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.