THE STORY BEHIND THE SHOT

Here’s the story behind one of my best photographs that was never published.

I created this photograph in the fall of 2011 for Pete Stout, who was then the editor at Excellence Magazine. Jerry Seinfeld had agreed to grace the cover of their 200th issue. I scouted and secured a very private location two days prior to my assignment.

Fortunately, the morning of the photo shoot was foggy. Jerry’s car was unloaded and rolled into a spot I had marked the day before. When Jerry arrived with all his friends in a blacked out Mercedes limo it was game on. He was a joy to work with, and the hour I spent with him went quickly.

The cover shot that Excellence ran was predictable. This is the shot that Pete and I wanted, but it was never published. I had set up an umbrella flash to camera left and was ready when Jerry expressed the joy of seeing his completed restoration of Porsche 550-003 for the very first time.

Canon 5D Mk II, 17-35 mm f2.8 L at 28mm, 1/20 sec, f/20