Bad Santa
Month: December 2016
I Got To Wear Gay Talese’s Hat…
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Gay Talese. In the Hall of Fame of Great American writers, few are more iconic or more respected than Gay Talese. From his early work as a newspaper reporter to his time during the hey day of Esquire magazine and his long career writing some of the best nonfiction you’ll ever read, this man has seen and done it all…and with more style than you’ll ever have! Laura Baer recently had me shoot him for a feature in New Jersey Monthly…a shoot that ended with me wearing the great man’s hat!
Upon arriving at his townhouse, we immediately noticed the silk-covered settee framed by silk curtains in the front window…
It didn’t really require much lighting…but I added a 6′ Chimera for an overall soft fill behind the camera, and positioned a gridded 3′ ProFoto RFI directly above the seat for our main light…
We waited out the harsh sunlight coming through the windows, and when the outside light was just soft enough, things really got interesting…
The color shift from direct sunlight to open shade…and the blue cast it caused on the drapes…gave us a wonderful, cool mood that played off the warm tones of the settee, curtains and his suit.
Next, we set up a little studio in his back yard for some tighter portraits…
…which gave us this…
Here’s how it looked in print…
Tony Bennett
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Three years ago I got to hang out with Tony Bennett for an afternoon. Then a few weeks ago, lightening struck twice when Ronnie Weil asked me to shoot him again for Alexandra Wolfe’s Weekend Confidential column in the Wall Street Journal. Just as the first time, we would be meeting Tony at his art studio on Central Park South…
…but Ronnie had asked men to not concentrate on the studio this time, but instead to go for a classic portrait. Keep it simple. Focus on his personality. So with that as my brief, off we went.
As you can see in the above photo of his studio, there is a lot of natural light to work with. The entire north side of the room is a wall of windows facing the Park, so I decided to use my brand new Canon 5Ds with my equally new Sigma Art lenses with all that light against a black pop-up backdrop. Here is my first test with Kaz…
But when Tony sat in place, the entire mood changed…
And as much as we liked the color, I also processed the entire series in black and white as well…and it was kinda awesome…
And the Journal agreed. Here’s the final page…
But I wasn’t done yet. I had set up a couple of lights against a wall for a second portrait…
Thanks to Ronnie for the opportunity…and thanks to Tony for allowing me to hang out with him one more time!
Damn Ugly Photography 