We created this image at the offices of CRT-Tanaka, in Richmond, VA. The gentleman is Steve Clementi, Director of External Affairs for Verizon. He's involved with "Great Expectations" a scholarship program for foster children who enter the Virginia Community College System.
If you look through Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company or Wired, you'll see this approach with some regularity. Personally, I get tired of just asking folks to look into the lens. Photo editors chose these off-camera, talking shots to publish because the subject looks like they do in real-life.
Once we set up our lights and figured out where to place Mr. Clementi, I asked my client, Natalie Smith, to sit to the right of the camera. I kinda felt bad because to get the angle I was going for, she had to sit on the floor. But she's a trouper, thank goodness. Steve was terrific to work with, he seemed to enjoy simply having a conversation with Natalie, off camera.
The other thing that gives this image some liveliness is Steve's right hand, which even at a 60th of a second caught some motion blur. Some of that blur is because we were shooting at f2.8 (shallow depth of field) trying to hold the focus on his eyes. But since I encouraged him to "talk with his hands" there was just enough fast movement to pick up a blur in his right hand. Of course, our naked eyes wouldn't see that blur. But in a still image, a little motion blur gives a sense of movement and credibility. Like my yoga teacher says: "our bodies never stop moving."
Hassan Pitts (assistant) and Winifred Halliday (stylist) crewed this shoot. Hassan & I set up the lights, and had a lot of fun working in this historic warehouse which has been renovated for office space.
Copyright 2010 Elaine Odell for Church Hill Photography, LLC.
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