PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS
PORTRAITS OF CELEBRITIES, ATHLETES AND EXECUTIVES BY MIAMI CELEBRITY PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER BRIAN SMITH
The latest issue of UK Professional Photography magazine features this nice behind-the-scenes look at my Time Magazine shoot of Richard Branson filled with the details from concept to post-production about our shoot of the billionaire on his private island in the Caribbean.
EQUIPMENT:
Profoto Acute B Battery Pack
Profoto Acute 2 Head
Elinchrom Octabank
Avenger Beefy Baby Stand
SOFTWARE:
Adobe Lightroom 3
Adobe Photoshop CS5
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Over the years, I’ve photographed portraits of athletes on their way up from Alex Rodriguez, Andy Roddick to Maria Sharopova. Some make it…and some don’t. None have been as rewarding to watch on their march to greatness as the Williams Sisters. While photographing Serena Williams for this week’s issue of Time Magazine, I was reminded of the very first time I photographed the sisters back in 1994 when Serena was a mere 12-year-old phenom.
Serena Williams, 2008
Venus & Serena Williams, 1994
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“Richard Branson…on Necker Island…in a Spacesuit…”
That was the pitch from Time Magazine deputy photo editor Dietmar Liz-Lepiorz. As pitches go, that was as good of a pitch as I’ve heard. But to be honest, he had me at Branson…
Richard Branson is the type of subject every photographer simply loves. He gets a good concept when he hears one.
So when Time Magazine suggested putting him in a spacesuit for a story about his new Virgin Galactic space flights, he was immediately onboard. While Dietmar and Los Angeles photo editor Martha Bardach were arranging for the suit to be shipped to the Caribbean, we were off to Branson’s private island Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.
We were up before the sun on the Christmas eve taking a boat out to a little spit of sand in the Caribbean just off Necker Island. Branson donned the spacesuit right as the sun began to break the horizon. There is something very heroic about the dawn’s first light…well at least if you happen to be photographing a guy is a spacesuit….
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