Remembering Joe Denardo

This past weekend Pittsburgh lost an icon, retired WTAE (channel 4) weatherman Joe Denardo passed away.  Much was made of his forecasting skills and broadcasting career.  Much was also made about his community and charity work, especially Project BundleUp and the Moon Township Parks & Recreation Board.  But I knew Joe from another charity:  The Myron Copy/Foge Fazio Golf Classic to raise funds for the Autism Society of Pittsburgh, which I have been photographing for the last 7 years.  Joe and Myron were broadcasting colleagues at WTAE, and Joe always made it a point to come out for the event.  In recognition of his many years of support, the Autism Society of Pittsburgh gave Joe a green jacket (like the Master's Tournament) in 2012.  The 2018 outing as held last Monday.  Sadly, Joe was not there.

From a photographer's standpoint, Joe was the best.  He WANTED to have his photo taken.  Almost every year, I would get to the country club and walk into the lounge where coffee and pastry were set up.  Joe would see me and immediately call me over to get a photo with whomever he was talking to.  If he ever noticed me pointing my camera at him, he would stop what he was doing and pose. 

Everyone who met Joe always has a favorite "Joe Story" to tell, so here's mine.  Every year, at the start of the golf outing,  Joe would always take the microphone and give the golfers his weather forecast for the day.  One year rain was predicted all day, but Joe told us that the rain would hold off until 2 pm.  It was a bold prediction, and looking at the sky, I thought there was no way that was correct.  Sure enough, right at 2, it started raining.

Joe said it would...

Gabby's Senior Session

How cool is it when a girl that wants to include her pet lizard in her senior photos!

Our shoot was at Gabby's favorite spot, the working farm at Round Hill Park.  This is a very nice shooting location, with plenty of great spots to shoot at.

Unfortunately on the day we had scheduled it was a cloudy day, with no chance that the sun was going to peak out for us.  So I made it a point to bring along my flash equipment, and we made out own sunshine.  I used one flash with a full CTO gel to one side and slightly behind Gabby.  This was my "sun".  And then used a second flash on camera with a 1/4 CTO filter and a bounce diffuser for a slightly warm fill light.  Increasingly this has become my go-to setup for outdoor portraits.  It is easy to set up and move from location to location.