Governor-Elect Charlie Baker at Home in Swampscott
Before Christmas I had the opportunity to photograph Charlie at home while being interviewed by reporter Will Dowd. I was looking for a shot that would show his personality. This would be difficult shooting with two big cameras which take over the room and the interview with the size and noise they make. The Canon 5D Mk3 is a big camera with the battery grip but fairly quiet in silent mode. The 7D on the other hand is loud. So I opted for two cameras that are known for being quiet, small and unobtrusive, the Leica M9 and the the Sony Nex-7. As it turned out they worked great and my shooting did not interfere with the interview at all. I started out shooting with the 35mm Summicron on the Leica and the 90mm Tele-Elmarit on the Sony which makes it a 135mm. This combo worked really well. The Leica gave me some nice overall images and the Sony w/90 gave me some really tight headshots. All of these images were post processed in Silver Efex Pro2 and gave me exactly what I was looking for. The on-line version of some these images can be found at swampscott.wickedlocal.com .
Sony Nex-7 w/Leica 90mm Tele-ElmaritMassachusetts Governor Charlie Baker talks with the Swampscott Reporter at his home in Swampscott MA in December of 2014.
Leica M9 w/35mm SummicronCharlie Baker relaxes with his dog Lucy at home before Christmas in Dec. 2014.
Next I switched over to shooting with the Leica and the 50mm Summilux f1.4. I started out at f2.8 and then made the rest at wide open to give the images more of a dreamy look in the background. These two were made wide open at 1.4. I really love this lens it gives the images a nice 3d look to them.
This next one was made with the Sony Nex-7 and the 50mm Summilux which with a 1.5 crop gives me a nice portrait lens at 75mm.
The last thing I did was look for something different. I already had plenty of images but I really wanted a shot showing him in a pensive mood. He was tired as heck and it was 8:00 AM. You know he has a lot on his mind trying to figure out how to turn the state around with the new budget. I could have got him to smile but that would have been one of those fudged staged portraits you get when you say - smile! So I just let it take it's natural course. This last shot was made with the Leica 21mm Super Elmar with a pretty hefty crop. It gave me that pensive thinking shot I was looking for.
