World-Class photographer Michael Grecco uses SanDisk’s Powerful SSD’s designed for the toughest jobs

Michael Grecco is a commercial and advertising photographer based in Los Angeles, California. One of his favorite things to do is shoot on location. “A great location just gives you a lot of information, and helps me tell the story I want to tell in my portraits also,” Grecco says.

One of his recent on-location projects was shot in the extreme climate of Death Valley. In such harsh conditions, it was imperative to back up his files in a reliable way. His rugged SanDisk SSD drives allowed Grecco to have a seamless shoot.

Act I – What it takes to shoot on location

Whenever shooting on location, it is important to have every detail planned out. 

“Whenever you’re shooting on location, you have to make sure you have all the logistics,” Grecco says. “The logistics are so important. If you’re in Death Valley, you know, you’re going to need a trailer because it’s probably 110 or 120 degrees. You need to get people dressed in air conditioning.”

Just like in a studio, Grecco needs to shoot into a computer so he can see what he’s shooting. That way, he can make adjustments if needed. “I always shoot tethered into the machine and then I’m always backing it up onto another drive,” Grecco says.

For Grecco, it’s crucial to back up everything he’s shooting on location, especially when shooting in harsh places like Death Valley.  “The most important thing for me is to be able to see what I’m doing and make sure the data is backed up as we’re shooting,” Grecco says.

Act II – The process

Grecco and his team woke up at four o’clock in the morning so they could start the shoot right when the sun rose — which was around 6 AM. For the shoot, Grecco had an idea to capture otherworldly fashion. They decided the best place to get a feel for another planet was Death Valley, so they opted for that. “The Death Valley location really lends itself to this otherworldly feel,” Grecco says. However, shooting at Death Valley requires a lot of travel. It’s about three hours from one end to the other, and Grecco had plans to shoot at two or three locations. Still, in the end, it was worth it to shoot at such a fitting location for the shoot. “The ground [had] this incredible texture, and we dressed the model in a parachute dress and brought her to that location.”

When shooting at a harsh location like Death Valley, you have to bring a lot of batteries and power. “If you have a laptop … [make sure] the laptop has an extra battery. The great thing about using my extreme pro portable SSD is that it doesn’t require a power source,” Grecco says. Additionally, you want to make sure your equipment is reliable and can keep the dust and water out of the device.

“You want to make sure you have multiple copies of something,” Grecco says. “You want to make sure you have it backed up and to have it backed up on a really rugged storage device.”

Act III – The gear that gets it done

“If you’re doing anything that’s important that you need to rely on your hard drive and flashcards and your camera, I would only recommend SanDisk,” Grecco says.

When working in the extreme heat of Death Valley, Grecco relied on the Extreme Pro portable SSD drives because of their rugged, sealed design. “The extreme pro portable SSD is water-resistant, dust resistant. It’s extremely rugged.”

It’s important to protect your files when shooting on location. When shooting for advertising or commercial purposes, you often don’t get a second chance with a location. You also don’t want to be held up because your tech is backing up multiple cameras. You want to have fast, seamless data transfer. “We really depend on high-speed SSD drives,” Grecco says. “I’ll only use SanDisk because it’s the most reliable drives and cards there are.”

“I chose SanDisk for my on-location solution because the data transfer is fast, they’re rugged and they’re reliable. And those are the things I need on location because sometimes you can’t go back.”
To learn more or to buy the SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD click here.

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