I loved the entire process of this shoot.  The idea I had was that the most miserable man in the universe was sitting at the bar and that there was a couple outside making out.  I told my good friend, Ken Reif, that I wanted him to be the most miserable man in the universe.  He joked, “So you just want me to be myself?”

I had everything about this shot sketched out ahead of time, except for the angle.  I wasn’t sure how much of the outside was going to be in the shot and how much was going to be inside.  There was a lot of adjusting on this before the correct angle and distance was achieved.  It turned out that the closer to the camera the outside couple was, the worse the photo became.  The photos of the couple close to camera are so bad, I’m not even going to post them to show you what I mean.  Suffice it to say, they do not work.  With the couple in the distance though, it works brilliantly.

Not that you’d know it to look at the image, but this was shot in 40 degree weather.  KC and Tyler Remaly were close together not just for the picture, but for warmth as well.  Whenever I’d need to adjust something, KC and Tyler would come into the distillery and stand as far away from the open door as they could.  Ken is basically a penguin, so he didn’t do anything differently no matter what was going on.

One minor thing that impacted everything was KC’s right leg and arm.  The minute she bent her at the knee and her arm at the elbow, her pose with Tyler came alive.  The rule of thumb on my sets is if you can bend it, bend it.