Mode Studio

Some years ago, after moving both home and studio to our bucolic little corner of NJ, I discovered the power of furniture sliders, sometimes called Super Sliders, or EZ Sliders, and a host of other brand names. These handy items come in sizes small and large. I’ll comment on how I use the stick-on variety another week, but the kind pictured here really saved a lot of time and back ache for a busy shoot of some very large products.Picture this, 8 – 400 lb. widgets the size of washing machines show up in the studio. Each one has to be assembled a few different ways for photography, and a dedicated team from the client is busy setting each one up. When one is ready, move it into the set, shoot, then swap out for the next one, roughly 24 times.To make a long story short, the client was going to send two helpers just to move the items around because they weren’t on wheels and weighed more than this intrepid photographer and the product manager could handle. But wait, a quick dash to the hardware retailer to buy 8 boxes of these stupendous, supersized sliders, and the day was saved. We placed the sliders under each of the large items, slid them back and forth from the set for photography, and only took them out for the shooting (easy enough to just tilt the items up a fraction on each corner to remove and replace them). The client spent a few bucks on the sliders but saved 2 people-days for their warehouse crew which was well worth it to them. And the studio had two less people meandering around (I always like to limit the crowd when I shoot, too many distractions).Now, of course, these are a permanent fixture in my irreverent tool cabinet.Posted by Steve Weinrebe