Only hours into the New Year I got a call from Runner’s World about shooting a feature on runner Darren Brown, who is a part of the first American father/son team to each run sub-4:00 miles. The story charts Darren’s rise into running from the deep shadow not only of his father’s incredible dedication and success, but also his 1992 suicide. I’m excited to now be able to share the images, which appear in the June issue, because Darren was such a pleasure to meet and photograph.
The Wife thinks it’s especially funny when I work for magazines geared towards fitness because of my lack thereof, but during this Runner’s World shoot we (assistant Ian Witlen and I) really did basically run a marathon. In total it was a 17+ hour day, from before sunrise to after sunset, with a total of 6 locations and 15+ lit setups, on a beautiful sunny day in western Florida. Long days can be tough, especially when there is a drive home looming overhead, but Darren made it so much easier on us by being so easy and patient, even when I was literally hanging over him on a not-so-steady ladder, shooting straight down on the hot track (which the magazine used as their contents page image, below).
Partly because the day was so long, we really dug in and used just about every trick I know, and hopefully invented a few new ones for myself. I make it a point to try to use every lens in my bag on any normal shoot, but this gig went way, way beyond that to the point that there wasn’t a single piece of camera or lighting gear that didn’t see some game time. No matter what effect the effort makes on the shoot that day, working hard and really going through the paces of your entire M.O. can make a huge impact on your overall workflow and ethic for the next set of shoots as well. And since this was my first shoot of the year, it really felt solid.
We parted ways with Darren and his very sweet family after dark at the Siesta Key public beach (really one of Florida’s most beautiful beaches) and hit the road back to Miami. By dark I mean I was shooting my 1DsM3 at ISO 1600 with something like an exposure of 1/8 sec. @ f/1.2 – dark, dark, dark. It was a really good shoot and affirming experience, and I’m proud with the results both in print and in my book. A few more that didn’t make the cut below:
that wide shot with the birds is a sweet frame. nice seeing.
nice work brotha. i too like the image with the birds. also like the feel of the b&w one.
Wonderful pix. Thanks, John, for taking good care of Darren…my grandson.
Thanks all — the image of Darren running through the birds at Siesta Key is one of my favorites as well.
I couldn’t tell you which is my favorite out of the hundreds of proofs I looked at from the photo shoot of Darren. They are all great. You did a fantastic job and have quite a sense of humor even at the wee hours of the evening after a very long day. Thank you