I’m at the coffee shop getting some illustration finished before getting home to try a new vegan dish. I saw a recipe for a cauliflower steak with chimichurri on a butterbean base and I’ve been wanting to try it out. I’ll have to leave here in 45 minutes to make it to the co-op before they close. I’ve been absolutely annoyed wasting hours of my day trying to create an EOS account for a friend that is trying to get in on a few DPOS chains. I’m back on my kickboxing game and that has been feeling great even though it’s brutal to stay motivated during single digit temperatures in Minnesota. All in all, things are headed in the right direction.
I’ve got some new work to share. I was recently hired by a guy that approached me at the same coffee shop I’ve been haunting tonight. He walked up to me and said, “…you’re a photographer, right?”. He would be proposing to his girlfriend and wanted the big, memorable moment to be captured on the rooftop of the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Minneapolis. We discussed the details over coffee and then met for a walk through of the space a week before. I had some concerns. The lighting was awful, but typically, I can work with almost nothing. The temperatures in Minnesota plunged and that was in the back of my mind as well.
That morning, we texted back and forth with his sister-in-law-to be and planned the arrival. It had dropped to 9º and I was worried that if they weren’t exactly on time, I’d start to freeze […this was near the lobby, not even on the rooftop]. They were 20 minutes late and I was already losing feeling in my fingertips. Because I shoot with a 50mm prime lens, I do need my fingers to make adjustments while recording. I’ve tried the touch sensitive gloves and they’re not precise enough to be helpful. I did get the shot once they arrived and then made my way up to the rooftop, positioned out of sight behind a cabin before they walked out together for the moment.
By the time he was on his knee, my hands were frozen. During a protest last January, I’d experienced mild frostbite. This was legitimately worse and took hours before I had any feeling in my fingers again. Once I was home, I downloaded the photos and videos, confident almost none of it would be useable. Fortunately, I did manage some great moments and shots. We shot a few portraits at the lobby-level restaurant and wrapped. I went home and slowly sank into a hot bath as the circulation returned to my hands but to this day, after 25 years of shooting, this was one of the most painful shoots I’ve ever done.
