Photographer

>> My name is Dennis Trenner and I am a photographer based in Baltimore, Maryland. I think the thing that drew me to photography initially, and maybe what keeps me in it, one of the main things is that it's license to explore. I mean, I've had so many cool experiences in my life, because something interested me and I said, "Well, I think I'll go do a photo shoot on that," you know? So how do you become a better photographer? It's kind of easy. You shoot a lot and then you get good, honest feedback. Not from your mom, not from your grandma, on your work, you know. I've been a photographer for the last 20 years, and you wear a lot of hats, a photographer. I mean, there's a lot of glamorous side to it for sure, you know, I've traveled all over the world, I've been to the mountains of Pakistan, the jungles of Colombia, the White House, Vice President's house, but you know, there's also very much a business side to the job too. You know, I'm doing my marketing on Facebook and I'm doing spreadsheets to figure out how to pay the bills and dealing with insurance agents and stuff like that. There's one that stands out, that I really still like years later, which is, I was at a shipbreaking yard on the coast of Pakistan, and there was this just biblical, epic scene where there were these three guys with sledgehammers taking apart this ship's propeller. The propeller, I mean, you know, just like a foot think of metal, they couldn't even weld it apart. And so they were just like using wedges and hammers, you know, just going at it. And it was just an incredible scene and the light was pretty nice and low and the sky was just beautiful blue and I went up there and shot that. And then there was this really nice moment where you know, one guy had his hammer down and the [inaudible] to it and that picture has just stayed in my portfolio for a very long time. One of the, one of the main things that I worry about is the subject; are they comfortable? You know, so if it's a portrait situation, I'm trying to keep them engaged and relaxed. Told the Vice President to go change his shirt, and he jumped to it. [laughter] A couple of years ago, had the opportunity to do the official family Christmas portrait for Vice President Joe Biden and his family. At most of my shoots, you don't have Secret Service carrying oozies around. [laughter] First arrived, everyone's setting up and Secret Service and the Vice President hasn't shown up yet. Then he walks down, walks up to me, says, "What do you think about this shirt?" Not, "Hello, nice to meet you, I'm..." just like boom! And I'm like, "Well," turn to his staff, "What do you guys think?" And he's like, "Don't ask them, you're the photographer." And I said, "Well, okay sir, actually, yeah, I think the stripes are a little bit loud for the photo shoot. If you wouldn't mind," he's like, "Ah, no problem. I'll go change it." I really can't think of any situations where someone has had a real negative response to my being there with the camera. And I think that's mainly because of my way of working which is, I mean, I'm a little bit shy really, as a photographer. I like to make sure that people are comfortable with my presence and sort of understand that I'm there or happy that I'm there. You don't just jump out of the car with guns blazing, you kind of get to know people. One situation that's funny, where I was actually arrested for taking pictures was I was in Bosnia, I went there to do a story for the "Baltimore Sun" magazine, which doesn't exist anymore, on, right after the Dayton Peace Accords and the war in Bosnia was coming to an end, and I was just wandering outside of the city and I saw a goat. I was taking pictures of a goat, immediately these guys came up with AK-47's, it's like, "Okay, you're coming with us," and it turns out I had wandered into a military area. So I'm looking for good light, looking for background, you know, is the background clean, is it distracting, does it add to the story? But then one of the harder things I think is I'm looking for emotion. You know, so if it's a dynamic situation, I'm looking for peak emotion. So if it's a wedding, you know, I don't know, the bride's crying during her first dance or the speech or something. If it's a protest, it's the guys going, "Argh!" in front of the capital, with the sign that says, "Down with the government." The dreaded night football game, like any photographer of my generation is like, "Oh god, it was so dark and you can't see what you're doing and everyone's moving so fast," so those kind of situations really serve you well later in your career because you kind of, you've seen it all. I've never met a photographer who had like a bump on his head from looking through a camera all the time, you know, so I think if we worked half that hard every day, at making our work better, we'd all be you know, Richard Amadon, we'd be like super successful. I mean, I can't think of any job that beats that, for that, you know, the opportunity to explore the world.