In The Moment

When Tony Demin was an engineering student at Michigan Tech University, he took a photo class. You know what happened next. Before long he found himself at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California, studying studio techniques and the 4x5 camera, but also pursuing an interest in sports shooting by "hanging out on the beaches and taking pictures of surfers and climbers and active people—people doing things I liked to do."

He's pretty much still doing exactly that for his commercial, advertising and editorial clients.

"While I'm doing it, it's the most fun in the world," Tony says. "It's not hard work at all, it's play. I'm having a great time. But at the end of the day, I'm exhausted—not necessarily physical exhaustion, but mental exhaustion from always being hyper-vigilant, of being aware all the time of trying to put things together."

One source of pressure is the clients, but probably not in the way you think. "Very often the clients tell me to go out and do what I do," he explains. "I know what they want: photos that capture the essence of the moment, photos that look cool, look fun—but they don't know the specifics of how I'm going to get it, of what the situation might be." So while the freedom to create scenarios and run the shoot his way is a lot of fun, there's the pressure to deliver the creative goods. "I've got to invent all this stuff from the elements and the environment at hand; to build the photo from what's there. And I've got to push myself because I don't want to do the same things over and over again."

Tony both directs and suggests. "I'll set up specific scenarios, but I'll also say, ‘Okay, why don't you do that?' " He finds that the casual suggestions work especially well with kids. "Kids will always do something better than you could ever tell them."