It was a sad day here in Minnesota and for football in general when it was announced that Bud Grant, the long time, former football coach of the Minnesota Vikings had died at the age of 95.
It is not my habit to comment on the day’s news if it is not related to Leica. But yesterday's news reminded me that several years ago I had the opportunity to meet and photograph Bud Grant.
I was working on a book about the people in Minnesota. That virtually demanded that Bud Grant was part of that.
Upon contacting him about the shoot, he graciously agreed and set a date when to meet. He suggested meeting him at the Vikings headquarters where he maintained an office to this day.
That generated a wealth of ideas about how to approach the shoot. The Vikings headquarters offered many venues for interesting places and backgrounds, one of which was the life size model of an old Viking ship.
But those hopes were quickly dashed when he let us know that he wanted the shoot done at his house, only a few miles away. Further he wanted it done outside with his dog.
Bud Grant was an avid hunter and enjoyed the outdoors in general. That included training dogs. He wanted his favorite dog included in the photographs.
Not a bad idea, except we were faced with a dreary, rainy day. But he didn’t care. After all, as professionals we were supposed to be able to deal with that.
I decided to use Ilford XP2 film because of its wide tonal range and latitude. Once on location, a few quick light readings showed that ISO 800 offered the best chance for acceptable results.
The shoot turned out to be quite successful under the circumstances. My Leica M 6 with the 50mm f/2 Summicron performed flawlessly and in spite of the less than ideal conditions, the results proved to be quite acceptable.
For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right
For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right
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