On Sunday morning, I was eating breakfast at my favorite bagel shop in Alexandria. Two friends of mine walked in and came over to my table. They did not know each other and have very different types of careers. One is a photo editor and the other an FBI agent.
We started talking about our worlds and the changes swirling around all of us, from medical problems of siblings to people in recovery and to sadness of life lived without understanding.
The Photo Editor friend mentioned Tim Russert passing and what a great guy he was to photograph. He was. She and I had spend a morning with Tim a couple of years ago and it was so unlike the more common type of DC power portrait. Tim asked us to meet him at this home in Northwest DC and shoot nearby. My assistant and I scouted a location on the edges of in Rock Creek Park that was within a block or so of his home. It was pretty early in the morning and the cover concept was to shoot Mr. Russert fairly tight with a enough "location" to let the reader know he was in the park.
We set-up an Octabank with a couple of reflectors and scrims to control any spill light from the sun or reflections.
After we set-up and ran a couple of polaroids (I was shooting film with the Hassy), the client and I walked up to Tim's house. I had researched him a bit and very favorable impressions of him. Sometimes in DC, people who are well known can be "rushed" or "all business" and it is up to me to make the person comfortable and most importantly, connect with the camera. I half-expected that given his stature and our time-frame.
So many people have said this since Friday, that Tim was gracious, bold, friendly and a real person.
In the half-hour I spent with him, I found that to be true. He was, to me, a regular guy, very friendly, funny, outgoing and engaging. We had a conversation about the Redskins, photography, living near Rock Creek Park and it was an incredibly pleasant shoot. He didn't ask to see polaroids, to approve anything or the concept or lighting. It really felt like I was photographing someone I had known for quite a while.
It always brings a bit of sadness to me, when someone I have photographed passes away. Their have been two in the last week, a well known Partner in an International Law Firm who joked around with me quite a bit the two times I photographed him last year, and of course, Mr. Russert.
What I enjoyed about my shoot with Mr. Russert was I was able to keep the focus and time with him on the interaction, to the conversation, to making him comfortable so he could be who he really was, and to show that to the world.
It all came about because the client and I made a decision to keep it simple. To make it easy on the subject, to minimize the crew and location. We kept the production values high because we scouted the location and thought the shot through before we even contacted him.
Sometimes less really is more. When I get my scanner set-up this weekend, I will scan the tranny to add to this post.
