This is Katie Horvath, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property and patent law. The field of law we image creators really dig. I've photographed her before, for the XDL website.Whenever I see Katie, I always ask her about her work protecting clients' intellectual property. I can't help it, other areas of law just don't mean as much to me. Occupational hazard, I guess.
Now, about the picture. We made her portrait in downtown Richmond a couple weeks ago. Since Katie is based in Michigan, I was a little concerned about how her wardrobe would travel in a carry-on bag. Thank goodness she favored a soft-fabric suit. If she'd had one of those man-tailored structured suits, we would have spent 30 minutes steaming out the wrinkles.
We were at the offices of Durrette Bradshaw, where I've shot in nearly every office, conference room and the law library at least twice. It was time to do something new (for my own sanity and out of respect for our subject).
After cruzin the D-B offices for someplace new, we went down to the lobby and looked around. There it was, the arch, the flag, the office buildings. The only drawbacks were all the glass windows to reflect my lights back at the camera. I just kept moving light stands around till I could stop seeing them in the windows behind her. Winifred got Katie ready for the camera upstairs in the D-B offices while I worked out the lighting.
We were going for a "Federal Court House" look with this composition. Getting access to a Federal Court House to shoot a portrait is unrealistic these days. It's about as easy as getting access to the Federal Reserve Bank--imagine airport clearance only ten-times more invasive. The other goal we achieved was giving Katie a "could be any big city" shot. Since she travels a lot for her work, we didn't want to place her with any identifiable landmarks or natural scenery that would confine her to a specific region.
I love the way this turned out.