A Cartographer’s Cover Shoot

A few months ago, Erin Aigner, a colleague of mine in news graphics at The Times, asked if I’d do a quick photo shoot for her alumni magazine, the Oregon Quarterly. Above, Erin in Times Square by a cool New York City map created using subway tile.

More pictures below.

This is the image the magazine’s art director chose for the cover. It looks awesome! I love it! When I imagined this shot, it was my goal to capture the ambience of what it’s like to work for a daily newspaper in the heart of Times Square. Click here to read the article about Erin, a graphics editor at The New York Times who specializes in cartography. It’s a fun article, well-written, interesting, and it has a link to some of Erin’s interactive work for the New York Times on the web.

Below, some of the other images Erin and I shot that day:

Erin is originally from the Pacific Northwest and sometimes seems a little homesick for scenic landscapes, magestic forests and a mountain to climb. In this shot, taken at the Central Park Lake looking south toward the midtown area, I was hoping to capture the environmental contrasts offered in New York City, one of the things Erin cherishes about living here. I framed it imagining a cover shot, with plenty of room for type.

I included a horizontal image in case it might be needed for an inside spread.

We shot this one at the Promenade near Bethesda Terrace. I wanted to give the magazine plenty of choices for the cover, table of contents, thumbnails, and any inside images they might want to display. By the way, that newspaper is not a staged prop. We were on the way to work; the paper is standard reading material for the subway. Erin looks great, doesn’t she? I’m filing this post under “What to Wear” — Erin’s photo shoot wardrobe was perfect.

This is the shot the magazine used for the table-of-contents thumbnail.

When shooting a cover, might as well throw in a headshot. This one was taken under the tunnel at Bethesda Terrace facing north in morning light.

I took this one on the opposite side of the tunnel, facing south. It’s interesting how much warmer the light is. I love how Erin’s blouse brings out her eyes. Beautiful!

Morning meeting at the Times graphics desk with about a third of the staff. We didn’t even send this one to the magazine. What a mess!

We didn’t send this one either, but it cracks me up. Since we knew the article was going to feature an infographic Erin created about bike racks in the city (or lack thereof), we had planned to shoot Erin commuting to the Times by bicycle. With all the wardrobe changes we’d planned, riding a bike ended up not being practical. So we figured we could just, um, “borrow” one. Check out the look on that guy’s face, while also noting his pants leg and messenger bag. I’m not sure — is he nervous about this woman being a tad too close to his mode of transportation? Could be.

This is the full crop of the subway tile map image the magazine used inside to lead Erin’s story. The thing I love most about this image is the light, and Erin’s choice of clothing. The angles on her jacket mimic the map while her neutral colors compliment it.

This was my personal favorite. Brings out Erin’s quirky side.

This one is too funny. When we ducked out to Times Square to get the night shot, I asked Erin to walk around a little bit. Check out the look on that guy’s face! Oops.

This is (almost) the full crop of the image the magazine used on the cover. I was praying we wouldn’t get run down by a bus since we were standing in the bus lane in the middle of Times Square.

I had to carefully compose this image. In the background, I was going for a blurry suggestion of taxis, and hoping the Chrysler Building would be somewhat distinguishable. I was using the light from a giant flashing marquis that was changing colors constantly: blue, red, green, yellow. Erin did a great job holding that beautiful smile while standing in the road with a photographer pointing a big camera in her face yelling, “Wait for the white light!” Also in the background to be carefully avoided: a giant three-story brightly lit marquis advertising the opening of the movie “Kick Ass.”

LOL. Uh, yeah. That had to be cropped.

Above, the magazine as it appeared with some of my other mail. I love how the design in Erin’s dress mimics the city lights. Very cool.

It’s pretty exciting to get an image on a magazine cover. Thanks for asking me to shoot it for you, Erin!

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