This was an adrenaline charged assignment; I had only 90 seconds to capture the most important aspect of it.
My client, Aeroterm, is a property developer of cargo facilities at the largest airports throughout the United States and Canada. Aeroterm had recently completed a $35 million cargo facility, one of the largest for DHL, at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. A dedication was taking place and I was hired to cover the event on behalf of Aeroterm. My primary directive was to be certain to capture several images of the Aeroterm executive with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Under normal circumstances, this would be an easy assignment. However, our executive and the Mayor would only be together for about 90 seconds or so. To further complicate matters, there was a hoard of photographers and television station crews covering the event. I was now in the middle of a press scrum. Commodities traders in a live auction pit are more genteel.
While competing with a group of journalists to photograph the Mayor was true fun, the second adrenaline rush was even more exhilarating. It’s not often that as an adult, I experience a memory of the innocence, wonder and excitement of myself at five years old. Stepping onto the tarmac to photograph big beautiful airplanes outside of Aeroterm’s facility made me as happy as my child self at Christmas.