C.E. "Whitey" Webster
Owner, Garden Stone Supply, Western States Stone Co.
Phoenix, AZ ~ 4:30 PM on 12.2.1992

Environmental Portrait of C.E. "Whitey" Webster for Phoenix Magazine.

James Forsmo, Art Director of Phoenix Magazine, called and asked for an environmental portrait of "Whitey" Webster. This one one of my first environmental portraits I shot that I was totally happy with... the concept, location, subject, lighting, everything. I still love this photo all these years later.

I remember Whitey had about six rotary dial phones on his office wall, and a few of them rang while I was there waiting to talk with him about the shot...

ring, ring: "This is Whitey" he answered, then another phone rang, and another, so he was holding multiple phone handsets.

We went out to set up the shot, and there was a trench dug in the ground (he had an employee dig it), to set the flagstone into, so the large pieces would stand upright. I said "did you do that for me?", he said "I sure did, isn't that what you wanted?" ...yes it was Whitey, yes it was.

I walked around the area finding the stone I wanted in the shot while one of the employees used a front end loader to lay down a bunch of crushed gravel on the ground... I didn't want to set up any lighting gear until the gravel was down, cause I knew there would be a lot of dust. Once we arranged the stones in place, we went to work lighting the set (that's the fun part).

Strobist info / Lighting: Dynalites
Main light: Medium Chimera on a boom arm, with silk on bottom half of the soft box, camera right. (6) more Dynalite heads with a variety of modifiers (10" reflectors & grid spots).

Hasselblad 50mm lens with an 81B filter, exposure: 1/60 sec @ f/16
Film: Fuji RDP 100
Photoshop: almost none.
Location: Garden Stone Supply, Phoenix, AZ (off of Grand Avenue)
Photo assistant: David Dooley