I’ve proudly been working with Arkansas Business, and their parent company, Arkansas Business Publishing Group, for several years. Arkansas Business is Arkansas’ leading and most well-respect magazine and newspaper focusing on all things business.

I received an assignment from one of their reporters to photograph Tony Thomas, the CEO of Windstream for an upcoming article. Windstream, is a provider of voice and data network communications to businesses in the United States. It is the ninth largest residential telephone provider in the country with service covering more than 8 million people in 21 states.

I always ask for a brief synopsis of what the feature is about so I can take an appropriate photo to accompany what is written. I coordinated the photo shoot with their director of media relations, David Avery, and a date and time was set. He was also kind enough to send me a few iPhone photos of a location he recommended. It was a tech-y room with several rows of servers. I knew Tony Thomas had a limited amount of time for the photo shoot so I arrived early — which I do for all photo shoots, especially with CEO’s since their time is limited.

I set up lights, tested… and tested again…. We were done in under 30 minutes.

I used a simple, three light setup: The key light was a Profoto B10 with a Westcott Beauty Dish and a honeycomb grid. Directly behind Thomas at waist height is a Profoto B2 with a party green gel and a 20-degree grid facing away from him and reflecting off of steel metal cabinet doors. Out of frame at camera right is another Profoto B2 with party gel blue and barn doors.

Tony Thomas, CEO of Windstream. Photographed for Arkansas Business. — Tony Thomas, CEO of Windstream. Photographed for **Arkansas Business.**

To my surprise, before the photo shoot even happened, David disclosed to me that he and the CEO, had visited my website and liked what they saw. So they asked me if I would be interested in taking a series of photos for their executive leadership team. After a few text and e-mail exchanges with David, we coordinated another meeting to tour location options for the photo shoot and to discuss the look and plan for their executive head shots. David showed me their current executive photos and I was told quickly they we ready for a fresh, new and different look compared to their last photo shoot which was nearly five years ago. I made a few recommendations on the direction I was thinking and showed him a few inspiration photos for reference.

Less than two weeks later, we were shooting.

I always recommend to anyone who wants basic executive head shots to considering doing a more casual portrait on the same day. There is a definite need for formal, executive photos, but there is also need for something a little less buttoned up. I like to call them Casual Friday portraits. Something more relaxed and a little softer. Instead of the location being their corporate headquarters, we went back to the lab (where I took the Arkansas Business photo) and we used the offices as a background. I like the contemporary mix of wood doors, steel framing and glass walls. That was my choice for the Casual Friday photos For the head shots: white seamless paper.

We did a two light setup at once. At one end of the hallway, was the Casual Friday with a simple two light setup: The key light was a Profoto B10, at camera left, and a deep white umbrella with a diffusion panel. The kicker light at camera right was a Profoto B1X and a shoot through umbrella to light the hallway with a slight bit of light on their (camera) right shoulder, cheek and hair.

Way in the back against a wall, I set up a 10-foot roll of seamless paper in Arctic White. Lighting the background were two Profoto B2s, each with a silver umbrella with a black backing. The key light directly behind me and over my head was a Profoto B10 and a deep white umbrella with a diffusion panel. Side lights were another Profoto B2 set with gridded strip boxes. In full disclosure: one of the strip boxes was bent and would not lock down so I used my Westcott Beauty Dish and a grid and it worked perfectly. Underneath and in front of each person was a Westcott Eyelighter with white fabric.

Per my recommendation, I brought in hair and makeup to polish off everyone’s look. Each person brought a few suits, ties choices and Casual Friday options so we mixed and matched wardrobe.

Here are some of my favorites from the photo shoot. You can see each person’s executive head shot on the Windstream website.

Windstream

This is a very sad photo to see.

In September, I photographed Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth for Arkansas Business in front a pile of rubble. Literally, it's a pile of rubble. Today it still stands. And it will likely be there for months to come.

According to the article, "The city of Pine Bluff debated for months about what to do with the rubble from the privately owned buildings that collapsed in downtown earlier this year. Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said the owners of the buildings were willing to walk away from the properties instead of paying to remove the debris that had spilled into the street."

So the debris sits. And sits. And it's a very sad sight.

When I first moved to Arkansas in 1996, I moved to Pine Bluff. The daily newspaper, the Pine Bluff Commercial, was my first full-time photography job out of college. When it came to the ins and outs of the daily grind of a newspaper, I learned more in three months on the job than three years in college photojournalism. And I don't regret one single bit of it. I met many wonderful people, friends and reporters in that time. Many of which I still see and work with today.

But in the nearly 20 years that has passed since I first drove into Pine Bluff, things have changed. And not for the better. Over the years, Pine Bluff has seen a slow and steady decline in population and signs of urban decay is more common.

And it's very sad to see. Because when you look closely, you can see signs of the beauty in the architecture of what once was.