Thread: The Nick Shots

Nick is a good friend of mine; he is also a senior executive for a public body. He is an ex-journalist and marketing man who writes comedy scripts and has appeared on TV on shows such as Grumpy Old Men.

The brief was simple - anything I wanted. What you see here is the "final cut" that I presented to Nick as large prints yesterday.

At his insistence Nick has had no "creative input" in either my choice of location or in my selection of which shots to print. He is very happy with the results and is interested in the "creative process" that went on behind the taking and selection. Equipment this time was Mp4, GXR, Sonnar 50 and 90 Elmarit M.

We have agreed to do two things. These photos are up on Flickr. He has pointed his friends at them. They know him, but not me and are not that interested in Photography per se. I on the other hand am posting them here for comment. People here "know" me, either in person or through the Forum, but don't know Nick.

Comments are welcome. It's going to be interesting to compare and contrast.

Thanks for reading, and for commenting.

particularly in the first three shots, if he hadn't been wearing that awesome tie (no sarcasm here, I realy like it), I would never have pegged him for a comedy script writer! love the interaction between his head, his gaze and the arch in the last shot

great shots.

#3 takes the cake for me....love the people walking by in the background with the dogs and the hands in pockets stare at the camera. The bottom 2 goofy ones are fun....I think I prefer #5 to #4.

The cocked eyebrow in #1 is great as is the bokeh. And #2 looks deadly serious....he should be pleased to have chosen you.

The first has an excellent bokeh, the colors in the background connect to the vibrant colors in his tie and it all works very nicely together. The second one, I really like the composition, he's tack sharp, the tonality is good and the sign in the background makes you think is it relevant or isn't it? The third, not sure if I like the people in the background or not, if I remove them he is the center of the image, but there's also something very suits vs shirts with the people there that is appealing. The last two are amusing, I'm pretty sure that's what you guys meant them to be. Kinda like he is haloed, questioning the meaning of that or at the very least what is over his head. 4 has that.. 'uhh.. wtf' look and the last is like 'really'. Overall I think you did a good job and I hope he's pleased with the shoot.

Great comments, thank you. This is the second year we have done this. I first shot Nick for his 50th last year - he enjoyed it so much he wants to do it every year now! I think last year's shots were more serious - more "corporate" - this year I think some more of the "fun" Nick comes through...

These are some from last year - see what you think:

I think I've seen the telephone booth shot before, and I loved it then and now. The rest are also nice portraits but the telephone booths one is really great.

He has such an expressive face. And I don't quite know how or why, but his expressions read as deadpan, but there is definitely the subtext of funny guy there......truly great portraits.

He looks like Zamir from No Reservations. I like the last one a good bit.