Cover Story Shoot

During one of the last days of my internship at Folio Weekly, my editor asked me to go along with Walter Coker, the staff photographer, to shoot a portrait at a mini-golf course called Mandarin Mill. The issue had a summer feature about the Northeast Florida mini-golf landscape. I didn't realize that it was about a million degrees outside, or that the quick portrait shoot on the mini-golf course was actually the most painful obstacle course that a patient recovering from knee surgery could ever hope to encounter, in search of the hole with the best light and background.

Walter already had his model and his idea for the shot drawn on a scrap of paper from a brainstorming session that happened in the office that morning. He needed an hand (mine) to hold a putter in the shot. I kept my camera in my other hand, though, and I love this image of tall, quiet Walter "teeing up" poor Danny who was trying so hard to keep his eyes open in the face of bright afternoon sunlight.


Again, if I'd been able to squat down to get their faces I think my photos would have been more interesting, but with the knee that wasn't really an option. I tried holding my camera closer to ground level without looking through the viewfinder, but that put me pretty off-balance and they didn't come out that well (perhaps if I'd had a wider-angle lens?)


This shot (of Walter's) was tricky, I'll have you know, because Danny had the tee between his teeth and had to balance this golf ball on it. That was hard enough, but he also could only open his eyes for a couple seconds at a time because the sun was so bright, so he'd only open them right when Walter was ready to shoot the photo, and then the ball would fall off the tee because he'd moved ever-so-slightly.

Here's the awesome cover they ended up with! Walter had hoped Danny's expression would be more on the wide-eyed/surprised end of the spectrum, but I think his (genuine) pained expression really works here.

[Note: This shoot was last week, I just didn't want to preempt the FW cover in my blog until it actually ran.]