Day in the life of a football game.

This story for ESPN was definitely one of the highlights for 2011 for me. The assignment was simple: go to an NFL football game, set up a backdrop, and photograph as many people that were there working that day as possible. ESPN was devoting a whole issue to one football game, The houston texans vs. the pittsburgh steelers. The were sending about 50 photographers and writers to cover the game from all angles possible. Nancy Weismann gave me what i think was the best assignment that day. We set up early in the hallways underneath the stadium, and basically just grabbed anyone walking by and took a super fast portrait of them. I photographed about 75 people that day, from the quarterback for the texans, to a guy that sells beer in the stands during the game. Cheerleaders, cameramen, bomb sniffing dog, policeman, janitor, etc.. so much fun....the highlight of the day is in the video attached to this post. At halftime there was a college marching band that entertained...after they came off the field, we had THE WHOLE BAND march across my backdrop while i shot. So much fun and so cool..after they all went by, I looked at my assistant and remarked how much i love my job...

Redemption....

Plax. That one name conjured up so much sadness and pity when I got the assingment to shoot him for Mens Journal magazine. Plaxico Burress was one of the highest paid, best receivers in the NFL when he carried a loaded gun into a manhattan nightclub, where it accidentally fired while in hist waistband, striking himself in the leg. NYC has the toughest gun laws in the country, with a mandatory 3 year prison sentence for having a gun in the city. Even you or I, if found with a gun, even if legal outside manhattan, would face a 3 year prison sentence if found with it. I remember when i got the assingment, i remembered very well all the press when he was arrested back in 2008, thinking "what a bummer, from catching the winning touchdown pass in the superbowl, top of your game making millions, and a simple stupid mistake takes it all away." When I photographed him in July, he had only been out of prison for a month, so he was still enjoying all that he lost. His daughter, now 2, he was bonding with, as she was born while he was in prison. No amount of money could ever bring that back...we spent the better part of the afternoon on a football field doing portraits in the 100 degree heat for the story opener, then went inside to do a studio shot on a background as a backup. When he was changing his shirt for the inside shot, i saw the big tattoo on his back, "everything happens for a reason", and instantly knew that that was the picture. I asked Plax if he got it after the gun incident, and he said no, he had had it along time. I really liked him and our time together that day. I fully expected to meet a thuggish guy, with the gun incident and everything, but he wasnt like that at all, just a normal dude that made a major mistake and paid his price, no ready to move on. I've been watching him all season, as he signed with the jets, and have been so happy for him that he had a great season and is climbing back to where he was.

If I had a dime for every billionaire I've photographed...

The October issue of Forbes with Ronald Perelman and his father on the cover....it's was for the Forbes 400 rich list.shot on location at Ron's office on the upper east side. So cool to shoot a father and son that obviously love each other. I was a bit nervous, as was everyone on set, before they arrived...but when they walked in, Ron and his pops really put everyone at ease because they are so close. It was like shooting a father son comedic act..they were going at it the whole shoot. A real highlight shoot this fall...Its always a bit surreal to photograph people that are worth BILLIONS...literally these guys can and do buy anything that they want. We shot this in late summer early fall, and Ron was talking during the shoot how he had to catch a flight to Venice italy later that afternoon. I was talking to his publicist about it later, and it's nowhere near the same experience that you and I have. He was taking his chauffered black escalade to the airport, where he would not wait in any lines, but walk up the steps to his jet, where his pilots had done all the fueling, planning etc. and his assistants had the trip planned and scheduled once he arrived...then they would take off in the early evening, he would have dinner on board with his family, maybe read or watch tv, then go to bed in his stateroom in the back in his king size bed. He would then wake when they landed, and go look at art (he was going to the biennale) for the day...then he was getting on his gigantic yacht, again all prepared and ready to go with his crew, for a sail around the mediterranean...We shot this on a thursday, so he was leaving that thursday afternoon, and he was going to be back in nyc the following wednesday! Only 6 days! When you roll like that, and the stress of travel and cost are taken out of the equation, I guess it is easy to do super cool extravagant stuff like that for a few days at a time. For the next 6 days my assistant johnny and I during the course of that weeks work would sometimes just look at each other and say "I wonder what Ron is doing today".....

I dont even know where to begin...

