Friday, April 27, 2012

Confession: I ran over a Senator's mailbox


Time for a riddle: What do this magazine cover, and running over Senator Scott Brown's mailbox have in common?
Stumped?
Well, they were both done by me on the same day. More on that later. 
I photographed Gail Huff, Senator Scott Brown's wife and former Boston news anchor, at their home, for the premier issue of Southern New England Living. You know you're dealing with a pro, when you make suggestions like, "Can you get on the roof of a truck?" and they say "Sure!" She was absolutely amazing the way she happily jumped on top of "The Truck" that Sen. Brown made famous driving around Massachusetts during his campaign. She kicked her shoes off and her years of experience in front of the camera was obvious.
We did a few different set-ups while we were there, and I had specific instructions from the art director to photograph her against a black background. So we found a shaded area, cranked up the power of the strobe in the softbox, and sped up the shutter speed, turning day into night. This is the result:

We then did a great session with a green MG that Gail bought for Scott as a present. In the old car, I wanted to backlight her and make her look like a 1960's movie star. None of these photos made it into the magazine, because they didn't really match the look of the story, but they are my favorite photos from that day.
There's a moment after you leave a great shoot when you take a deep breath & think "that couldn't have gone better". Beware of those moments... that's when you run over a mailbox. Yes, after an amazing shoot , I reward my gracious hostess by backing into her mailbox on the way out. I completely knocked it over. The amazingly strong mailbox left it's mark on my bumper, a nice scar to remember it by. My bumper surprisingly didn't leave a scar on the mailbox. So, I did what anybody would do. I looked around to see if there were any witnesses, raised the mailbox back up, and pounded down the cement around the mailbox post into the ground. 
Thank you Gail, you were amazing. And sorry about that mailbox debacle...












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