Jerry Cea (aka Mr. C) has been cutting my hair for the past 15 years. When I was sitting in the chair last month, Jerry mentioned that he was going to celebrate his 65th Birthday on Feb 11.
I thought it would be a good idea to make a portrait of Jerry, print it and frame it so he could put it up in the shop. I arrived in time to catch Mr. C working on his first client just after 7:30 am. There was the usual banter and joking around. Those in Jerry's profession are a social lot. There's always a conversation underway, sport, politics, weather ... Over the years I've talked to Jerry about his love of sailing, his trailer (now gone), fishing, his trips to Cuba and so much else.
My challenge as photographer was to create an environmental portrait that captured the personality all of his clients would recognize as Mr. C. I set up with a 580 EXII on lightstand with 20x20 softbox to the right of his chair, dialed in the power of the flash to overpower the mainly fluorescent ambient light and adjused the exposure. I worked around Jerry as he worked around his client and made a number of images not really getting what I had envisioned. I moved the light to the left of the station and continued shooting.
After not too long, Jerry had finished with his first 2 clients and had no appointment scheduled next. I took the opportunity to ask Jerry to pose in the chair holding the "tools of the trade". I repositioned the light, reset the exposure to 125 s @ f/6.7 with the 580 on manual at 1/2 power, asked Jerry to give me something and ... click!
I had my portrait.
Here's to many more successful years my friend !
... a few others from the shoot.
DJE
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