Duck, people!

(Click on photos to enlarge)

​Over the years, I’ve been contacted by various magazine photo editors when they were doing stories about people living and working in my area of New England. What each editor usually wanted was an inventive and compelling portrait of the person being profiled - something to make the reader pause and actually read the article the picture accompanied. My job, therefore, was to take often ordinary-looking people and locations (mostly in and around the subject's office) and transform them into, hopefully, something more interesting.

​I’ve always enjoyed these types of assignments. They’ve stirred my creative juices and given me opportunities to build my portfolio which, in turn, has led to more similar assignments.

​With these portraits in mind, I decided to do a series that would be more creative and goofier than what I was being contracted for. Here's why:

• I wanted to test out some ideas I'd been collecting on subject expressions and positioning, lighting, camera placement, prop use, and editing.
• I wanted to show my current and prospective clients that I could create images that were more unconventional than those in my existing portfolio.
• I thought it would be a fun series to do.
• I was hoping that one or more of the pictures could be used for bartering photo equipment and provide me with a bit of publicity.

The series met all these goals.

​I wanted these photos to look substantially different from one another, but also thought there should be a common element in each one that would connect the series together. I searched for some unifying object and came up with the idea of using rubber ducks. ​

​The portraits were done using friends and acquaintances. Some were fellow photographers. I began each photo session with either a general or specific idea of what I wanted. As the shoot progressed, the subject and I would bounce around posing ideas. We always came up with at least one setup that I thought worked quite well. You can view the entire series on my website at https://www.peterglass.com/duckpeople.

​And that brings me to an important announcement. I’ve decided to update this series with new people, new ducks, and weirder and whackier compositions. Maybe I’ll call it Duck People, The Next Generation. But, I need subjects. This time, I’m going to limit it to women and girls (sorry, gents). If you’re interested in possibly posing and are within sixty minutes of Hartford, CT, please call or email me. Those who participate will receive high quality JPG images from the photoshoot and a nifty tote bag, emblazoned with my eye-popping logo (see top of page). Thank you.

CONTACT PETER
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