Hmmmm! There is a striking resemblance, Russ.

As for the assistants, I sold a lot of cover shots in my day, but never felt the need for an assistant to do anything. Now, I did have to pay some models once in a while, but the fee was just $30 an hour plus travel expenses. With few exceptions, the models were mostly male, dressed in specific outdoor attire suitable for the subject matter of the magazine, and all they had to do was be able to cast a dry fly while standing in a creek, or run a boat while I shot the photos from the shore or a bridge. Most of the time, I used my teenage children for those cover shots - they loved the money, loved being on the cover of a major sports magazine, and they loved the outdoors. Wow, that was a long time ago.

Here's the cover shot I like the best, though. It is my grandson when he made the cover of a sporting apparel catalog.



Gary