Day 24

24/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

This is my Grandfather. We call him Papa and he's a badass. This pose was totally natural, he was just buttoning his cuffs, but I find it amazingly telling. 

George Ronald LaRue spent 39 years working for the Los Angeles Police Department. For most of that time, he was a homicide detective. He retired when I was little, and I never really saw him as a cop, he's always been Papa. He's a total goofball and rarely serious, always smiling. 

I called him up today to see if I could shoot some portraits of him, and he said he would do it, but it took some convincing. It's miserably hot today, and when I asked him to change, he wouldn't let me hear the end of it. He pulled out one of his old "work shirts" for me, a nice baby blue to bring out his eyes. After I had the lights set up, he put his shirt on, and I snapped this when he wasn't paying attention. 


Today, I got a glimpse of a side of my grandpa that I've never seen before. This is the hard, serious man who hunted murderers in North Hollywood for a majority of his life. I can only imagine the kinds of people who have gotten this look, probably sitting across the table from him in an interrogation room. I would have been intimidated had he not been telling me about buying chameleons at the circus when he was a kid. A stern look and a silly story, that's Papa. 


I love this picture, but it was still hard choosing today's still because I got a lot of good ones. If you want to see the ones I passed on, they are here. 


lens: Canon 28-135mm IS (NEW! and I love it!)
strobes:
SB-24 @1/4 power camera right through an umbrella 
SB-24 @ 1/8 power camera left and further back, through an umbrella 
quantaray @ 1/32 power behind Papa and to the right as a kick