Sarah's cover photog: "She was great to work with"

We reported Friday that John Keatley, the photographer who snapped the cover photo for Going Rogue had posted a few details about the photo shoot in one of his recent posts.

Keatley's blog seems to have attracted a lot of interest over the weekend, and Politico's Click blog had a feature article up on the photographer Monday.

Leave it to liberal Politico to bury the lede that Keatley thought Sarah was "great to work with" and instead throw in a slam at Palin right off the bat. Author Daniel Libit (that's his name; we're not making this up) gratuitously interjected that Sarah Palin was criticized for the price the RNC paid for her wardrobe during the campaign, but he conveniently neglected to mention that the decision to to purchase the clothes was entirely that of McCain campaign staffers . Sarah Palin neither asked for, nor shopped for the items. It's old news, and it has nothing to do with the photo shoot, but the Democrat-Media Complex has to get those DNC talking points in lest they not be allowed to bask in the intoxicating presence of The One.

Excerpts:

The photographer and an assistant spent six days in Alaska with Palin. Most of the locations Keatley scouted were around Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, and the shot that was ultimately selected for the cover was taken overlooking Hatcher Pass, a scenic notch in the Talkeetna Mountains – about 13 miles from the Palin home.

[...]

In his photograph, Keatley was hoping to capture something natural. “I think she did really seem to come alive when we were in Hatcher pass,” he said. “There was something noticeable about it. She seemed to be very content.”

[...]

“She was great to work with,” is about all Keatley would say of Palin. He noted that on the first night, Palin ordered dinner for Keatley and his photo staff. “She was very kind and I didn’t have any deep or interesting conversations with her,” he said.

[...]

Keatley said that the propriety of the photos that he shot of Palin but weren’t ultimately selected by HarperCollins is “still up in the air.”

- JP

Meet the photog who shot "Going Rogue" cover photo

His name is John Keatley, and he has a blog:

"After much planning and scheduling, I put together a crew and flew up to Alaska for six days to photograph the former governor. It was supposed to rain the entire week we were there, but we ended up getting blue skies and puffy white clouds the entire time. After a few days of scouting and prepping, I shot for three days straight. The last day we went to Hatcher Pass which holds a lot of meaning for Sarah. I had already scouted the pass a few different times, and I knew exactly where we were going to shoot. Every last detail was in place. After shooting at the base of the pass near a river, we caravaned up to the top of the pass where we were planning to shoot the final location. Half way up, I noticed the beautiful light that was sweeping across the valley, and the clouds that were developing on the horizon. I told the driver to stop, we had to change our plans. This last minute change ended up being the final setup we would do with Sarah, and it also ended up being the cover image."

First Update: We don't know why, but Keatley has deleted the post on his blog.

Second Update: The post is back up at Keatley's blog (Link), minus all of the photos except the one chosen for the cover of Going Rogue.

- JP