I shared a studio space with 5 other photographers. It was a great system where the rent was divided up between all of us, and we just filled out our time slots on an online calendar when we were going to use it. I used this space for about 2 years without an incident. Well not anymore.
Sometime in mid February, I brought my camera backpack into the studio in preparation for a couple shoots I had scheduled that week. When I came in the evening of the first photo shoot, the entire bag was gone. Doors were still locked, but all of my gear had been stolen.
No one knew what happened. So I called and filed a police report (which went absolutely nowhere. Thanks Pittsburgh Police). After a couple weeks, insurance finally came through and helped me replace most of my equipment.
Although I have most of the gear back, I decided without a doubt to stop using the photo studio. Since it was never discovered how someone got into the space, I could only assume that it might happen again, and I wasn't about to take that chance.
So here I am with a new camera, but no studio to shoot in. This might not hinder some photographers. But the niche that I enjoy the most is compositing shots, in which case I need a studio to shoot & light the subject in before I can put them into a different environment - as seen here...
Which brings us to today. At this point I can only accept shoots that are on-location. Hopefully I will find a new solution for studio space in the future, but this is the predicament I am in right now.
