Simple story telling portrait of a local

Have you ever paged through the big travel mags and come across the photo of the local woman who is posing with some local fare?  You know the one the Jamaican woman with the tropical fruit framed against a pastel wall.

I love those portraits, they’re very simple and they tell a great story.  To me these portraits are such important parts of any travel piece for that very reason.  Simple story telling.

I recently got the opportunity to shoot such a shot while on assignment for Forbes Life Mountain Time when I was passing through the town of  Leadville, Colorado.

Sandra Gnant, the photo editor, had specifically asked for portraits of locals. Now, Leadville has an undeserving reputation as a surly place so I wanted just the right person and as the morning wore on I hadn’t yet found what I was looking for in a local.  As we sat down for lunch the waitress came around the corner and I knew I had my perfect victim.

With a little begging and the promise of a big tip I got her to stand for this.  I loved it as I was shooting it, I loved it in the edit and I still love it.  Sandra loved it, I hope you do too.