Treasure Island family portraits...
This business is project driven. Which means we
become involved in projects, they begin and then they
finish. Some projects have longer life cycles than
others and all projects are unique.
The most current project is a series of family
portraits. The Human Resource department at Treasure
Island Casino has contracted with us to provide
family portraits (photos taken, printed and framed)
for all of their 1,500 employees who want to
participate. At first this might seem like a church
directory project in which the goal is to be as
efficient as possible and creativity is not a factor.
But it isn't, and here is why.
Each family has their own story to tell. There was
the guy who was extremely body conscious, but without
hesitation pulled up his shirt to show me his gastric
bypass scar. Or the young family who had a little boy
with serious skin graft scars all over his body from
a bad burn accident and watching this little guy busy
running around trying to keep up with his older
siblings as much as he could. Or the married couple
who have been married for 55 years and who still
enjoyed ribbing each other with wisecracks. This
photo is a young mom who had just found out she is
pregnant. Her joy is obvious and she is so excited
that she is exaggerating her pregnant belly.
The other aspect was the challenge of using a very
spartan set consisting only of a white vinyl backdrop
and a simple bench and still making every image
unique. It was easy to fall into patterns of using a
common pose that would always work. The challenge was
to slowly add to the repertoire of winning poses by
experimenting.
This project was not especially welcomed at first
because the hours are long and crazy (the casino
operates on a 24 hour basis), but after two weeks of
photography I am really sorry to see it end. The
casino employees are fun and genuinely fond of each
other. The demographics are at the lower end of the
income scale, so it has been especially well-received
perk by the employees.
This has been a lot of fun.