Portfolio & Information & More

February 11th, 2008

perfect job, the good life.

.kix brooks for people magazine country special – 12/20/07.

.got a job for people magazine, shot kix brooks (of brooks and dunn) at his vineyard in TN outside nashville. on newsstands now in the country special. march 2008 issue.

.great, awesome, thank you, perfect job.

.not for all the obvious reasons like client, budget, cool PE, subject, but for more, that would only present themselves later. traveling the day of a shoot with the morons at the TSA that are basically allowed to do whatever they want with your gear with impunity is stressful, as is relying on the airline industry to have basic respect for you, yet it all worked out without incident. there was even a friend of a friend randomly on my little flight from NYC to nashville, weird, but the good kind. the only drama at all was a broken light and that was 100% my fault, i even broke it while telling my assistant to be careful, as doing this can easily beak it, classic. plenty of time to set up, nice people, a good location and a cool subject that actually likes having his picture taken, wow, it was how all jobs should be. perfect.

.the stories, that’s was made this above and beyond just a great day, it’s a long one, i will try to keep it simple.

.months before, at the national sporting clay championships, i shot with a guy from TN that claimed “to know all you NYC city photographers, i was even in vogue.” so i pressed him on it and sure enough, he did. he said “all the NYC city crews like to come to TN and ride 4 wheelers and shoot guns.” guilty, i do. i pressed him more and he runs a ranch for tim mcgraw and faith hill, so he was used to crews coming out and making shots. his name is bobby brooks.

.so here i am a couple months later, in his hood in TN, photographing kix brooks. so one of the first things i asked was if kix knew bobby. turns out bobby used to work for kix too. damn this world is small, this makes for good stories. kix asked if i shoot clays, to which i said i do, kix smiled and said i shot some yesterday. then we got back to making photographs.

.later as i was getting gear packed away, kix came over and asked if i was around at all the next day and if i’d like to go shoot clays with him, even borrow one of his shotguns.

.now that would of been a story, but i had a 6am flight, and with the rental gear budget, flight changes 4 days before xmas in bad weather, the budget in general, and the logistics of it all, i didnt see a way to make staying work. i am an ass of course, now it’s all easy to see.

.i could of shot clays with kix brooks, wow…..

.the perfect job, thanks to everyone, truly.