Working With A Friend
Since I am referring you guys to other web sites right now, let me give you one more to check out. I am fortunate enough to have worked with this young man for several years at The Decatur Daily and he is in the blog roll but you may not have been by his site before. David Higginbotham is quite simply among the finest and most creative photographers I have ever worked with. He has a full time job working for NASA and he did a guest post for me about that last year. What I am showing you now is some of the finest portrait and wedding work you are likely to see, anywhere. David allows me to tag along and assist him on some of his weddings and it is an education for me. I always find it fascinating how he works with the clients. I will be standing there holding a light for him, literally, and wondering what in the heck he is shooting.
We were doing a wedding at the Huntsville Museum of Art one time last summer and he had the bride and groom between two massive columns. I honestly could not see what he was shooting. It looked like crap from my point of view. Then I saw the image and was just stunned. That is why I was assisting, if you know what I mean. Dave has a very special talent for working with beautiful women. (Yeah, I know, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not what it sounds like. Not to worry Anna, I have my eye on him!) Photographing beautiful people beautifully is a skill set that is difficult to acquire. I can make almost anyone look ordinary, even ugly, but Dave can take the ordinary and make them look great and when he has a beautiful person, the results are stunning.
Not so tough you say, let me use an analogy. Before Phil Jackson coached the Bulls, MJ was not the six time champion he became after Jackson arrived. The Lakers were not champions until Phil arrived and then he took the talent others couldn’t handle and crafted champions. Dave is like that with these brides and portraits. He has real talent. He is probably blushing right now and planning to embarrass me again with one of those test shots I have to model for as an assistant but the truth is the truth. You go check out his blog, davidhphotography2, and let me know if I am exaggerating.
You are going to see a really cool magazine layout he did in Mobile which I have a frame grab from above, and I get a little bit of credit for this one. Dave borrowed my EOS 5D for the shoot and used it exclusively. (He has since repented and bought himself a new Nikon.) I don’t even think I got a credit line for that one. Dang! Well, it is not everyday I get to brag on a friend so I wanted to take this opportunity to do it. This may not have a lot to do with the day in and day out work of photojournalism but you look at his portrait work and his editorial work in that magazine and you will see techniques you can adapt to your shooting style even in daily newspaper work.
Here’s to you my friend. Keep that Nikon clicking.
The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
