Once upon a time I was in the studio of a commercial photographer who was setting up to shoot…well, I don’t remember what it was. Watches, maybe. It was a long time ago, but I do recall this: before he got a single light, power pack, reflector, scrim, snoot, umbrella or camera, he rolled out one of those huge red Craftsman toolboxes you see in auto repair shops and started to work on positioning the watches…or whatever it was he was photographing. The toolbox was loaded with clamps, clips, Fun-Tak, bits of clay, wax, all kinds of tape from gaffer’s to duct, double-sided to clear, plus pins, fishing line, armature wire, hemostats, about a dozen kinds of glue, a snarl of glue guns, all shapes and sizes of plastic and wood blocks and at least a handful of quarters, dimes and nickels.

I was starting to get the idea when the photographer cut to the heart of it when he said, “Half my time in the studio is spent getting things to stand up.” Before the day was out I realized that about three-quarters of the other half was spent getting light to behave itself. I guess if I were to adapt a famous Yogi Berra baseball truism to fit photography, it’d come out, “Half this game is 90 percent mechanical.”

In this issue you’ll find a few passing references to the little adjustments photographers make so that stuff will do what it doesn’t usually do—like stand up. And you’ll find a column, Steve Vaccariello’s Pro View, devoted to the more elaborate things that go on behind the scenes in order to build a photo. You might come away with the conclusion I reached that day in the photographer’s studio: the picture may not lie, but it sure doesn’t tell the whole truth.

Steve’s column happened because of Tracy Putman, Nikon World’s publication supervisor. About two years ago we ran an article about Steve’s work, and after it was published Tracy said, “We ought to do something on how he creates those photos, the sets and setups.” When I asked Steve if he’d like to write a column on that subject, he said, “You want me to give away all my secrets?”

I said, “No, not all. I won’t ask you to open the drawers of the big red toolbox.”