Update May 2009: The image at the bottom won in a photo contest and is hangs in a gallery in Fairfield, CT.
The 100-year-old artist I photographed recently was perhaps the most reluctant photo subjects I've come across. Her aide warned me as I walked in the door.
Glenora Richards is famed for her beautiful miniature portraits, complete paintings just a bit larger than a book of matches. She still creates them, without the use of a magnifying glass. Dozens of them -- each one exquisite, some perhaps created 70 or more years ago -- lined her living room walls.
"I look like a rhinoceros!" she yelled after looking at a head-and-shoulders image of herself on my LCD.
Her aide said, "so why don't you smile? You'll look better!"
"You try smiling when you have no teeth!" She had a point.
Another challenge was that I was reluctant to ask her to move from her chair, since she looked pretty comfortable there, and hey, she is 100 years old. Gotta respect that.
Richards is a great conversationalist, and her winning personality, plus my professional pride, had me trying to figure out how to get three different images, given the constraints. I knew the newspaper had planned a lovely feature on her, and figured they'd need three: One for the lede, one for the jump, and one for insurance, in case they were lucky enough to have a bit more space in that day's paper.
After Richards rejected yet another head-and-shoulders image -- a go-to composition -- I started looking around the room and spied a poster on the wall. It was an enlargement of a magazine cover, featuring a seated young woman with her head resting in one hand. Miniature paintings decorated a table in front of her.
"Is that you?" I asked.
"Yes," she looked up.
"Do you like that picture?" I asked. The picture was likely taken nearly 70 years ago.
"Yes, I do," she beamed.
"So let's recreate it, OK?"
She loved that idea, and I asked her aide to help me set it up. The aide directed me to a TV tray in the kitchen, and I set that up in front of the artist's chair. I asked if I could bring over some of her paintings to place on the table, like in the old poster. She agreed, and I used some tissue boxes and salt and pepper shakers to prop them up. I asked her to put her head in one hand, like in the poster, and she did. We got this frame:
The second picture was easy. I asked her to hold one of the miniatures -- a painting of her late husband, when he was in his 40's -- and I snapped a detail shot:
I got the idea for the third and final image while I was taking the detail shot. I noticed I had to position myself carefully so as not to get a reflection on the glass of the miniature. I figured I'd use that type of reflection in the next shot, which took only a moment -- with careful attention to positioning -- to compose:
Happy 100th birthday, Mrs. Richards. I hope I get to photograph you for your 101st.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Soccer star Marcus Tracy
One of the things I like best about this job is that I get to meet some interesting people, from all professions. Recently I caught up with Marcus Tracy, a soccer phenom who won the Hermann trophy, awarded to the best college soccer player of the year.
He lives in the area, having graduated from Wake Forest, and stays in shape with the help of trainer E.J. Zebro.
Driving over to the gym, I'm expecting grey cinderblock walls, high ceilings, ugly flourescent lighting, ya know, standard gym decor. When I saw the red walls, I knew this was gonna be fun.
Bonuses: the ceilings were low and painted an orangey-yellow, perfect for bouncing a flash and warming up the light. The windows added a cool blue contrast. There were lots of mirrors that, once I positioned myself to stay out of 'em, added some nice depth.
Tracy and Zebro just went about their business, and I had a great time experimenting with angles, light bounces, and composition in this super room.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)