One Concept – Two Perspectives

The image in last week’s Don Blair story brought back a lot of memories and a few thoughts on different perspectives.  In doing Body Parts, there were two good friends involved, mentioned previously, Terry Deglau and Bambi Cantrell.  They both had different ideas on the author’s cover shot for the book.

Terry wanted to tie in Body Parts to the body parts on cars.  He went to two scrap yards outside Vegas.  The first one had no interest in wasting their time.  After all,  he wanted access to the yard on a Sunday morning.  The second one was lukewarm until he heard who was coming, “Don Blair?  Don Blair from Utah?  He did my high school senior picture twenty years ago!”   That was all it took.  Not only was the owner of the yard there that Sunday morning, but he cranked up the heavy equipment, moved cars around and set up the shot!

Terry Deglau working his magic!

Bambi on the other hand wanted to tie in Body Parts to body parts.  We were all at my son’s wedding in Boston and she set up the shot on the stairs of the hotel.  It’s my daughter’s feet with the shoes, my niece’s hands around my face, my other niece’s feet under Don’s face (while my Dad held her upside down so she wouldn’t fall down the stairs) and last but not least, a friend, Linda Danielson had a pedicure that matched Don’s hat.

Both images were so much fun to do, we used both in the book. Bambi’s became the cover shot, but the junkyard image and the story behind it became part of the content.

Tony Corbell at the scrapyard!

There’s a point to make here that goes beyond my trip down memory lane…Life is simply too short to not make memories.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.   All of the images here were done back in the film days.  You either got the shot or you didn’t!   Had Bambi and Terry not been willing to experiment, a bunch of friends never would have the blast we did at both shoots.   Both images were a lot of fun to do and that’s a big part of what separates you from all the “Uncle Harrys” in the world.  It’s not the camera that makes you a professional photographer, but your spirit and creativity.

So, take a few risks and remember great  memories will always trump technology in your client’s eyes!  They won’t remember what you used or did to get the shot – only the fun of being there when you did!

The “Five Amigos”, Tony Corbell, Terry Deglau, Skip Cohen, Don Blair and Ray Dayton…photograph by Jaime Cohen Pickles