Don’t Be Afraid To Surprise Your Editor, with Brad Trent

The connection a photographer has with a photo editor makes for an often complicated, visceral relationship. The key to making it work is trust. Editorial photographers are often faced with situations where they must come up with arresting images in the worst possible conditions—boring locations, limited shoot times, uncooperative subjects and having little information about the story, to name a few of the challenges. To deliver the great results the editor expects you sometimes have to know just how far to push the level of trust. This usually means looking beyond the literal interpretation of your assignment and perhaps attempting a shot that wasn't anticipated or asked for by your client.

I was recently assigned by BusinessWeek to photograph Itai Shoffmann, the guy who operates the skating rink in New York's Bryant Park. The problem was it was months before the rink was in place and the temperature was a steamy 80 degrees. The magazine suggested styling him with ice skates and winter attire, so we did that. But, as a way of having some fun with the non-reality of the situation, I did a second shot that not only employed my “pull back and show the lighting setup” technique, but I also had an assistant climb a ladder and make it snow!

Both the photo editor and the art director loved the image and I lived to shoot another day!

Learn more from Brad in his workshop
The Editorial Portrait

July 4 - July 10, 2010

Visit his blog  damnuglyphotography.wordpress.com  and his web site, bradtrent.com, to see what he's up to.