With this new blog, it’s my goal to post more. This is the first installment of my image of the week. I’m going to do my best to do this each and every week at some point. It may be something from my portfolio, it may be something old, or maybe it’ll be something completely obscure and something I just like for some odd reason. I may talk about some of the technical elements that allowed me to produce the image, or I might just write about my mindset when I captured it. I hope it’s something people will enjoy viewing.
This image was shot last year during a Tisch– a pre-ceremony if you will, during a traditional jewish ceremony. This man is the groom’s father. He’s also the patriarch of his family, the officiant of the wedding, and a holocaust survivor. You could feel the love in this conference room at the Westin Hotel Philadelphia. When I first saw the light on this man, I nearly freaked with excitement. It wasn’t necessarily “good” light. in fact, it was harsh, overhead light from a recessed light in the ceiling. It accentuated the lines in his face, and, to me, each line told a story. I used my D3S with my old, trusty 85 1.4D wide open at 1.4. I was in aperture priority and needed to compensate to at least -1.7 in matrix metering because of the light falloff.
I must have worked this moment for 5 solid minutes until he reached back for the hand of another relative. When I’m able to make images like this, it reminds me of why I do what I do. The feeling I get when I look through the viewfinder is incredibly satisfying. This may not have been the best image of that day, or even the client’s favorite image, but it was my favorite. It’s these found moments that drive me to work my ass off at each and every wedding to look for something different- something special.
