Major General Singh for GX: The Guard Experience

On April 1, I got to photograph someone who is no fool.  I was really excited when GX: The Guard Experience, an official magazine of the National Guard, got in touch about an upcoming assignment in Baltimore, MD.  They asked if I would be interested in photographing Major General Linda L. Singh at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore.  I jumped on the opportunity and made my way north on MD-295 from DC to meet and photograph Major General Signh.

To make this assignment even more interesting, the Maryland National Guard was assigned to the 29th Infantry Division during WWII.  To refresh your memory, Eugene Bujac who I photographed as part of my D-Day 70th Anniversary project, was in the 29th Infantry Division.

I was shown examples of previous portraits for this particular article, so I didn’t have much creative freedom with this assignment.  That’s not really a bad thing though, since I knew exactly what the art director was wanting.  A basic three light setup was all it took to get the look that was requested.  With everything dialed in and in place, I just needed my subject to step in for a few shots.

When Major General Signh arrived, she greeted me with a very firm handshake and a welcoming smile.  I showed her an example from the previous issue of the magazine, and we immediately got to work.  I shot tethered to my MacBook Pro so that I could apply adjustments to images as they came in from the camera.  Everything matched up with the requested look, and I think the shoot wrapped up in less than five minutes.