Q+A

WITH BRIAN SMITH

Q What was your first big gig, and how did you get it?

A My first big break came after my sophomore year in college while working as a stringer for United Press International in Cincinnati. Yankees catcher Thurman Munson died in a plane crash in Canton, Ohio and I begged my way into covering his funeral. As the team was getting back on buses to leave the cemetery, I noticed Yankees manager Billy Martin out of the corner of my eye, breaking down in tears. I fired off a single frame as I was lifting the camera to my eye, and then he was gone. That photo ended up huge in The New York Times the next day and in Life magazine just as I was starting journalism school at the University of Missouri. The lessons I learned at the start ...

Get Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.