I wanted to create a portrait of Ted Baker a fine art painter, and wanted to include some of his work in the picture. Mr. Baker taught at UCLA and various other colleges. Being Dean of the Fine Arts Department at Orange Coast College included photography, music, theater, etc. Besides being a great visual and verbal communicator, he was a very funny and witty fellow. Needless to say I was really looking forward to a great time creating a portrait of him. I didn’t want to do a standard portrait, I asked him if we would trust me. He said “I’ll do what ever you want” and winked. Ted always put so much of himself into his work….I thought by placing two of his abstract paintings overlapping each other and placing Ted in-between, he became part of the work. We shifted the position of the paintings several times. Lighting Baker was a grid spot with slight diffusion. The paintings were lit by two small soft boxes. Directing  him to look straight into the camera, I was very gratified with the resulting image.