This photo is an excellent example of a photo that doesn't do anything remotely unusual that has an electricity and life to it that I aspire to include in every photo I talk. For God's sake, it's just a photo of Tom Wilson talking and gesturing with a pen that he happened to have, and it's fantastic. I have a print of this photo tacked to a bulletin board in my office and just about everyone who sees it comments on the fact that this is a beautiful moment of life that is frozen on film. This is my ultimate goal as a photographer no matter what the setting and hearing this from people is a true compliment. Unfortunately, in this situation, there is nothing that I did that could, in any way, explain why this photo turned out so well. I hadn't planned on taking the photo at this time, sure didn't expect to stop in front of this random house (as an aside, there was a woman in the front window who kept looking out to see what we were doing and ruined several photos while doing so) and didn't have any way of knowing that the end result would turn out as well as it did. I guess I could tell people that I told Wilson to play with the pen and to jab it passionately as he pretended to talk about something, but A) I don't know who would believe me and B) I'm sure somebody would ask me to explain why the hell I thought that idea would be a good idea and I'll have no response for them. • Several people have asked me if there is a Bob Dole homage/joke here and, honestly, it was the farthest thing from my mind when we were shooting.
