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

aquarium that hasn’t been cleaned in a while.

    So I often do things the old-fashioned way. I set the white balance to daylight, pop a 30 magenta filter on the lens and a full cut of green conversion filter on the flash, and boom, we’re cleaned up with good skin tones to boot. (The green flash filters are fluorescent conversion filters that come in different strengths.)

    You’ve got your skin tones nice and normal, your disgusting green fluorescent foreground wrestled to the ground, and…Ta Da!…your not-so-great sunset has just exploded into an extravaganza of pinks and violets and reds, the likes of which will make your readers swoon and start thinking Tahiti, even when they’re looking at Piscataway.

    How to Get This Type of Shot

    The only consistent thing about the NYC subway system is the fact that when the cars pull into the station, they always stop at the same spot. That simple regularity made this shot possible in real time, without setups, models, and a staged train. I scouted a good area, sat Bruce on the basketball, and set up a 1×2′ softbox on a floor stand on camera left to mimic the door light of the train. Gelled it full green and put 30 points of magenta over the lens. The sky was crashing into twilight and I’m nervously looking over my shoulder, waitin’ on a train.

    One came in, blessedly. The doors opened, I shot three frames of Kodachrome, and the doors closed. By the time the next train rolled in, the sky was gone, and so was my shot.
     
    P.S. Just try this nowadays with a tripod, camera, and flash on the subway. Hello, officer!

    “City lights go green. 30 points of magenta cleans that up. and your sunset doesn’t hate it either.”
    Keep Your Eye in the Camera
     

    “You can miss lots of moments with your head stuck in your LCD. Checking what just went on is a surefire ticket to missing what’s about to go on.”

    I became a world-class chimper from the very first moment I held a digital camera. Click, click, click. Ooh, ooh, ooh! Click, click, click. Ooh, ooh, ooh! That damn little LCD monitor’s like crack cocaine. Better than a Polaroid and I didn’t have to wait 90 seconds in the cold weather with the thing tucked under my armpit, hoping it would develop properly.
     
    Man, it’s cool. But also dangerous. You can miss lots of moments with your head stuck in your LCD. Checking what just went on is a surefire ticket to missing what’s about to go on.

    None of these pictures is huge just on its own. It is the sequence that works, the moment-to-moment agony and apprehension of having your test paper corrected. The sum is definitely greater than the parts and if you are checking the LCD, you are not putting together the parts.
     
    Be disciplined. Keep your eye in the camera and your head in the game. Plenty of time later to moan, cheer, laugh, or cry.

     
    Where Does the Light Come From?
     

    “When I look at a window, I will often say, you know, ‘nice view.’ But in my head I’m saying, ‘light source.’”

    Window washer Jan Demczur saved five people trapped with him in an elevator on 9/11 by using his squeegee blade to scrape through 6″ of sheetrock. That squeegee now resides in the Smithsonian.
     
    I photographed Jan on the world’s only giant Polaroid camera [ 1 ] immediately after the World Trade Center attack. We got to know each other a bit. He’s a likable, simple guy. Like many, his life went on hold after 9/11.

    [ 1 ] Giant Polaroid Camera: Referred to as “Moby C,” it is the world’s largest Polaroid camera, capable of making life-size images 40″ wide by 80″ tall. The interior chamber of the camera is the size of a one-car garage, and it was devised by Dr. Land and the engineers at Polaroid.

    About a year later, I caught up to him at his home in New Jersey. At that time, he didn’t go out much. There was a sense of isolation—9/11 lingered.

    When I look at a window, I will often say, you know, “nice view.” But in my head I’m saying, “light source.”

    Where does most light come from anyway? The windows! Ever wonder why the cameras are moving and the actors are dialoguing and you’re seeing all over a room in a Hollywood movie but you never see the stands and the lights? They’re all outside, sometimes down the block.
     
    Jan’s window was huge and on the first floor. Light source! I put a strobe on the front lawn, triggered with a pocket wizard. [ 2 ] The lacy curtains were perfect as an imperfect, irregular