I think this might be my first ever random commission. Like, it’s the first time someone has called me up out of the blue and said that they know my other work, and they’d like me to take some photos for them. Not that getting jobs through connections is a bad thing, but this is pretty momentous. And…challenging.
I have to take a bunch of high-quality shots of insects, which is a pretty tough order. They say never to work with dogs or babies, and for good reason; they don’t stay still. Bugs? Even worse. It’s for a book chronicling the adventures of a pest exterminators, or something? I don’t know; doesn’t sound like it’s going to spend six weeks on the bestseller list. They probably could’ve used some stock images, but the mastermind behind this seems to want everything done right. Hey, I’m fine with that. I don’t want to work hard to make a shoddy product.
The main problem will be actually finding pests. I don’t think people will let me hold their pet mice if they knew what it was for. Insects in the wild tend to be skittish. And I have no clue where you’d find termites, apart from in places where termite inspections have already identified the problem. I guess I should make use of those pest control inspection connections and see if I can hang around a job. And then I’ll just hope I’m not annoying them. This whole project is supposed to be shedding light on the local pest control and termite inspection industries, so actually, I’m doing them a favour. Still not entirely convinced that this will be the talk of the entire city- pest control is just one of those vital services that people don’t tend to notice so much- but it’ll at least be completing the series.
I’ve been told that there are a lot of bugs and such further south east, so I might need to take a trip down to Sorrento. Pest control is the same everywhere, I assume. It’s not like there are different types of pests scattered across Melbourne. Maybe I’ll make it a working holiday, get some pics in, see how we go. At least I don’t have any phobias.