CEO of Kahala Cold Stone

This was one of those assignments where your boss calls you two hours before and lets you know you've been assigned to shoot it. I was actually familiar with the assignment because I had read about it the night before when browsing through the photo assignments for the next day. Little did I know the scheduled photographer would become unavailable and it would become my gig.

The assignment was to take a portrait of the CEO of Cold Stone ice cream. Because of unexpected traffic coming from an earlier assignment I arrived 15 minutes late and the reporter had already begun her interview; so I got to wait. I used the waiting time to quickly tour the facility brainstorming ideas. I was told I would have 15 minutes with Mr. Blackwell. The tour was helpful and I thought of 2 ideas - take him in the ice cream store near the front and get a fun photo of him with the ice cream (the details i hadn't really worked out in my mind yet), or do a portrait near one of their 30 foot colorful, delicious photos of someone eating ice cream. When I got to meet Mr. Blackwell I quickly told him my ideas and then his PR woman informed me that in fact Cold Stone had now become Kahala Cold Stone - meaning Kahala bought Cold Stone and many other food joints and so they wanted to avoid having the CEO in a photo featuring only one of the restaurants. It turns out their building will be remodeled in a month or so and will look more "Kahala"... but as for me and my portrait... I was empty with ideas. I tried not to panic. Touring the building before hand helped me think of a few quick ideas.

At first I took him to a wall of nice looking wood doors with foggy windows and these curvy, metal handles. I later went back to his office and played with some outdoorsy photographs of himself hanging on the wall. This is what came out. I was very thankful he was so accommodating and lent me more than 15 minutes.



Kevin Blackwell, CEO of Kahala Cold Stone at his office - Photos by Geoffrey McAllister/The Arizona Republic
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Ice cream maker Cold Stone Creamery and fast-food operator Kahala will combine to form a holding company that they hope will compete with private equity firms for a greater share of the fast-food sector.

The 13 brands under the new Kahala Cold Stone umbrella will include submarine sandwich shop Blimpie, cheesesteak chain The Great Steak & Potato Co., chicken sandwich maker Ranch 1 and Mexican fast-food chain Taco Time. (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-05-11-cold-stone-kahala_N.htm)