Mailer 11

Nighttime Demos

Nighttime Demos must be scheduled for a 30 minute block of time at least 30 minutes after sundown. This is not an all evening affair. The purpose of the demo is to get acquainted with each other. This is a time that your client is sizing you up, forming an opinion of your qualifications and professionalism. At the same time you are qualifying your client. This is the first of several times that you will be selling yourself. This initial decision making and getting acquainted takes anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes.

You know the area, and should have a pretty good idea of the potential lighting needs. You must have a Demo Bag of tools (fixtures, lamps with banana plugs attached to 5 feet 18-2 cable, etc). Always be certain that your demo battery is fully charged. No way should you even partially light an area with more than two light sources.

The purpose of this Night Demo, besides getting acquainted, is to see what level of light pleases your client...What type of light; natural, dramatic, conversational, etc pleases them. In other words "Why Light"? Once you know the requirements, and the likes and dislikes, it becomes relatively easy to design an effective Nightscaping® System.

Never get trapped into giving even a "rough estimate" at a Night Demo. This is a time of selling yourself and your expertise when you establish the base of "Friends doing business with
Friends". Never exceed your 30 minute prearranged appointment. At the close set a mutual time for you to come and take physical measurements, photos to enable you to present an outstanding Nightscaping® design. These meeting take away from your valuable family time, and in your final presentation you must charge handsomely for this meeting. You must also operate at least an 80% closure rate.

Friends Doing Business With Friends
Bill Locklin
Loran, Inc. Nightscaping
1705 East Colton Ave.

Redlands, CA 92374

(Bill Monkeys around at his "destruct" bench)

Bill's Favorite Quote:

BE REMARKABLE...

.........................................

GET OUT OF YOUR RUT!

Photo Tips for Nighttime Images

The camera must be mounted on a tripod for long nighttime exposures. Set the aperture at F8 and shutter speed to T (for time) or B (for bulb).

Set your focus while there is still ample light. If you want to photograph an area approximately 80 feet from you, focus the lens 20 feet away, leaving the true depth at a length of 60 feet. Adjust accordingly depending on what it is you are photographing and the complexity of detail.

Start taking your first set of photos about 20 minutes after sundown. If you can read the words "One Dollar" on the face of a dollar bill held at normal reading distance, it is still too light. Shoot your photos at 15, 25, 35, and 45 second intervals. Wait about two minutes before repeating the above basic pattern making a new set of photos every four or five minutes. Try intermixing some photos at 1-3 minute intervals in case the situation is at an extremely low light level. Continue on until you either feel you've had some successful shots, or it gets too dark.

Always keep a record of the exposure duration and aperture.

The amount of twilight used is extremely important. Too much will wash out your Nightscaping®, while too little will leave hot spots in your photo. Usually, the best time to photograph night shots is 30-45 minutes after sundown.

(The Redlands Bowl)

A Story From Bill's Book

The Redlands Bowl, in my current home of Redlands, CA, is the site of the oldest free music festival in the United States. Every summer, on starry, balmy nights, up to six thousand people fill its outdoor benches and lawn to hear various types of music, from jazz to classical to opera to bluegrass. The stage lighting for the theater was done, when I first moved to Redlands, by an old-timer who'd actually done the original wiring for the place back in the 1920s.

This old-timer, the town's established electrical contractor, told me shortly after I arrived that he was retiring after 15 years of running stage lights. Guess who he chose as his replacement? That's right. The new kid.

So I went down to inspect the premises. My new field of play. What did I find? An endless array of cables, patch cords, dimmer switches, lighting gels, and who knows what else. I was blown away. I'd mastered the wiring on a submarine, I'd worked on enormous industrial jobs, but running the lights for a mid-sized regional theater seemed far beyond my scope.

The old-timer assured me I'd pick it all up in no time. Still, the only one who could really convince me of that fact was...me. And it wasn't easy.

My predecessor left me to my own devices quickly, without much training to speak of. And that's how I found myself, one hot summer evening, preparing lighting for a visiting San Francisco ballet troupe. With no idea of what I was doing.

Which colors do I use? I had no idea. In fact, all the various gels and colored lights had been my biggest concern. How do you pick between red and blue?

Some words of the old-timer came back to me. "If they don't have a stage manager, go backstage and see what the predominant costume colors are. Your lights need to compliment them."

Compliment them? I'm a simple electrician. And at this point in my career, when I was being shown how to do things, I often nodded without fully understanding. Compliment? What the heck do colors have to say nice to each other?

I went back stage as my mentor suggested. All I see are pink tutus. They're lining the room. They're everywhere. So, naturally, I knew I needed a lot of pink light. Right up I went, putting pink gels all over the light trees.

Now the patron saint of the Redlands Bowl and its festival was a woman who would sit all the way in the back, behind the 5,000 or so people who'd come to watch her show. Back there with her she kept a telephone that connected directly to my little control room. Just in case something was a bit off.

The Redlands Bowl had no curtains to raise. So the custom was to bring all the lights up just as it got dark, on a downbeat from the orchestra. Well, that evening I cue up my lights, the starting time comes, the orchestra gives the signal, and let 'em rip.

The first thing I hear is a giant AHH...HAHA from seemed like the entire audience at once. The next thing I hear is the patron saint screaming in my ear.

"The lights! The lights! It looks like the dancers don't have any clothes on!"

Oops. Pink light, for the record, does not compliment pink clothing. In fact, it tends to make it disappear. My mistake.

I recovered from it, however, and over the next 15 years, I ran the lights at the Redlands Bowl every Tuesday and Friday night in the summer. And, believe me, I learned all about outdoor color lighting. I even learned what complement meant, in regards to color.

A HOBBY OUT OF CONTROL

Ten Life-Based Lessons for Young Entrepreneurs

William "Bill" Locklin

Mounting Templates for Nightscaping® Powercenters^(TM)

Have you ever hung something that required mounting the screws ahead of time and ended up frustrated trying to get them in the exact spot?

Nightscaping® has two different mounting templates for Powercenters^(TM), one for 250 watts and less, the other for 500 watts and more. With just two templates printed on any paper, you can drill right into them and be done mounting a transformer in seconds.

Please feel free to access them anytime on our website under Mounting Templates for Powercenters^(TM) and print a few pages for your next installation job.