The Moment It Clicks: Photography Secrets From One of the World's Top Shooters

the athletes. I always had a good relationship with the people who run the Empire State Building, so I asked if I could put a skier at the edge of the building. Surprisingly, they said yes.
     
    We’re about 100 stories up and the wind is just howling, so it’s not the time for an umbrella or a softbox. I took a strobe (a raw light), positioned it to the right of the camera and put on a honeycomb spot grid [ 1 ] so the light wouldn’t spill over everything.

    [ 1 ] Honeycomb Spot Grid: This is a new cereal from Kellogg’s (just kidding). It’s a circular metal grid (that looks like a honeycomb) that goes over your strobe head and limits the spread of the light. I use these when I want to concentrate light in a particular area and not flood everything with light.

    You’d think it would be enough just to put her at the edge of the building, light her, and call it a day. When you’re looking at a truly “big picture” like this, as a photographer, it’s easy to forget about the details—but it’s those small details that will make the shot.
     
    Look at the window to her left. Imagine the same photo if that window was black. It might just be me, but I hate to see a “dead” window in a photo. By putting a little light into it, the window comes alive and the picture has more depth. So I put a strobe head in there covered with a blue gel (I used blue because I thought blue would be a color that would naturally be there—plus I thought it worked well with her orange suit).

    Once the lighting was in place, we put her in position, waited for dusk, and shot very quickly. It’s attention to little details, like that simple flash in the window, that take the photo to the next level. It wound up as a double truck in Life .

     

    Donna Weinbrecht
    Have Faith in Your Ideas
     

    You have to have faith in your ideas, ‘cause the next thing is you’re on the phone with a celebrity’s agent telling him you really think it’s a great idea to take the star and dangle her from a wire below a helicopter 500′ in the air over the Hollywood sign.

    If you’re not passionate (and rational sounding), the next sound you’ll hear is “click.”

    I was shooting a story for National Geographic called “A World Together,” and I needed to show the impact Asian actors and actresses were having on mainstream Hollywood movies. I wanted to work with Michelle Yeoh. She got her start in Jackie Chan flicks and went on to become a Bond girl, and starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon .

    For the first shoot, I really did the Hollywood thing. I flew her out to a dry lake bed outside of L.A., got hair, makeup, and styling, the whole nine yards. Shot some lovely pictures, but my ever-direct editor at National Geographic basically told me they didn’t mean $#!& in terms of the story. He was right.
     
    While we were out there, we tried an impromptu stunt from the helicopter. We stood on the skids, 150′ in the air, no wires or safety belts. Shot didn’t work. I was too close to her. But she proved to be beautiful, daring, and fearless. It got me thinking, always a dangerous thing.

    Why not fly her on a wire off the chopper over the Hollywood sign? A shot that says, “Stunt actress. Hollywood,” all at once. Her people said no. She said yes.
     
    I called my editor to explain. In between gales of laughter, punctuated by “you must be joking,” he said I could take a look. I would’ve usually just gone ahead. This time, I knew I needed permission. He was shocked. “I’m surprised you’re not calling me from the chopper, Joe,” he said.

    Off we went. It was complicated. We needed FAA approval, a temporary helicopter base in the Hollywood Hills, the best stunt chopper pilot in L.A., the chief safety rigger from the movie Titanic , and an insurance policy that basically indemnified everyone living in L.A.
     
    We got rigged and the chopper lifted off, slowly. Michelle and I walked underneath it, and we went flying. She was graceful and daring. We got a break with the light. The key to the picture was flying with her. I didn’t want to work long lens, ship-to-ship. I wanted to be right there and shoot wide-angle to retain the sweep and sharpness of the Hollywood sign.

    When we landed, she laughed and told me, “You know, I’m scared of heights. I just don’t look down.”

    The shot opened the Geographic story and got lots of comments, mostly from my colleagues who, after seeing me dangle on a wire from a