Hotel Shovel

"Does the hotel have a shovel I can borrow?"

We had just flown from London to Chicago to photograph executives walking along the river. When I woke up, it was incredibly cold with 18 inches of fresh snow, so I borrowed from a shovel from housekeeping to clear the busiest corner in Chicago for my clients to walk.

After an hour, I had cleared a 20 by 30 foot space. It continued to snow even harder while passersby complimented my civic pride. I had double parked to let my clients stay warm while I set up, but snow plows kept  piling the snow higher. I decided to stand in the open trunk while the tripod was set up in the snow. My fingers could barely function, so I put socks on my hands and ate chocolates that had been gift wrapped for Christmas.

Before the first roll was even finished, I was frozen. One of executives saw how cold my hands were and started loading film for me. The shoot became a group effort - an executive loading my camera while I remained standing in the trunk of our car trying to get my hands warm.