"get the rock"

Discover magazine hired me to photograph a portrait of David Stevenson, a professor of planetary science at Cal Tech. The “science guy at the university” portrait can be a little tricky, usually it’s a plain boring office or generic lab bench, and you usually have 15 minutes. I had this idea of renting a large fiberglass rock, something that would represent his work, maybe loosen him up, and maybe look a little funny. When we arrived I was pleased that David did at least have a nice topography of papers all over his desk, we could at least start with that. We setup our lights in his office and another setup outside near a mural of the moon. I kept the rock hidden by our piles of gear in the hallway, fearing he would think that was the world’s dumbest ideas ever, and kick us out. We started shooting, moved David from the office to the second shot, around the 12 minute mark I whisper to Finn, “get the rock”