Photography by Charles Wells

Photo of Leroy Cooper taken in the studio, copyright Charles Wells Photography

Writing for a magazine on a monthly basis is almost like having a 'real' job with a flexible schedule. In my case, almost all of the stories (they don't call them articles anymore) that I wrote were the result of my pitches to the editor and were featured in the Arts & Entertainment section. Fortunately, I had a lot of ideas and contacts in the music business, but I ventured out into other areas of A&E to mix things up on occasion.

As I've said before, I've interviewed many celebrities and written stories/articles about them. In some cases, I worked with publicists and attended concerts in order to provide my editor with a review and supporting material about the artist.

It was my good fortune to work with the same photographer for most of my stories. After the first experience working with Charles Wells (Chuck), we got into a groove. I knew what photos would complement my content but conveying my ideas to Chuck could be a challenge. He stands about a foot and a half taller than I do. Sometimes I had to stand on a chair to see things from his level and sometimes he had to kneel on the floor to see things from mine. The size difference gave us an advantage because we saw the same image from different perspectives. Together we made a great team and our professional relationship was successful.

Why am I telling you this? My photo on this blog and the one of Leroy Cooper were taken by Chuck. He also took pictures of Carlos Santana and Tony Bennett (whom I interviewed) when they performed at the University of Central Florida. We worked together every month for almost two years.

Rather than describing more of Chuck's work, take a look for yourself. You will probably be surprised at some of the celebrities (musical, artistic, political, etc.) that he has photographed. To view his gallery, follow the trail of breadcrumbs that leads to this link: crumb, crumb, crumb, http://www.charleswellsphotography.com/. His photography still appears in several magazines. He also does studio work and sometimes is lucky enough to travel on assignment.