PEOPLE & PL ACES
than one person, they can interact with each other. That’s a more genuine and spontaneous situation than everybody wearing blue jeans smiling at the camera.” Instead, he prefers a situation that’s more natural. “I want people to look back at the photo and feel that that’s who they are.” location, location. Second only to the relationship between subject and photographer is location. Nothing invokes a flashback of junior high photo day, with cookiecutter results, like a photo in front of the canvas backdrop in an indoor studio. Luckily, there are miles of pristine countryside in the Vail Valley from which to choose. Where to shoot depends on the time of the day and the season and is a variable that a professional is keenly aware of at all times. In early June, Griffith shot the Lavatos by the banks of the Eagle River around the fairgrounds in Eagle. The family arrived at sunset, when the afternoon light softened through the cottonwood trees onto the grassy meadow by the river’s bank. This is one of Griffith’s favorite places to take clients. But portraits do not have to be confined to the edge of the river. Several times, Keep has been the wedding photographer for parties who departed
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the ceremony by whitewater raft. Sometimes, the proceedings have Keep jumping in the raft with the bride and groom; other times, he’s driving down the river to the rapids where the water churns white. It is one of the venues where his experience shooting skiracing aids his portraiture. One of Keep’s favorite locations is Piney Lake in winter. With its white, wild desolation, the area is blanketed in
snow and the lake completely freezes over. “When it is a full moon, it just glistens like a diamond,” Keep says. Utley has a slightly different take on the set-up. “A lot of people are overly concerned with backgrounds — sometimes the best background is no background,” he says. “Sometimes I try to blur out the background as much as possible.” That enables him to focus on the relationship between the subjects. But that’s not to say he’s not interested in the scenery — he’s driven all over the county and hiked countless miles of trails in search of the perfect spot.
Yet when he turns his lens on people with the hope of commemorating an occasion — a relationship, a vacation, a moment — what’s going on in the background is less important than the chemistry between the subjects. And what if a person is not photogenic? “There is no such thing,” he says, laughing. “Some people are more comfortable in front of the camera than others, but everybody has a good side, a good angle.” And he, like Griffith, Keep and other photographers well-versed in their art, knows how to find it.
Preston Utley preston@prestonutley.com | prestonutley.com | 720.280.4797 Wendy Griffith wgphoto@vail.net | wendygriffith.com | 970.328.7399 Rex Keep rex@vail.net | 970.321.9022
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