One of the true joys of being a photographer is giving the gift of a fine portrait.
I was in London, England on business one week before the 2012 Summer Olympics. It was mid-summer, and the daylight in London lingers well into the evening in July. After work I had many hours of light left to roam the city with my camera. While walking along the south side boardwalk of the Thames I happened across an event that only a city like London could dream up: a ‘poetry drop.’ It is, most surely, a first-world thing.
A ‘poetry drop’ requires many volunteers to write different short poems on small pieces of paper. The papers are then placed into containers and flown by helicopter to be thrown below as confetti from above to a presumably enthusiastic (and literate) crowd. The poems flutter to the ground and attendees race to gather the shards of creativity like kids on an Easter egg hunt. I had never heard of this genre of activity prior to drifting into this event at the climatic moment.
The sun had already set. The helicopter was loud and flew quite low to prevent the wind from drifting the poems too far from the participants. Spotlights illuminated the field and within seconds it was snowing poems. Amidst this odd mayhem I began to photograph the participants, but it was too chaotic to expect a decent quality shot. Nonetheless, I didn’t really have anything better to do but to begin walking back to my hotel, so I persisted.
I photographed a women (see above) once, and almost immediately after I had a tap on my shoulder.
“Excuse me, but you just took a photograph of my mother,” a man informed me.
“Oh. I take a lot of pictures. Is it a problem?” came my standard reply to such a challenge.
“Well no, but what result could you possibly get with no flash in this mayhem?” he asked.
I looked at the screen to see what abomination I had captured in this ongoing event of ‘Dead Poets Society’ meets ‘Apocalypse Now’ only to find a wonderful photo in sharp focus and perfectly exposed. One of those ten thousand in one images that you don’t deserve but will accept full credit for anyway.
I showed him the camera back screen and he was genuinely blown away at what he saw. Of course, this is the moment when you want to act like the consummate professional, and under no circumstances allow anyone to see any other image on the rest of an absolutely foul sequence of images before and after this ‘gift’ shot. I remained quite matter-of-fact about the results and never really let on that, well, not all of my photos come out so well. The man immediately called over his mother to show her the snap. She was briefly torn between chasing poems across the lawn and answering her son’s urgent appeal. Upon seeing the image, she too was immediately stricken with joy.
As it turns out, she didn’t often travel far from home, but had asked her whole family to come with her to this unique event. (I didn’t ask, but I imagine she wrote a few of the poems currently making their way back to earth). This trip had clearly meant a lot to her and here I was holding a precious memento of the event. Since the photo was on a D-Series Nikon I couldn’t access the image immediately, without a laptop. We exchanged emails and I promised I would send her the full image, no cost, no strings for her personal use if I could use the image as well, a sort of, model release form deal. We were all agreed. (I don’t think they actually believed I would follow up, despite my repeated assurances,)
A day later I emailed them the photo and shortly after received a very nice reply. As it turned out, she didn’t like many photos of herself. It had been years since she saw an image of herself that appealed to her, but this one was very much appreciated and a well-loved souvenir of her family vacation to London. This portrait would be enlarged, framed and prominently displayed in her home.
I went in to photography for a host of reasons which I won’t go into in this post. But one benefit I never saw coming was the joy of giving un-expecting people portraits they are truly proud of. I can safely say around 30 people have told me that I made the best photo of them they ever saw or that I captured the definitive photo of their son or daughter’s childhood. It fills me with joy to know I have had a positive impact on that many lives, even if it is just a small gesture.
Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved
Rushbrooke Adventure 