Anybody from the mid Atlantic region couldn’t miss the “thundersnow” we experienced two nights ago. In some places nearly a foot of snow fell in just a few hours – my place being one of them. The snowstorm was also accompanied by thunder and lightning.
Accuweather.com was saying the entire I-95 corridor was being buried. My problem was, I had a photo shoot the next morning in Philadelphia. It was also my first job in over a decade for an old and highly valued client. I hadn’t wanted anything to go wrong but by 10 pm it was beginning to look like an impossible situation. I didn’t even know if my car would make it off the mountain where I live, much less whether roads would be passable by 5:30 am.
Long story short: after going to bed at 10:40 I lay wide-awake until 4 am. Zero sleep. But the snow ended around midnight, I made it down the mountain (thanks to my Subaru) and by the time I got past Baltimore to I-95 road conditions were fair, if hardly normal. I made it to Philly an hour before my first appointment, my subjects were great and the shoot went well.
There were good reasons to postpone, and under other circumstances I might have. But this is a client I wanted very much to make happy, and my reliability is a large factor in their peace of mind. Before the storm all I could think about was making great photos for them. After the storm and a night without sleep, my focus shifted to making the job happen at all. Once on location I had to think about logistics, parking, passing security, getting equipment in place, then meeting and getting a sense of the people I had to shoot. I didn’t even think about making great photos until much later – after the photos were already made.
As it turns out, the photos are fine (I generally never call my own work “great” but I do believe they will look great on the page). In the end, instincts took over and my eyes still serve me well. The moral of the story for me was not to lose faith – to keep my bond, both with myself and my client.
It’s much like cycling up the mountain near where I live. Once I’ve started that climb I’ve never backed down. Many times I’ve realized I didn’t feel like doing it, it’s been too cold, too hot, I wasn’t feeling that strong – but I’ve never turned around. The last time I bicycled up Gambrill was exactly one week ago and it was maybe my hardest one yet – it was just 19 degrees (F) when I finished and my toes nearly froze. But I made it. Philadelphia was my mountain yesterday – thankfully that one’s behind me now too.
Photo left: View from the 45th floor of Liberty One Tower, while waiting for my first appointment to show.
Below: My driveway as it looked the evening after arriving home from Philly – just how it looked as I was leaving, except there were no tire tracks.
