Trista Sutter
January 13, 2012
I got a call from the editors of Life & Style magazine to photograph “Bachelorette” reality star Trista Sutter at a vacation spot near Tampa. It was to be a story on how she worked so hard to get her body back after having two children.
The shoot took place on September 22nd, 2009. I arrived at the house with makeup artist Paula Abraham, and two assistants. We introduced ourselves and started picking out clothing for the shoot. Trista and her family were so hospitable! We set up the Elinchrome octobank near the infinity pool, and were ready for a sunset. When Paula finished the makeup, it started to pour. And pour. And then it poured some more. We looked at the weather on TV, IPhones, etc. We thought about calling it off. Instead, we decided to eat some dinner together, and wait it out. Trista was super patient and optimistic the sun would come out for sunset. It’s still a little bizarre to me hanging with celebrities. Many times I think “What the heck am I doing here? I’m just a guy from Maine.”
Trista was the first one out of the door when the sun broke from the clouds. It was amazing! We ran through many poses at full speed, trying to make up for the lost hour. She was holding her youngest child, alone, sitting, standing and laying near the infinity pool, all in a bikini. After the infinity pool, Trista changed into a workout outfit. We went closer to the bay, on crushed seashells. We had the sunset of the year. The pictures looked great. The editors loved them. My pictures appeared in the October 26th edition of the magazine, including a small cover photo. The coolest part was getting a mention on twitter from http://www.twitter.com/tristasutter the following day. I got a kick out of that!
