Katie O’Malley

First things first, Katie O’Malley is amazing. Smart. Patient. Kind. Beautiful. Second things well, second, sometimes no matter intentions and planning, things go sideways. Third things – you know the drill, you still get the shot.

When I was asked by a client to photograph Mrs. O’Malley, the first lady of Maryland at the time, I was excited and expected it to be a relatively straightforward project.

Ahead of the shoot, I scout, I create scouting photos and send them to the client. People are busy. People work in different ways. Radio silence. We get closer to the shoot, still no word and I’m a little uneasy.

On the day before the shoot, I call my client contact and ask if she has had a chance to look at the scout photos. She says no, she does not like to work that way and prefers to figure it out on set. I ask if we can decide on a place to start. She puts that ball in my court.

People work in different ways.

The next morning is the day of the shoot and we arrive at the Governor’s Mansion in Annapolis, at 7:30am as we agreed. We wait. A little more. A lot more. The client is 2 hrs behind schedule, 2 hrs late to the Governor’s Mansion.

As we wait, we have set everything up hoping to get straight to work when we’re all in the same room. But the client walks in and says she’s not feeling the setup and she’d like to try something in another room. We break down, move, re-setup and shoot a test. The client decides what we had originally set up in the other room was pretty good. Break down, move, re-re-set up.

People work in different ways.

The same page was hard to bookmark that entire day (and night.) However, throughout, at every miscommunication and diversion in vision, Mrs. O’Malley was a dream. And you know what? It’s not always creative peaches and cream on set. But we got the shot. And I absolutely love it.