Ned Draws a Crowd

I shot an actual assignment yesterday...a dear family friend, Ned Schley, died a few months ago, and yesterday's memorial service at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center downtown drew a huge crowd. Grimmy (it's short for "Grandma Imy") asked me to take some pictures.

I'm very good at shooting over-the-shoulder portraits in crowds (long practice), but it's tough to get to everybody when there are 350 people in the crowd! Even the Mayor of Milwaukee came (but just as a family friend). And of course Ned's relatives came from the four corners of the U.S. of A.

Ned's wake. (Mayor Barrett is the guy in the blue shirt at the right.)

I don't shoot assignments any more, of course (asked what kind of photographer I am, I usually answer "I'm a writer"), but I learned an old lesson over again...if you want to mark yourself as an official photographer at an event, a photo vest is good, but shooting with two cameras is even better. An amateur might have a good camera, but no amateur has two good cameras around his or her neck.

I did it for a rather silly reason...I only have a 35mm-e for the NEX-6 and the only 85mm I currently have is for the A900. If I wanted to shoot with two focal lengths, I had to take two cameras. (Hey, I don't do this as a job any more.)

I was reminded of how effective this is when I went up to the bar and asked for a glass of lemonade. The bartender looked me up and down like I was breaking the rules! No drinks for the hired help. Pretty funny. I first met Ned when I was seven and he was my best friend's rather formidable pipe-smoking dad. That's been a while.

There was a time when I shot a lot of stuff like this, and of course back then it was just work. These days when I get a chance to do it it's kind of fun, and even a bit rejuvenating. I might put up a few more pictures from the event in a few days.

But now it's 82 degrees and sunny, and I'm off to spend more time with the Schley family at the lakeshore. (I think I'll take two cameras. But then again, everyone out there already knows I'm the official photographer.)

Ned didn't draw a crowd because he was famous or a local bigwig; he was just a nice guy and lots of people liked him. I'm definitely in that group. I only shed a few tears one time; I was working.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

m3photo: "'I'm very good at shooting over-the-shoulder portraits in crowds (long practice)….' By the looks of the angle in the shot, extremely long arms too….  ;-) "

Mike replies: No, I meant things like this:

Trouble is, I only got about 35 of these, and that was something like one-tenth of all the people who were there.

There's a certain sort of "Euromag" style of shooting in cocktail-party-like crowds with a wide angle (and usually flash), letting all sorts of weird cutoffs and juxapositions and dissociated body parts fill the frame, but I don't particularly like the style and I'm not particularly good at it. My opinion is that occasionally that style works magic, but mostly it's just chaotic and arbitrary. That's just me. But then, I am me...so I tend to do the things I like and do well and don't do the things I don't like and don't do well. (Larry Fink is an example of someone who is extremely good at that style, and whose work I do like.)

Comments

[William Barnett-Lewis]

"Ned didn't draw a crowd because he was famous or a local bigwig; he was just a nice guy and lots of people liked him. I'm definitely in that group. I only shed a few tears one time; I was working."

Would that I received half so wonderful an eulogy someday.

[Carsten Bockermann]

>>but no amateur has two good cameras around his or her neck.

I use two Nikon D800s or two Fuji X-Pro1s (depending upon the situation) and I am an amateur in the true sense of the word. Are you wrong or is there some contradiction here? ;-)

[Bob Rosinsky]

For a really good time, hook up your d800 with a 14-24mm f/2.8 Nikon lens.

[Eli Burakian]

Along similar lines as you, I often just bring two bodies and two lenses to a shoot. However, they usually are of the same system. I love bringing a full frame body and a cropped-sensor body along.

My usual choice of lenses are the Zeiss 24mm f/2 and the Zeiss 135mm f/1.8. So that actually gives me four focal lengths, 24, 36, 135 and 203. (With a 50 f/1.4 I get the midrange 50 and 75 as well)

That's a range from 24 to 200 with the slowest lens being an f/2.

[Mark]

My condolences on your loss. And there ain't nothing wrong with shedding a few tears, be it one time, twice or even thrice.
mark

[Ted Durant]

And there's Hizzoner, checking his Blackberry. Nice.

[George LeChat]

There was a Bob Schley from Milwaukee in my class at Dartmouth. Guessing it's the same family.

[I think that would have been Ned's brother, who died a few years ago. There are lots of Dartmouth connections in their family. --Mike]

[Thingo]

Thanks Mike. A moving post. I liked your portrait of Ned from six years ago, and I like it today, too. I imagine Grimmy will be happy with your photos.

It's beaut to be able to share some good photos of friends, with other friends. Especially when the former has 'passed on'.

I do wonder whether the two cameras, or maybe really the expression of active seeing, when 'on assignment', that identifies someone as 'the photographer'.

[John McMillin]

Must have been an especially charismatic and worthwhile individual, that Ned. That's what shines through in your account, not the grief.

That aside, I've always been drawn to working with two cameras. In the old days, one held B&W, and one color film. Or fast & slow film, or fast prime and slow zoom, one of those dualistic choices. Both cameras had to be cross-compatible, with the same lens mount, because you never knew when the slow film in your camera would need a fast lens, or vice versa.

Now I still work with a pair of cameras, but they're different from each other. On one shoulder, my A850; opposite, there's either a Fuji x10 or a Panasonic LX-7. What one class of camera can't do, the other can-- and there's not much that both can't do very well. I wouldn't be averse to using two brands of DSLR side-by-side, either. Once you could change your ISO within a roll, lens interchangability became less important.

I can confirm that carrying two cameras marks you as The Pro, especially if you have flashes and brackets on 'em...

[Bryce Lee]

Was Ned now in a small box or in a large box sommewhere else? Just asking.
As to your choice of gear, how did they perform?

Trust you paddled your tootsies in the water at the lakeshore; hopefully the fish weren't biting.

[Clayton]

Articulated screens make those over the shoulder shots easy, but bet before long we will have our evf in something like google glasses. Love the idea.

[dan schley]

The Bob Schley from Dartmouth is Ned 's nephew.