The commercial/portrait photographer has recently found an unexpected steady income stream as his work has found its way into art galleries and people’s homes. Part of the reason for this is Gilbert’s proficiency at creating what he calls “mission portraits,” a style that sets him apart from other portrait photographers. “My clients want something on their walls that they can’t get anywhere else,” Gilbert explains. “I’ve made my reputation on these portraits, photographs that fit in with my clients’ art collections and style in their homes.”

Before the portrait shoot even takes place, Gilbert meets with the individual or members of a family. “There’s always a consultation, sometimes up to three,” he says. “More often than not, this meeting takes place in their home or office, because I find it better to be on their turf so I can understand what they’re all about.”

Gilbert talks with his clients about the shoot with them, shows them examples, and does his homework about their likes and dislikes. Then he creates a general layout and preps the clients on the type of clothes to wear, what time to arrive for the shoot, and other logistics. “I sketch out the plan in advance, much like if you were going to do an oil painting of someone,” he says. “I get in my mind what I want to do, and then the day of the shoot, I execute it pretty much to the letter. Of course, things may change and you have to roll with it, but generally I have it all mapped out.”

Inspiration for these designs come not only from his clients’ personal style, but also from art galleries and famous illustrators. “Norman Rockwell, for example, is one of the best illustrators in the world,” Gilbert says. “His illustrations are always down-home, warm, and cozy—I love that particular style.”

Gilbert acknowledges the challenges that lie in taking a portrait. “The hardest thing to do is take someone else’s picture—how many pictures of yourself do you really love?” he says. “The pictures I take have to convey emotion, have to hit you in the heart. Many of my images aren’t typical: Not everyone may be looking at the camera, or you may be seeing the backs of everyone’s heads. There are some family shots I do where the image is more about the group itself and you can’t even fully make out the individuals in the image.”

Gilbert relies on his Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 lens to capture a family’s interactions or an individual’s facial expressions. “If I’m going to buy a lens that’s 2.8, I like to use that lens at 2.8,” he says. “My images get that creamy consistency, but they’re always sharp and clean.”

For his head-and-shoulders shots, Gilbert stays on the 200mm end of the focal length range. “When you’re shooting faces, you want to get that angular look,” he says. You need to have a minimum of 180mm to 200mm to get that—when you use focal lengths that are too wide, you just don’t get the right face shape.”

Having fun and getting his subjects to relax, especially if they’re going solo in front of his camera, is one of Gilbert’s goals. “I try to use humor, have music playing,” he says. “For one session, a young gal wanted a picture for her fiancée. I dressed her up, brought a trampoline in and set up a bubble machine, turned on Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” and had her jump on the trampoline. As the music was going, she kept jumping until bingo! I caught one shot where her legs were off to the side and the arms were out, with the bubbles magically fluttering around her. That’s why I love that particular focal-length lens at 2.8—the longer the lens, the more the compression of space. It looks like she’s floating in space.”

Gilbert used five Aurora lights in the studio. The trick was to have one light in a strip box on the floor facing up; the bubble machine was going right to its side. This way, the bubbles were lit separately from the rest of the photograph. There was also a light on a boom coming directly down as a hairlight, and two background lights. One light is hidden behind the subject. It’s strong backlight that lends pictures their 3-D quality

Switching over to family shots presents its own set of challenges—which is why Gilbert reemphasizes how important it is to prepare before the shoot. “Family groups are the toughest,” Gilbert says. “You have to be prepared. You could have the father show up wearing a blue shirt, and the kids in stripes or checks, like a patchwork quilt. Many photographers end up dealing with that and they’re two feet in the hole before they even start.”

What better light than the last rays at the end of the day. Gilbert shot this about three minutes before the sun set, his camera on a tripod and a gold reflector to the side. The pose just happened at f/2.8, shot at full zoom (200mm).

Keeping the fun factor in the mix and looking for unusual perspectives adds a different dimension to Gilbert’s family portraits. “I recently photographed a family that was really close,” he says. “So I took them into a courtyard and let them play Ring Around the Rosie. I was way off to the side and just took pictures of them doing that, showing their emotion. For another shot at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, I prepped everyone in the right bathing suits and put everyone in the pool. Then I went up on the roof of the hotel and shot down from the aerial perspective—it looks like it was taken by a bird that just happened to fly overhead.”

For shots of children, Gilbert simply sets the stage and lets them have fun within the confines of the shot. He stays far away and has the mother or father there to direct for me. He also confesses he is “the master of bribes.”

To keep his subjects well-lit, Gilbert uses what he calls the “bare bulb” technique. “I use a lot of high-powered halogen spotlights, like the types you can buy at Home Depot,” he says. “I also have these small portable battery-operated flash units from Quantum. When you work outdoors, flash goes off in almost every direction. So I take the flash reflector off of the flash so you get just a kiss of light—it doesn’t overpower the picture and makes it look natural.”

Gilbert manipulates flash for his beach shots as well, especially for sunset shots. “ The flash is sort of cold, the sunset is warm, and the flash throws the light all over the place—it can ruin the ambiance,” he says. “I take those halogen bulbs and put a little plastic around them so the light just goes a little bit on the face and body but not all over the place. Then that light is warm, the sunset light is warm, and the two just fit.”

Gilbert loved the late-afternoon shadows on the balcony in this on-location shot in Cozumel, Mexico. The stucco wall acted as a reflector, and he also used an off-camera reflector to direct light back into the shadow. With the 70-200 lens, he was able to go in tight for the head and shoulders, then back off to make a great three-quarter shot at 70mm.

Dragging the shutter is another effect Gilbert employs for optimum effect in his portraits. “After the sun’s gone down, many photographers disappear,” he says. “But I take advantage of that 15-minute window after the sun has gone past the horizon; that brassy bright light has been replaced by a soft glow. Shooting at 800 ISO (that’s become my standard now), I’ll put my shutter speed down to about 1/8th of a second and instruct my subject to run, jump, or move. When I press the button, the flash freezes the motion. They’re exposed correctly but they’re still sort of moving and the light is still coming into the camera. It can give a little edge blur to the picture and you get this magical feeling of motion.”

For those looking to capture the light for their own portraits, Gilbert offers the same homework assignment he often gives to his students: “Photography is two-dimensional; the only way you can show dimension is through light,” he explains. “So work like the Old Masters: Use available light; open a door, move the shutters back from the window, open the garage. But don’t show the source of your light in your image—keep that a mystery.”