The Adventure

Snow Geese at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

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Among the great many photo shoots I have completed over the past three decades, two in particular stand out to me as my favorites. One took place back in the 90’s, and I had a very small amount of time to complete that assignment. The other was more recent, only fifteen months ago, and I spent 3-1/2 hours on that shoot. I’ll start here with the more recent one.

Snow Geese breed north of the timberline in Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and parts of Siberia from early May to mid-August. They spend their winters in various places in the U.S. ranging from Washington State, Texas, and the Delmarva peninsula, and can even be found as far south as Mexico. The snow geese found in the Mid-Atlantic region typically begin to arrive from northern Hudson Bay, Canada as early as late October and stay until early spring.

These geese will sometimes assemble in flocks numbering several hundred thousand, but often are seen in flocks of a few dozen or less. They will forage together on farm fields, and in wetlands, digging up roots from fields and marshes using serrations along the edges of their bill. In this manner of feeding they pull vegetation up by the roots and this typically damages ecologically fragile habitats such as salt marshes.

Their numbers have grown vastly in the past several decades, primarily due to their adaptation to feeding in agricultural fields. As well as being found in wetlands and plowed fields, they can be found in lakes and ponds where they roost along shorelines, and they will often raft in open water.

It was on a day in late December 2017 when I set out to photograph them, and ultimately found them rafting in the ocean. My initial plan was to try to spot them at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge near Smyrna, DE, where I had seen them in previous trips over the years. But a large flock was spotted flying south along the shoreline, and toward Rehoboth Beach, just past noon on that day. So I set out for Gordon’s Pond, just north of Rehoboth, and when I arrived there I saw the flock continuing to fly south past the pond, descending to the dunes and the ocean.

The flock was on its descent to an area on the water about 100 yards offshore. Once I arrived on the beach, at the north end of Rehoboth, I saw just how huge this flock really was, which I could not tell when I first glimpsed them by Gordon’s Pond. I ended up greeting a waterfowl expert, who had also come out to see them, and he estimated this flock to be comprised of about 75,000 geese.

Shortly after I began observing and photographing them the flock split as they rafted, with about 2/3 of them ultimately moving slowly but steadily south past Rehoboth. I stayed with the smaller flock which still held about 25,000 geese, and continued to observe and photograph them for the next 3-1/2 hours.

This waterfowl expert indicated that the geese would likely stay on the water until about 4:30pm, when they would head back inland to roost for the night, as well as to feed. In response to my inquiry about why the geese would choose to spend the afternoon on cold water, he pointed out to me that the air temperature was in the upper 50’s and the water temp was about the same. The geese, he said, “were there to warm up”. After all, they do come south from the arctic and a near-60-degree day is quite balmy for them, even while on the water.

This day was probably the single most enjoyable day of wildlife photography that I have ever had. It wasn't simply because of the photos or the subject matter. It was just really nice being out there for 3-1/2 hours enjoying the sights and sounds of this enormous flock of geese, mixed in with the sounds of the surf. And the best part of the day was watching and photographing a number of geese choosing to spend some time on the beach. They would “body surf” in on a breaker and then lift off to fly the remaining few yards to the sand.

And then, as if on cue, they began to take off in flocks of thousands to move inland right at 4:30pm.

The Assignment

The second photo shoot, which stands out among my favorites over the years and took just 30 minutes to complete, took place back in the 90’s. Here is that story.

My client was The Chronicle of Philanthropy and my photo subject was Paul Mellon. It was arranged for me to photograph Mr. Mellon in his home in Washington, D.C. and I was given just thirty minutes for the photo shoot. That included arriving and moving my equipment into his home, selecting a location, setting up my strobes and umbrellas on stands, photographing Mr. Mellon, striking and packing up my equipment, and then departing. To say the least, I was quite concerned about the tight time restriction to accomplish all of those tasks. But, more so, I was concerned about getting a photo that would not only be appreciated by my client, but would be one that truly captured something significant about who Mr. Mellon was.

Knowing that I would be on such a tight time frame to complete this assignment, I hired a good friend and fellow photographer, David, to assist me in this shoot. We arrived about fifteen minutes early (I’ve always abided by the adage “if you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late”) and we waited in my car as a cold, light rain fell.

About five minutes after we arrived a car pulled up and parked in front of us. The driver of that car exited, then opened the door to the backseat of the car. Out stepped my photo subject who was greeted by a man with an umbrella who had just come out of the house. When they went into the house I checked my watch and saw that we were still about seven minutes early, but I was now feeling a little anxious regarding the limited amount of time I would have with Mr. Mellon.

I figured it would take David and me a couple of minutes to get all my gear out of my car, and then walk up to the front door. That would put us five minutes before the time that we were given as our arrival time. I was determined to extend the agreed upon time frame, even by just a few minutes if that would better help me to complete the assignment.

I knocked on the door and in a few moments an older gentleman let us inside. He immediately showed us to a room on the first floor which was, to my astonishment, covered in really nice, but very orange, textured wallpaper. I had brought a number of rolls of Kodak Ektachrome 100 Plus Professional slide film, and I knew that I was in trouble, despite that film tending toward cool tones. Not only were the walls orange, but the bookshelves were painted in a matching color. And all this orange was going to turn Mr. Mellon orange from my strobes bouncing light all over the room.

