The King, as he is known in the golf circles, has 94 professional wins and 7 major championships. So why is he an icon to the local business community? He also has his own golf course in Orlando and hosts an annual PGA tournament. He co-founded the Golf Channel, which has its headquarters in Orlando. We also benefit tremendously from Palmer’s contributions to healthcare for women and children. He founded the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and the adjacent Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies.

What is amazing about all the golf greats we’ve been fortunate to photograph, is how far they’ve carried themselves through the force of their own talent, will and character. As The King says in the article, “Other than your caddie, there’s not very many people that can help you when you’re out there hitting that golf ball.”

Mr. Palmer will turn 80 this fall, and he still keeps a busy schedule. He pulled up to our photo shoot in his golf cart, which always has two of his golf bags on it. After our brief session and the reporter’s interview, he went straight into an interview with ESPN.

Read the interview here.

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We got to work researching clowns and professional costume shops in Orlando, that are open on Mother’s Day weekend. Our options were limited. We also learned quickly that professional clowns have their clothing custom made and aren’t willing to rent it out. After hitting the party stores and being reminded that everything in the world is made of ugly plastic or cheap material these days, we stopped by Orlando Vintage Clothing.

We found a pinstripe brown vintage suit and a frilly tux shirt that would fit Furyk. Then the lone employee working that day helped us find two key pieces, a silk polka-dot bowtie and a beautiful Brooks Brothers bowler hat. The most amazing item we found was the vintage suitcase, which we had to promise to be careful with because it’s not technically for sale or for rent. Our only plastic purchases were the shoes and the red nose, which we had to source from a party store.

Once we had our props and wardrobe, we had to figure out the when, where, and how. The writer, John Hawkins, got in touch and said he was hanging with Furyk Monday and we would likely meet and shoot at the Furyk household. Now, as shoots with PGA players generally go, this is par for the course. Toss a clown costume and lights into the picture at high noon in Florida, and things could go either way. We called on our good friend and colleague Cy Cyr to come along and help us make sure we operated as efficiently as possible. Cy was hesitant to make the trek with us, until we told him what we were doing. “Jim Furyk in a clown outfit? I’m in!”

On Monday, we met Hawkins and Furyk at the house. Furyk was very welcoming and in good spirits coming off a 5th place finish the day before at The Players Championship. While I directed the lighting setup, Jen executed the wardrobe choices, including tying the bow-tie on Furyk. It helped that subject’s backyard has a putting green built on the edge of the ocean.

We shot a variety of images with Furyk in the mostly-wool costume in the blistering heat. He never complained. His only comment about it was when he returned the shoes and noted that they were soaking wet inside. We wrapped the shoot and drove straight to our favorite Ponte Vedra BBQ joint, Down South, to celebrate and rehydrate.

Hawkins’ story chronicles Furyk’s quest to win another US Open and details how he is a hard-working down-to-earth guy with a sense of humor that most people don’t know about. Hawkins, perhaps surprised himself that Furyk put the outfit on, wrote about it in the piece, “When you crack the face on your favorite club and can’t crack the top 10 after spending forever and a month inside it, you’re not likely to crack a smile. So why is Jim Furyk dressed like a clown? Come on. You can’t be serious.”

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While the weather threatened to seriously disappoint, the sky parted long enough for a service performed by the bride’s maternal grandfather under a bower of willow branches constructed by her father and brother the day before. The mother of the bride made Amber’s wedding dress out of raw silk.

Lots of ladies pitched in to iron antique cotton tablecloths for the reception. The tables were also adorned with mason jars of fresh daffodils from a friend’s farm. The guests all contributed some seriously delicious dishes for the pot-luck reception. The couple purchased biodegradable cups and cutlery made from corn for the event.

It was essentially the most resourceful wedding we’ve seen. Click here to see the slideshow.

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Part of our goal was to get away from all the digital technology and shoot some black and white film, a good exercise in slowing the process down a bit. It’s also nice to really take in the surroundings instead of worrying about histograms and finding power or a cell signal. The West has always been an easy muse and for us it was no different.

We camped the first night on Navajo Tribal Land near Chinle, Arizona. After photographing Canyon de Chelly, we moved north to Moab, Utah and spent a couple days and nights exploring Arches National Park. Arches was the most notable and visual of the places we lingered. Even the campground there was gorgeous.

Once in Colorado we hit one of the hottest sushi spots we’ve ever been to with our friend Brett Butterstein, his wife Mandy and their two little kiddos in Durango. If you think there is no such thing as good sushi in a place so far from the ocean, you haven’t been to East by Southwest.

Our last tour was through northern New Mexico where we visited an earthship housing development completely off the grid, took a quick buzz through Taos, and set up camp in the Cimarron Canyon State Park just in time to watch nine deer grazing for their dinner. We woke up early the next morning, picked a tick off of Eric, went directly to the airport, and got upgraded on our return flight. Hopefully no one in first class was able to pin the camp fire smell on us.

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Augusta National never ceases to impress, whether it is taking in the golf, or just being awestruck by how beautiful the place is. In taking such good care of their guests in transit and during the evening it seems like the Mercedes-Benz Masters experience is the only way to go.

Highlights of the evening entertainment this year was a performance by Lady Antebellum, the 2008 Country Music Association’s New Artist of the Year. We also got to hear Paul Azinger tell legendary broadcaster Jim Nantz about the psychology that went into captaining the winning US Ryder Cup team. Most memorable this year, for us, was a performance of Ramble On by Pat Monahan as rain poured down outside the cozy pavilion we were all under. We immediately burned our entire iTunes catalog of Led Zeppelin to numerous cds and had a 7 hour sing-a-long all the way home to Orlando.

We are also always wowed by the work of Wesley Cadle, who designs the decor for the nightly events. This year his black and white swirl patterned tables with yellow tulips that seemed to be growing out of them were particularly impressive.

As usual it was convenient for us to photograph this event together, as we could document different events in separate places as needed.

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