Art lesson

 

Feb. 26, 2009. Shot video today for a story about a World War II veteran. The associate editor was interviewing this gentleman about how the applique artwork behind him helped him be at peace and deal with post-traumatic stress — one of his jobs on the US aircraft carrier Saratoga was sorting body parts following kamikaze attacks. Sitting there with my headphones on, I saw how the sun-like pattern in the work really seemed to echo his personality. I grabbed my still camera and, audio be damned, shot this angle until I was happy. 

The assignment was simply to get a shot of him with the art, but I figured I’d bring the video camera with me since I’m, erm, “encouraged” to do a couple videos a week. I have to admit, if I hadn’t had to sit there to babysit the footage, I probably wouldn’t have gotten a decent still for the paper. I likely would have just busted out a quick portrait and left before the editor arrived. Lesson: I need to be more patient, especially with my portraiture. Now if only I could make the video process go faster…

Coincidentally, this man’s name is Ray. He really brightened my day.