About Photon Grip & Electric
Over twenty years of grip, lighting, and crew support for productions across Virginia — run by working crew, for working crew.
Built in Virginia, by People Who Shoot Here
Photon has been supporting productions in Virginia for over twenty years. It started the way a lot of good things do — I came back from Los Angeles to shoot a film, and stayed. Virginia is my home state, and it turned out there was real work here and not enough infrastructure to serve it. So we built some.
"We" matters in that sentence. Photon was built alongside Jason Mitchell, our gaffer — a veteran, and the person who's packed and run these trucks since the beginning — and a group of local crew, many of whom have worked with us for a decade or more. That continuity is the whole point: when a Photon truck rolls onto your set, the person driving it has been packing that truck for years, not weeks.
I'm a cinematographer first. I've shot over fourteen features, directed two, and lost count of the music videos, commercials, and industrials somewhere along the way. I've camera operated on shows including The Walking Dead, Homeland, and AMC's Turn, and I operate Steadicam — including for ASC cinematographers Thomas Ackerman and Frank Prinzi. That background is why the gear is packed the way it is: everything on our trucks is there because someone on our crew needed it on a set and didn't have it.
Why Our Trucks Come With Crew
Virginia is a spread-out state. Productions here shoot in Richmond one day and Roanoke, Norfolk, or the DC metro the next, and there's no version of that where a producer wants to be chasing a rental counter, a driver, and a gaffer as three separate problems. So we don't work that way. Every Photon truck goes out with a Photon crew member — usually as your gaffer, or as an electrician or grip if you've already got that covered — and the gear arrives with someone who knows it.
The goal is simple: fewer things for a producer to worry about. Grip, lighting, power, and the crew conversation, handled in one call. And because I'm still working as a cinematographer, we can help think through the camera side too — what a shoot needs, how to build the day, who's good in Virginia. Bring it up when you request a quote.
WHY PHOTON
Over twenty years supporting Virginia productions
Run by a working cinematographer, Steadicam and camera operator
Crew who've been with us a decade or more
Trucks packed by people who've needed the gear on set
One call for grip, lighting, power, and the crew picture
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Eric — a cinematographer and Steadicam/camera operator working in Virginia for over two decades — alongside gaffer Jason Mitchell and a core of local crew. The people who own the gear are the people who use it.
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Twenty-one years, based in Richmond, working across Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic.
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Constantly — it's a lot of what we do. Productions come into Virginia needing a local G&E department that already knows the state, the locations, and the crew community. One call before your travel day and the gear picture is handled.
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Yes — features, commercials, and camera operating, including Steadicam. It keeps the gear honest, and it means the conversations we have with DPs and producers are the ones we've been on the other side of.
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Yes — features, commercials, and camera operating, including Steadicam. It keeps the gear honest, and it means the conversations we have with DPs and producers are the ones we've been on the other side of. You can see that work at erichurt.com.