I had been thinking about this shot for weeks

When my wife and I booked a trip to visit her 98 year old dad, I wanted to create a memorable portrait of him . He’s amazing – still sharp as a tack, recalling quotes and experiences from his life. And what a career/life he has had – undergrad at MIT, PhD in Nuclear Physics from Cornell, helped design the world’s first nuclear power plant, and more. He knew some of the key protagonists in the film Oppenheimer, and casually shared that he built an AI model for fun when he was in school. The more we talk with him, the more we learn as he’s pretty humble about this stuff – bragging is not in his DNA. In a way he reminds me of Bob Noyce, founder of Intel and one of the fathers of the current semiconductor industry. I had the good fortune to meet Bob when I was a young, wet behind the ears sales guy at Intel. He had come out to meet a senior exec at one of my major accounts, while I was a bit star struck, I also recall him being very humble.

I always want to get to know my clients a bit as it always informs not only how I work with them, but also the look I work to create for their particular brand/role and how they plan to use the image. But this was different, more personal, more meaningful. While I would have loved to have more gear to create the look, we were flying and visiting so I brought only the necessary stuff – one flash, no modifier, camera/tripod, and my computer so we could see the images as we shot. I wanted to hear Grandpa’s reaction and show him the results of when we tried something (this is part of my standard process).

I knew there would be a fair amount of window light, yet his chair was a fair distance from those windows so I could mix the window light with a splash of flash to get the lighting look I wanted. And I envisioned the final image would be in black and white for more emotional impact.

I also felt some self induced pressure to get this right – it turns out Grandpa’s father, who was very prominent in NY and DC, and well known during his time, had a number of photos taken by the famous photographer Yosef Karsh – if you don’t recognize the name, he created that famous portrait of Winston Churchhill, with the scowl. The story goes that Karsh told Churchill to lose the cigar during their session, which Churchill really didn’t like, scowled, and Karsh took the picture! And it became the iconic picture of Churchill.

I love to learn from other photographers and incorporate techniques/looks I like into my work. So I felt internal pressure to create something that would be a memorable image of who Grandpa is. We tried different angles, camera positions, hand positions, and finally this one landed on the screen and I knew we were done. Maybe I know him too well, and see things in this image that others don’t – but to me it represents the insightful and thoughtful person he is. I see the years of experience, and depth of knowledge he has about things both within and beyond technology.

Photographs can tell a story and create a significant emotional impact – even when it’s just a headshot or portrait. What do you see when you see this image? Do you have a memorable image of you that shows the best of who you are? If not, reach out and I can help.