Good people make good portraits

"Hand painted fender to fender, bumper to bumper, Dr. Bob Hieronimus’ new Artcar has many symbolic stories. The overall theme is the same as that of his new book: The Founding Fathers."

Yesterday at our weekly editorial board meeting our Arts Editor, Amanda, mentioned she was doing a feature on a local guy named Dr. Bob Hieronimus for Thursday. She didn't give much information on him, but she said, "I took photos with my camera or whatever." I knew that wasn't going to cut it, so I told her to contact him and set-up a portrait to be taken for today.

With school getting hectic, two days of classes left, I've been enjoying escaping to shoot as much as possible. Takes my mind off of stressful school subjects.

I love portraits [and warm weather], so it fit the bill impeccably today.

As I always do, I did a little research on my subject, Dr. Bob. The main concept with Dr. Bob is his new Artcar and new book: The Founding Fathers.

I pulled up to his home at 1PM and had a optimistic feeling that he was going to be a nice guy. I was right. I was promptly invited inside and he asked what I was looking to do with the shoot. "Outside with the car," I suggested. Without hesitation he pulled the Artcar out of the garage and parked in exactly where I wanted.

As I began scope out my shots, I realized he is the kind of person I would like to shoot everyday for portraits. Dr. Bob is one of the reasons I love journalism. Why? He had charisma. He had a passion. He was fascinating. He was civil.

Not only did Dr. Bob do whatever I asked, he opened up and told me about himself. He answered questions I had. He shared his knowledge. He made my job easy.

I love meeting people and telling their stories with photos. However, sometimes I don't enjoy it.

To be honest there are people who have no admiration for photographers. Sometimes you come up with a great idea for a portrait on the way to the shoot. Then the idea is shattered as quickly as if Cinderella's glass slipper was dropped off the empire state building when they are impolite. Others look down on photographers, give them no respect, no time.

Kanji once said to me, "a great man treats you like another man." This is true.

After a stressful day, a week full of mundane assignments, or a ill-mannered portrait subject, it's the good people that make photography/photojournalism worth it at the end of the day.