Craig Snazelle

Jazz Bassist Craig Snazelle came in for some marketing/promo shots, and he brought his beautiful upright bass with him. Craig is a talented musician, a long-time friend, and a recent cancer survivor. Our objective for the shoot was simple; just some good promo shots, nice light, simple. Craig later told me that, without really knowing it at the time, we ended up creating a few images that really summed the way he now feels about life, music, and his bout with throat cancer: Grateful. The last couple images are examples of that.

The Hit-and-Run Portrait Assignment

Must be done in less than 1 man hour to meet the minimum specs for a viable job. The quicky portrait assignment, EVERY editorial photog reading this post knows what I'm talking about. Sometimes they're an easy "slam dunk", and sometimes they're a huge challenge. This is a good example of how it goes...

Editor email: Care to photograph subject for this week's issue?
Me: Sure.
Editor: Great, here's contact info: xxx
Art Direction: Basically just need a shot of him with some interesting/current art pieces.

Sounds easy enough. Right? Wrong. My subject is the Director of a Contemporary Art Center called Disjecta. They were prepping for a Halloween party the next night, and First Thursday showings the following week, so the place was pretty much a mess. The walls were bare except for this one little corner where a couple guys were working on hanging some pieces. Great, a background. I saw a grinder and a piece of pipe laying on the ground and asked if one of the guys could fire up some sparks to make things more interesting. Mission accomplished. I think they came out well for what I had to work with. These were shot with 2 lights; one on the subject, and one on the background. Shot at 1/13 of a second for the sparks effect.