It might be a little bizarre that I was booked to shoot three professional NFL football players from the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, yet my two favorite shots of the job had absolutely nothing to do with the job itself.
So as I’ve already written about in a previous post, I was hired by WhoHasItApp to shoot celebrities and the clothing in their closets for a new e-commerce app (it’s actually a pretty brilliant idea, click WhoHasItApp.com and check it yourself). Anyhow, on that trip, I was scheduled to shoot Kyle Williams of the San Francisco 49ers, and Rod Streater and Terrelle Pryor of the Oakland Raiders, and those went extremely well. But something happened that was completely impromptu and unexpected. We were all set up and waiting for our subject to show up so we can get the portrait shots, but it just so happened that it was getting to be that time of day where the light was absolutely perfect – golden hour as the sun was setting over the bay while we overlooked it from the east side of Oakland Harbor. It was killing me that our subject wasn’t there while this light was getting insanely flawless.
I was literally pacing.
Once we realized he wasn’t going to be there in time, I just had to get someone, anyone, it didn’t matter, in front of that lens and smothered with that soft pastel light, so I jumped inside, asked if anyone at all can just come stand in the light, and after a bit of persuasion, was able to convince one of the women that was there, to come out and be my model for just a few minutes.
As soon as she stepped onto the deck, I knew immediately this was going to work. Her beautiful smooth skin was bathed in gorgeous golden hour sunlight that was partially diffused by a low lying haze – when people call it the ‘magic hour,’ this is exactly why. These ended up being two of my favorite shots from the entire weekend, and these weren’t even part of the gig.
The lesson learned in this one? Follow my intuition and not be bashful if a certain situation presents itself – especially if the gut is tugging at you to make a move. Those are the times you know you’ll regret not doing so. I had no idea her name, and I’m sure she didn’t mine either, but for those 5 minutes, it just didn’t matter. Best of all, I walked away with two portrait shots of a stunning woman that i couldn’t be happier with.
