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

floor and go for the glow!

     
    Never Let ‘em See Ya Sweat
     

    Mike Piazza

    Always remember, being in front of the camera is a very vulnerable place to be and nothing makes your subject more queasy than to just be out there, alone, while you and the assistants hover, pace, look shaky, and talk pixels and f-stops. So radiate confidence!

    It’s always amazing to me how a crew can voice doubts and talk techie, worrisome crap right within earshot of the photo subject. I always imagine it’s like the operating room chatter during a long, serious surgery. That doesn’t matter to the patient, ‘cause they’re knocked out. But your subject is right there, listening. If you’re fretting, so are they. “Is it all right? Is it serious? Am I gonna die?” Not good.

    Think of it this way. You’re a passenger on an airliner, some green co-pilot is accidentally sitting on the intercom switch, and you hear somebody in the cockpit say, “What’s this button do?”

    After 9/11, I shot Mike Piazza (for Sports Illustrated ) sitting on the edge of a roof, 12 stories up, smoke in the skyline where the World Trade Center used to be. He and other New York athletes had stepped up to encourage and support the city.

    “Your subject is right there, listening. If you’re fretting, so are they. ‘Is it all right? Is it serious? Am I gonna die?’ Not good.”

    During the shoot, my heavily sandbagged and roped off strobe unit literally blew up. Flames started shooting out of the softbox. Not smoke, flames. Big ones. It looked for a minute like I had painted the Octa with a set of low rider decals.
     
    I walked up to Mike and shrugged. The assistants were scurrying about, pulling it down, putting out the fire. Told him we had another unit, we’d have it running in about five minutes. Relax.

    Remember, as insecure as you are behind the camera, they are doubly so in front of it. So, even though things are going to hell in a handbasket, give ‘em the old “this is just temporary, we’ve got it handled” look. Make ‘em feel good. (Even if you just peed your pants!)
    It Never Hurts to Look
     

    “Every once in a while, it pays to listen to those annoying characters who are just waiting to tell you how to do your job.”

    “Hey photographer!”

    Don’tcha just hate that? I know I do. You’re out there with a camera and somebody just has to tell you you’re missing it. Or, “Hey, look over here! ‘Cause it’s a really good picture.”

    I shouldn’t hate it though. Listening to somebody like that resulted in my first widely published photo. It was halftime at a Syracuse University football game and I was daydreaming, camera in hand, looking up at the stands, trying to ignore the band.
     
    These two guys on the fence started shouting to me,“Hey photographer, turn around, there’s a guy in the band who’s gonna drop his pants!” I spun around and sure enough, there was this trumpet player trundling along with his mates, pants down at his ankles.

    I had a Nikkormat and an old 300mm f/4.5. I charged the field (camera to my eye) and squeezed a frame just as he was recovering his trousers. Didn’t think much of it, really, except that I knew it wasn’t sharp.

    Out of focus or not, it hit almost every paper in the country—even
People
magazine. Turns out it was a preconceived prank, for which the trumpeter was, as one account put it, “unceremoniously drummed from the band.”

    Every once in a while, it pays to listen to those annoying characters who are just waiting to tell you how to do your job.
     
    It never hurts to look.

     
    The Logic of Light
     

    “There is a logic to light. It’s gotta come from somewhere, and something has to be making it.”

    Steven Spielberg can get away with hot, smoky light coming from beneath the lost Ark of the Covenant, buried for 2,000 years in a crypt. We can’t.
     
    There is a logic to light. It’s gotta come from somewhere and something has to be making it. That’s why it doesn’t really make sense to have somebody in a field staring at a hole in the ground with light coming from the hole. Unless you’re shooting production stills for The X-Files .

    Try to be logical and give your reader something to hang onto. I often use a flashlight, which creates a reason for the light, plus it’s something you’d actually use if you were looking under a car hood, reading a map, or checking out a torpedo tube.

    How to Get This Type of Shot

    Small and light is the