This is, without a doubt, the worst photo shoot I have done. Brian Herzlinger was a delight (and gorgeous), so this one is not on him. However, this failure isn't on me either. It takes a bold, strong man to stand up and announce that even though his pictures are terrible, it wasn't his fault... and I am just that man. There were two problems with this shoot. The major problem was that it took place in the hotel room that you see. The other was that Herzlinger had just done a series of TV interviews and was caked with makeup. • First, some background. Herzlinger came through Chicago alone promoting his film, My Date with Drew. As such, there was one hotel suite where interviews/photographs/etc. were taking place. This is the room that you see. Since his schedule was tight--he was leaving Chicago that afternoon--we didn't have time to go outside or even down into the hotel lobby. There were no extra rooms available to manipulate so, as such, I was stuck working in this hellish environment. I mean, look at the pattern on the couch!! • Working with poorly chosen backgrounds is one of the hardest things to do as a photographer. The subject is important but the background is what makes the picture. One of the tricks that I've learned about shooting in horrendous environs is to do a lot of closeups. It takes the onus of the picture off the background and puts it onto the subject. If he is laughing or joking around, closeups help imbue the picture with extra energy. It's a trick of manipulation, but you have to work with what you have. However, as I mentioned previously, Herzlinger was slathered with makeup and it actually showed up as I shot a few closeups of him. I realized this quickly and thus was presented with a situation where I had to shoot medium range photos of a man in the ugliest hotel suite in existence. • I refused to let resignation in. I started by positioning Herzlinger in the middle of the couch, directly underneath two square paintings (my Wes Anderson composition, if you will). It didn't work. Then I tried moving Herzlinger to the side of the couch. That didn't work either. Out of the nearly 40 shots I took of Herzlinger, there was only one that I would deem acceptable. The saving grace of this otherwise awful photo shoot is that that one picture is great. It captures Herzlinger, tired and happy, leaning back on the couch and closing his eyes. It's as close to capturing the emotion of "happy" on film as I think a person can come. I'm not sure what it says that the one photo that prevented this shoot from utter disaster was a photo of my subject with his eyes closed, but such is life. • A quick aside: the jeans Herzlinger is wearing in the shoot are the same jeans as he is wearing in the film's poster. Far be this salicious gossip, Herzlinger himself brought it up to me to show that he is still really poor. • And lastly, since I hate almost everything about the results of this shoot, you'll only be getting a few photos to look at. The photos of Herzlinger with makeup and my unfortunate attempts at wideshots will not be displayed. Ever.