Upon seeing this room I asked the gentleman if there was another room that I could see to help decide which setting would be the best place for this photo session. He led us up these wide stairs and into a much larger room with many windows and a high ceiling. It was perfect. Despite the dreary weather outside I saw that I could mix light sources - my strobes and the natural light filling the room. And, fortunately, the room was not orange, but primarily green though not excessively green.

I told the gentleman that this room would be great, and David quickly started to unpack the stands, lights, and umbrellas, while I got cameras, lenses, and light meter out and started to assess backdrop options. As soon as both strobes were on stands and umbrellas affixed, an elevator door opened and off stepped Mr. Mellon not looking at all pleased at what he was seeing.

“Who said you could set up here?!” he snapped with an outstretched finger pointing right at me. I was taken aback, feeling like I had done something very wrong. But I managed to answer in an even tone, “The gentleman downstairs showed us the room near the entrance, and I asked him if there was another room I could look at to…” “I don’t want to be photographed here!” he interrupted, “Vanity Fair photographed me in this room and I don’t want to be photographed here!

“Understood, and sorry,” I replied, and then told him we would meet him back downstairs in the orange room in just a couple minutes. By now we were nearly 10 minutes into the allotted time and I was more than just a little deflated by his reaction. David and I each grabbed a stand and we walked the lights down those wide stairs, turned right, and went back into the orange room. There I saw a small, yellow sofa in the room, which is where I would ask him to sit for the photo session.

Behind and to the left of the sofa was a table with a lamp, a small sculpture, and a vase of flowers. And more directly behind the sofa was that orange bookshelf with books. Many of those book covers were orange or red in color, adding to my color challenge, and I did not have with me any color-correcting filters for my lights. And since the room was the smaller of the two that we had seen, I decided to have David pack up one light and I would use only one for the shoot.

By the time Mr. Mellon arrived and was seated we were fifteen minutes into the time allowed for the shoot, and I had not yet taken a single frame. I had completed my metering before he arrived, so as soon as he sat down I briefly told him what I was planning to shoot in terms of framing, as well as the expression I wanted from him. He complied and away we went. I changed up my compositions and continued shooting, going from one camera to the other depending on the lens I wanted to use for framing. He responded to my direction very well, and this shoot was all business. I wasn’t really in the mood to make any kind of small talk or banter as I photographed him, though that is something that I almost always do when taking someone’s portrait.

It’s not contrived banter that I engage in, it’s just real conversation. I find that it helps the subject to relax, which provides me with a more natural photo of that person. For example, there were some really amazing original artworks in this room. There were paintings by some of the world’s greatest impressionists hanging on those walls. It would have been easy to start a conversation about them as I worked, letting him speak about something that is among his greatest passions. But time was running really short and I was already wrapping up since I felt that I had what was needed for my client.

But then something happened which I did not expect. Mr. Mellon’s demeanor had begun to change. I could tell that he was now trying to engage me in conversation and his tone had changed as well. It seemed to me that he was regretting the way he had initially responded to seeing us setting up on the second floor. And I was about to learn what was so off-putting to him regarding our initial greeting. He was still upset about his experience with the Vanity Fair photographer. This became abundantly clear when he asked me if I was going to take pictures of his shoes, to which I answered no.

I had just settled down low in front of him to shoot at an upward angle, as opposed to being at eye level. By being in that lower position he apparently was reminded of the recent occurrence where that photographer took photos his shoes. And it wasn’t simply the act of photographing his shoes that bothered him, as I would find out. Some time later I acquired a back issue of that Vanity Fair edition and, sure enough, one of the photos that accompanied the article about him was a closeup of his shoes. They were very nice, and probably quite expensive, classic black Oxford shoes. I don’t know exactly why it was so important for the writer or editors of Vanity Fair to include that photo, or make a mention of the shoes at all.

But whatever their reason, Mr. Mellon clearly was not pleased about that whole experience. I believe that he realized he was taking his annoyance about that episode out on me, the next photographer who was welcomed into his home to photograph him. He was now trying to make the small talk, and at this point we were about twenty minutes into the shoot. However, I told him that we were finished. Five minutes of his time in front of the camera was all I really needed to complete the assignment.

Mr. Mellon was just getting into the flow of it, though, and I think he was now enjoying the photo session, brief as it was. I didn’t want to disappoint him, and I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to get a few more frames, and perhaps in a different location. My thoughts returned to that first room, up on the second floor. However, I saw that there was a similar room to the one upstairs, but on a smaller scale. And it was right across the hall from where we were. So I suggested that while David packed up the remaining gear, Mr. Mellon and I could go into the other room and I could photograph him standing by a window using only available light as my light source. I knew that I had gotten the “money shot” in the orange art room, and this was really a time that we might be able to talk for a few minutes, as well as allow me to get those few additional frames to add to the ones that I would give to my client.

After a few more minutes of photographing him I heard a knock at the front door. I knew that it was the reporter, who had been scheduled to arrive for her allotted time immediately after me, and I told Mr. Mellon that. I thanked him for his time, said that I thought that the shoot went very well, and I mumbled an apology for our rough start. He dismissed my apology, saying it was unnecessary. David was standing by the front door with the gear, the rain had stopped, and as we exited I heard Mr. Mellon greeting the reporter in a cheery tone.