The assignment from the desk came in to photograph Terrell Suggs of the Baltimore Ravens Thursday afternoon for a preview story. In my distant past, portraits were nightmarish, in particular when an idea never crystallized on what to do with the subject. Over the years, wearing out my nose on the grindstone, I worked to gain an acceptable hold on the art (this is not talking about the haphazard, "say cheese" grin, subject placed in one-third of the frame environmental snoozers many consider acceptable) using light, pose and facial gesture.

Setting up in a small room, I decided to use three lights: a Dyna-Lite Uni400Jrg in a softbox as the key light and two Nikon SB-800 AF Speedlights; one as a rim light and the other with a purple gel for the background. After a few test images, with my hand as the model, I was ready to go.

(Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, 1/250th sec. @ f/8, ISO 100) 

Enough cannot be said for being prepared before the subject arrives. Much of the time athletes, politicos and celebrities have little patience. Other than not being there, they prefer the session to be nice and quick. 

Suggs arrived, waiting for me on the sofa, and after a little chit-chat I made another test image to make sure all was working.

(Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, 1/250th sec. @ f/6.3, ISO 100)  

All set, now came time to figure out what the heck to do with him. So I started off simple to get him used to me and comfortable with the situation — something that should not be tough for a guy used to chasing quarterbacks in front of 70,000 screaming people.

Then, with a smidge of rapport developed, I asked him to do some different poses.   

(Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, 1/250th sec. @ f/8, ISO 100)

In each session I try to work in a few tight photographs. For some reason, and I am not sure where this came from or what influenced me, really tight facial portraits draw me in. They minimize the background and allow for the interest to be set entirely on the person and his/her eyes. A few people vehemently despise these composures, the somewhat different crops, taking off parts of the face and head, too much for to tackle mentally.

(Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, 1/250th sec. @ f/8, ISO 100)

After making 40 photographs, it felt like time to change things somewhat, so a chair became part of the composition.  

(Nikon D2X, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 24mm, 1/250th sec. @ f/6.3, ISO 100)

This is the first time I tried the using a wide-angle in a more formal portrait setting. It is not often desirable to have the distortion that can happen with such lenses, but I have been seeing some nice work done in this manner. The sitting subject, camera low-style is something I picked up from Platon, a very successful photographer who does a lot of celebrity and important-people type photography. The only difference is I asked Suggs to lean in toward the camera and think of sacking the quarterback.

 
(Nikon D2X, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 24mm, 1/250th sec. @ f/6.3, ISO 100)

Before the session I was reading Ravens clips and releases in the media room. One item of note was a quote from Suggs concerning his impending 25th birthday on Sunday. As a possible chance to change his facial expression, I asked him to say "Happy Birthday." The final, and probably best, image from the session.

During the editing process it was very noticeable the AA batteries in the the gelled backlight had lost some juice. It did not fire for the final frame — the only one from the final series without the purple accent.

Still, the moody light, nice expression and aggressive posture make the photograph successful  

Looking at the time stamps on the images, the session started at 14:23:53 and ended at 14:30:15. Less than seven minutes for 53 photographs.