Remembering Dan Wieden

It was not just an honor and privilege but an incredible inspiration in the several occasions where I had the opportunity to photograph Dan Wieden. His sense of humour was uplifting, his graciousness was grounding, and his belief in the power and the glory of creativity was and always will be a high water mark. Grateful for having shared time in this sphere with he and his late partner David Kennedy.

Dan Wieden

Small Businesses Back to Work?

As If You Ever Stopped!

Working methods may have shifted over the last two years but for small business teams to survive it has meant living the words I have tattooed on my forearm: Adapt, Improvise, Overcome.

As the world picks up the pace to post-pandemic normalcy, it’s time to polish off the company image by strengthening your brand’s identity and reinforcing how your group works in a cohesive fashion.

One fantastic way to do this is with professional headshots that represents your company’s image in a visually cohesive fashion. Yes, it matters how you look, and it matters how you look together. A key element is style, and it takes some insight into who you are, what you do and how you do it. A great example was my experience with Big Sky Studio Edit.

My friend, Anthony Vagnoni, who was handling PR for AICP introduced me to the about-to-be-awarded and incredibly talented, Chris Franklin (who also had an Oscar nomination iin 2020). They needed a good portrait of Chris for the annual AICE awards. Of course, as it goes with great editing, timing is everything and we needed a studio in a flash. I made a quick call to another super talented friend, the awesome Mary Nittolo, Founder/Proprietor of her animation house , THE STUDIO NYC. As it happened, she told me they were in the process of moving! (Oh, NO! Mr. Bill!!). BUT as fate would have it, due to a snafu in the new space that placed everything on hold, her existing shoot stage was available for a couple of more days. Again, that timing thing.

I made arrangements with team Chris, grabbed some lighting gear, beat a quick path to THE STUDIO and began thinking up an interesting portrait, I hadn’t had time to pull together a backdrop but the white cyc provided me with the equivalent of a blank canvas. I rummaged around in what was laying about & found a cool cooling vent leftover from an equipment rack. I set up a light to blast out through that & created a fetching pattern on the wall that reminded me of watching film running through a projector. Naturally a modernist red (my favorite color) made its way into the picture. When Chris arrived I plunked him down and though we grabbed many a frame it was that first one that won the day. (It so often happens that it is either the last or the first — which is why you can’t just count on the first).

As conversation ensued, what with all that was going on with Chris’ career, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get the full Big Sky team into the picture. By this time, I had heard that their offices were beautifully curated and art directed. I suggested we take a look up there. A scouting session was put into the calendar and, oh, yes: Eye Candy City.

When you want to enhance your team image there is no better way to give yourselves a unique identity than to incorporate every element you can. A uniform look is the first place to start. And if you have work environment that reflects your image there is no better thing to do than to incorporate that spatial dimension into your team photos. Big Sky’s offices totally fit this bill and so my incredeble assistant, Ian Duncan Ball, and I staged each portrait in one of the seemingly endless “stages” we found around the space. Voila - unique and consistent team portraits.

As we know “every picture tells a story, don’t it?”