"The Ref" by Wes Aldridge
I am on assignment right now in a suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. Fishers, oh Fishers... I have come to you again. I shot this magazine a year ago, and I am back again.
So, I had to shoot a family having fun at a local upscale bowling & gaming facility for a feature story. I shot them playing the lanes and think I got some cute stuff, mission accomplished. I needed to get another shot of the facility for a different department of the magazine. There was a room with nice pool tables, akin to Buffalo Billiards, for all those who may have that fine establishment in your town. I got a nice shot of a platinum blonde mother-daughter team playing a game of pool. I was finished. But then the owner grabbed me and said he wanted to do one more thing. Alright, I'm game.
He said he had messed with one of his servers a little earlier about being in one of the photos, because he knew she really didn't want to. He said he was going to get her and tell her she had to be in a shot. He told me to be mean.
At that point in time, I let every thought of the "traditional prick" photographer run through my head. It was time to get in character. When she walked in, a little confused, I started barking at her to "pick up the pace, sweetie, because I've only got five minutes." And it was on from there... and I let her have it.
If you know me, it is pretty hard for me to be a true and absolute jerk. I made her get in this pose about to break the rack. I kept telling her to give me a real smile because the "fake" one she was doing made her look stupid and really screwed up the picture. I was gruff and kept cutting her off after everything she started to say. She had this astonished look on her face that was priceless. It was totally awesome. I kept busting her chops and you could tell she was really getting pissed. At the point I could tell she was going to blow up, I put the camera up to my face and said, "smile and on three, say 'I got duped.'" She was like, "What?" And then I spilled the beans to her about her boss setting her up. The entire place busted out laughing and she ran around trying to kill her boss and me. Man, it was funny. Here she is, disgruntled smile and all. She was a really good sport!
But, as you can see on the TV screen in the background, my boy Vick and the Falcons are wearing the NY Jets out and I need to tend to some Monday Night Football.
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