Cheers!
Anthony

He’s at the top of the game and it’s good to read an interview like this and see he’s still down to earth and has gotten where he has through creative drive and tenacity.

As for the interviewer’s question about taking lead actors aside and photographing portraits of them, it’s something I always do on movie sets. I take my own lighting kit and backgrounds and find some out of the way area to set up. Then I create character portraits of the actors. The publicity office loves these as they can send out the photos for press releases or give them to magazines for articles and covers. They look great on my website and in my portfolio as well.

Terry Thomas…
the photographer
Atlanta, Georgia USA
Skype: AtlantaTerry
http://www.TerryThomasPhotos.com

I guess I’m not sure how to digest that info.

On the one hand I commend and admire the energy and drive to produce an outstanding image. @Tim said that’s what separates the creative from the not so creative… not sure i agree at all with that. More like it separates the business savvy from the not so business savvy.

Then on the other hand as a published ‘working photographer’ it’s hard to swallow being presented with a very low budget on a shoot when the magazine expects that ‘extra’ effort to produce something great when it’s at my expense.

I’ve stopped doing those low budget jobs all together, but I know someplace there is a young fresh naive talent waiting to be taken advantage of, just to get published. In Sams’ case it paid off for him.

I’d be curious to ask Sam if he still produces jobs with ‘out of pocket’ expenses.

It also brings up a topic that has been argued many times on forums, of clients who take advantage of photograhpers by not paying expenses because they know there are other photographers that will basically shoot for free, there by lowering the professional income rates for all photographers. Though I didn’t feel it right to bring up that topic. I know there are a lot of photo organizations, and photographers that would argue that unless those expenses were covered he probably shouldn’t have. But now in retrospect, I guess it paid off for him.

I’m sure EW is still expecting stellar shoots for little or no money.

Looking forward to the rest of the interview

I find that Sam has stalwart charactor, sticking to how he sees himself as a artist and photographer. No giving in to others ways of producing the work, working within a system. His success is based on relationship that gives him the freedom to produce the exceptional portrait used here.

I find the one comment left here a bit arrogant.

Any chance of a sneak peak at part two?

kudos for the effort.

e

Really a great story to look for, with how I’d like to become a better photographer one day. Thanks for the interview.

It’s been my experience that PR people are right there when you’re shooting and pretty much see what’s coming up on the screen as you’re shooting it. They can direct the shoot from that point. I’m sure it was different shooting film when you could shoot a lot of stuff and then see the results after the fact. But with digital, the editing / directing process is happening in real time.

How does Sam convince a PR team to take risks?

When you’re doing 5 set-ups for a 1/4 page shot, is the client going to cover the overshooting?

My experience is no. But I’d like to hear what Sam has to add to it?

Thanks.

It’s rare that you find “understanding” by taking a path that is negative in nature.

The nice thing about this site is the depth of information that is brought to the comments.
I love the passion brought to the topics everyday and don’t really care who likes who.

I don’t need to agree with all the comments, but I hope to be involved and have a better “understanding” of topics new to me.

It’s Rob’s dojo and those entering do so with respect for others.

Anyone that can work for big Paul (retired) and Blair out of the LA Associated Press bureau is going to be a well rounded shooter.

As Tim noted above…it is encouraging!