close your eyes and hope for the best

Neil Young before concert at Massey Hall Toronto Canada 1971.
(click image to enlarge)

…the more treasured photos came after the concert when I was given dressing room access where I photographed Neil with family members, friends and relatives.

Which of your photos do you treasure the most? Do the candidates perhaps include an image that garnered first place in a photo contest or perhaps one that was selected for the cover of one your favourite magazines? If you’re a commercial photographer, maybe it’s a photo that got wide circulation in ads and billboards and generated attention and new clients, or perhaps it’s a stock shot that’s sold a gazillion times and warmed your heart with the royalty payments.

The question of treasured photos sprang to mind recently during a Toronto studio tour in which I was one of the participating artists. A woman who happens to be an accomplished painter flattered me by buying one of my prints. “I love this,” she told me. “I’ll treasure it always.”

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Moonlit gondolier, Venice Italy. (click image to enlarge)

it was my second last film shoot before I migrated to digital photography.

It’s been drolly remarked that Venice is the only city where you can get seasick by crossing the street. Water and canals are everywhere and so are opportunities for photographers but, as with water, you can drown in the possibilities. What do you shoot that hasn’t been done before? Venice is one of the most photographed and painted cities in the world. To anyone with a heartbeat and a visual instinct, it’s irresistible which means the possibility of doing something new and fresh is slim indeed.

This was one of the challenges I faced when, after an editorial assignment in Tuscany in the late 1990s, I tagged on an extra four days in Venice for stock and personal photography. My mission was to get just a few images that might distinguish themselves among the many I would inevitably take. One concept that teased me immediately was the idea of a moonlit photo with a gondola and gondolier. Walking around Venice on my first evening, I witnessed the scene several times. Technically, however, the challenges in getting such a shot were daunting. The exposure would be too long to freeze any motion and balancing the exposure so that the canal and sky and moon were adequately exposed was impossible in a single image.

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Leigh Cuthbertson wedding 2003. (click image to enlarge)

Over the years, I’ve been asked by friends and acquaintances if I’m available for wedding photos. I’ve also politely declined. Professional wedding photos are a specialty. Aside from the challenges of dealing with clients who are often highly stressed, there is an art to meeting the technical and creative challenges on the fly. Unless you shoot weddings often and know the routine, there’s a lot that can go wrong. Expectations are high.

In 2003, I made an exception to my policy of not shooting weddings. The occasion was the wedding of Leigh Cuthbertson, the 28 year old daughter of my cousin. Technically that makes her my first cousin, once removed but our relationship was more that of an uncle-niece. For a change, I wasn’t asked to photograph the wedding. I volunteered. Indeed, I offered to back up the very competent photographer who had been hired for the job. It was agreed I would supplement the standard wedding photos by perhaps catching some scenes or moments that were otherwise missed.

Why I volunteered was personal. I’d come to feel very paternal towards Leigh. Her father had died a few years prior to the wedding. And there was another reason. Leigh was a cystic fibrosis patient and life had thrown more than a few challenges her way. She required constant therapy and hospital visits to clear the mucous out of her lungs, one of the symptoms of CF. Most daunting though was the prognosis. Most CF patients don’t live past their mid-thirties. Leigh’s fiancé, Steve Silva, knew the situation but he was under her spell. She had charm in spades along with a 100 watt personality and a sense of humour that had seen her through a lot of rough patches.

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