Photography

I was hesitant to call Gino Lucchetti at 10:00pm the night before I was to make his portrait. It was for a feature story Nancy Bartley was writing to profile Lucchetti, who is an environmental scientist for King County as well as a talented lyric tenor who has sung in productions at the Seattle Opera.

But I was determined to make my idea for the portrait a reality, and that meant running it by him and getting his seal of approval before shoot day. I knew from previous experience that it's always best to get my subjects to be as enthusiastic as I am for a maximum chance at success.

I got lucky: after a great, 45-minute conversation, Lucchetti was totally on board with my idea of photographing him in a river, which would give me a nice backdrop and be symbolic of his work with the environment.

But which river should I choose? During our conversation, he mentioned he had done work studying the habitat on the Cedar River. I immediately latched on to that. It just so happens that I recently spent a day with my little daughter playing in a shallow spot on the Cedar River in Renton that featured a scenic bend as well as a sand bar near the shoreline from which to stand directly in the water.

I knew exactly where to make the portrait.

Nancy Bartley / THE SEATTLE TIMES

On the day of the shoot, my biggest worry was whether my lighting gear would survive being set up in the riverbed, but everything went without a hitch. I placed my light stand into the soft sand and weighed it down with a 20-pound sandbag as well as a battery pack for my lights. Because I was working alone and wanted to minimize the chance for damaging gear, I used only one light head but that was really all I needed.

I composed very simply, with the river and trees framing him. Then, I began to shoot. At first, I had him in a static pose and experimented with some slow shutter speeds to give the water a dreamy-smooth look to it.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

But what I really wanted was to meld his passion for singing opera while standing in the river.

So, toward the end of the shoot, I asked him to sing a passage from "Nessun Dorma," an aria from the final act of "Turandot," by Giacomo Puccini. I know very little about operas, but this beautiful piece has always stuck with me for some reason.

As Lucchetti began to sing and as I looked at the images on my camera, I knew my portrait idea was a good one.

It was an incredible experience to be there in that river valley, hearing that voice of his delivering a beautiful performance, if even for a brief moment.

Lighting setup: Hensel Porty 1200B battery pack, powering one EHT1200 flash head, shot through a Profoto 5-foot Octa Softbox.

Camera setup: Canon 1D Mark III, 50mm/1.4 lens, on a Manfrotto tripod.

Exposure: ISO 50, 1/40 sec @ f/7.1. I used a PocketWizard wireless transmitter to fire the strobe.