper covering flapped a bit in the breeze but everything appeared intact. It was slow going but fortunately I still had plenty of time to reach my destination. I turned east on my final major avenue minutes from the facility when all hell broke loose.

The road I was traveling  had four lanes that narrowed to three around the Interstate. There had been some recent changes to the highway and its exchanges and sure enough I was in the lane that put you right smack dab onto the Interstate with commercial trucks and cars going at hyper speed. With vehicles literally whizzing by both sides of me I kept my “death mobile” headed north praying I wasn’t going to be rear-ended as I crawled along at thirty miles an hour.

But there ahead about seventy five yards was an emergency exit for RTD buses and the most inviting prospect I could imagine. I hit the shoulder and carefully angled my car down the exit to the bottom of the hill near the bus parking lot.

I was relieved and felt like I could breath normally again until I saw the motorcycle cop to my right across the intersection.

He was shaking his head in a manner of disbelief and then inquired, ” What do think this is your own private driveway”?

I was thinking,”I made it all the way across town, literally two miles from my destination, and now I am going to get busted and not even be able to shoot my assignment”. After several exchanges and a plea on my part for a reasonable route to the Bronco’s facility the officer flipped his hand in a disgusted manner but in the direction I needed to go.

The foam core boards made it to the photo assignment unscathed and did their part for three days. Currently they sit in storage ready for next season’s  adventure.

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