What can I say, the surreal life of this photographer continues to get weirder...but when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro as someone once told me...Herman Cain, shot in Detroit about a month ago, during the height of his popularity when he was #1 in the polls. I love shooting politicians, because they are definitely the wackiest show on earth. I've shot so many of them, from al gore, orin hatch, john kerry, rick santorum, sarah palin, so many of them. And people always ask me what i think is the dumbest question you could ask "was he nice?" And my answer is always "of course, thats his job, was the most popular person in high school nice?" So yes he was nice, i did like him, and if was a fun shoot. We didnt have anything conceptual planned when we left for detroit. I talked to chris, the photo director at people, and he said, "He's part PT Barnum, the ultimate showman, show that in the picture." The idea literally came to me on the plane as we were about to land. Although originally the idea was to get some birthday cake candles that were the #9, and put three of them on a pizza. That morphed into the pepperoni spelling 999, which i loved. And honestly, we made the pizza (we shot at a local pizza place), without telling him or his handlers we were doing it, but i really knew deep down he would do it. And actually he really loved the pizza when we brought it out. After photographing him and the many other politicians I've shot, my conviction that political jobs should be like jury duty just gets stronger. Because we all know that anybody that really wants to be a lawmaker, probably shouldnt be...

the corporate location portrait...

I was very lucky this fall to be a part of the Bloomberg Markets 50 most influential issue...it's always great to be a part of a best of package in a magazine...everyone from art directors, editors, writers, photographers, try to raise their game past the top for special issues like this..when i got the call from Amy, I jumped right on board and was very excited to hear who I would be photographing. I've shot a ton of business peeps at this point, sometimes its a great experience, sometimes its not. When its not, its usually not because the subject is difficult or mean, its really because it can be so hard to take an interesting, original picture at an office complex..I can tell you how many times i've sighed when the PR person leads me to a conference room and says "this is where you will be photographing Mr. _________ today." But, i get it, they are busy, not much time, etc.. so I always make a great go of it and more times than not hit a home run, even in a conference room...for these guys in this special issue though, we had a little lead time and I had some ideas. The first one was Martin Feldstein, an economist up at harvard in Cambridge. His assistant was very "you can come do it at his office", but I really pushed with the magazine and with him to do something a bit more iconic and interesting. I had shot in cambridge a couple of times before, and while i had never shot on the pedestrian Weeks Bridge, I had always wanted to. I had seen the bridge and kinda just bookmarked it a few years earlier as a photoshoot location wish. Plus the idea for the portrait of him was to photograph him in an academic environment, as thats what he was, up at harvard, and i knew the bridge was so iconic cambridge, and the background would be super clean and great for a full page. Permits were put in place. location scouted. we showed up for the shoot and crossed our fingers the rain that was forecast would hold off for a bit. When Johnny and I got to location, and got our gear all up on the bridge, I had one of my several panic attacks that day, when i realized the bridge railing was SO high, it would dwarf him if he stood against it with his head barely going above the rail. So i decided that he needed to sit on the railing, even though it was up high over the charles river, and he was a pretty old guy. This goes into the "dont ask, but tell the subject to do something." I didnt really give him a choice. when he showed up, pleasantries were exchanged, then i directed him over to the railing, where i had a couple of photo cases for him to stand up on, and i helped him get up on the bridge. He did it, but only because i told, not asked. Lesson #1 today, keep as much control of the situation and decisions as you can. Act like you've done it 1,000 times before..........................................................

My second subject for the issue was Ray Dalio, hedge fund billionaire. His people were much more controlling of location "you will do it at corporate and we will have a room set for you." Ok, got it. so we decided to bring a backdrop and shoot him in a studio setting as we didtn know what we would be getting when we got there. So we showed up super early, loaded in all the gear, set up the backdrop, lit it, and were waiting. I always have a calm nervousness on set and am always looking for photos, so I stepped outside of the room we were in, walked outside, and fell in love with this location by a little pond. Now Ray is scheduled to show in 10 minutes, but i love the location and really want to try an optoin with Ray here too. And the publicist has already told me Ray is always on time or early and wont give me much time. The location was literally a 30 second walk from our room though and i knew i could pull it off. I went inside, told the publicist my plan, again didnt really give him a choice, and had my assistants grab one light each and walk them out with me to this location. Super quick meter reading, test shots, etc. weather getting sketchy, Ray shows up..We chat, shoot outside for 5 minutes, then rush inside with my assistants dragging lights with us. Reset the studio shot, and shoot him there for 15 minutes...both setups looked great. Lesson #2, NEVER be afraid to change last minute, and never stop looking..