He had been a professional photographer for 16 years, but it wasn't until he took a 1997 picture of President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that Drake Busath could relax a little.
"I thought, 'I finally made it,'" Busath said, smiling as he glanced at a display copy of President Hinckley's biography adorned with the photo.He has had a tough act to follow: Busath's father, Don, has been a fixture in the portrait photography world for years and has set a standard of excellence well regarded by others in the field.
Still, that hasn't stopped Drake Busath, along with his parents and a sister, from moving the business forward.
Four years ago, Drake Busath bought the studio and officially became its president. Today, he has a clientele of his own and is the boss, but he still works with his semi-retired dad; his mother, Donna, who is semi-retired as the firm's business manager; and sister Deanne Parry, who also is a photographer.
The studio has changed and grown in many ways.
These include:
-- Opening a Provo studio this month at 19 N. 100 East in the old Provo library.
-- Employing a staff of 19, including six photographers.
-- Letting Don Busath devote more time to landscape photography, which has always been one of his favorite themes. The elder Busath also enjoys working one day a week with daughter Deanne Parry photographing children. One poses the live wires, while the other takes the pictures. They swap duties as needed.
-- Making time for Drake Busath to be a mentor for Eastman Kodak and to teach a master photographers' course for the Professional Photographers of America in Tuscany, Italy, in mid-March. The location? A scenic restored farmhouse.
Nonetheless, Drake Busath remembers running up against his famous dad's standing when getting started. "That was a constant issue for the first five years. I really had to earn my reputation in the early '80s. Then there was a period when people would request one or another of us. Dad always had more requests," Drake Busath said, smiling.
"It has gotten to the point where it has evened out now," Drake Busath said.
People weren't nuts when they asked for the elder Busath -- after all, he is known for quality.
Don Busath recently was invited to become a Fellow in the British Institute of Professional Photography and some years ago earned a Fellow of Photography station in the American Society of Photographers. He is the fifth person to hold both honors and only the 15th American to be included in the British organization.
The elder Busath's photographs of many VIPs hang in Abravanel Hall and the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. He has done portraits of top leaders in the LDS Church for years. He also has photographed lots of regular folks in cherished family portraits.
But Drake Busath is no novice himself, holding a master photographer's position in the Professional Photographers of America.
And his father is probably his biggest booster.
"Drake's developed a style that's very distinctive," Don Busath said. "He incorporates a lot of classic portraiture, but has a lot of human expressions of the people. He's a master of light -- I don't know where he got it from. His lighting is different from mine."
Don Busath got started when he bought a camera from an uncle and snapped a few pictures of the state Capitol. They turned out great.
"I thought, 'This is really easy.' This way I could express myself, because verbally and in other ways, I didn't express myself very easily. I didn't realize I had had beginner's luck," Don Busath recalled.
He worked for years with Hal Rumel, another Salt Lake City photographer, doing just about everything: photos with general subjects as well as commercial, aerial, architectural, medical, industrial and fashion photography. "It was a great training ground," he said. He focused especially on portraiture because Rumel wasn't fond of doing that.
Don Busath set up a home studio in 1954, opened a commercial studio at 22 N. State in 1973, and then in 1981, moved the operation to 701 E. South Temple in an 1878 historic home.
He has cultivated scenic gardens on the grounds to make pretty outdoor settings for photos.
Don Busath learned primarily through experience, and most work experiences have been good. But he has been taken aback a few times. Consider one of his early bridal shots. There was this nervous young woman, who arrived with an empty stomach after following a strict diet so she'd look great in her wedding dress.
She was stunning, but the empty tummy, the nerves, the hot lights -- and the fact that she stood stock straight with iron-stiff knees -- got the best of her.
"I remember her crumpling in front of me. She passed right out," Don Busath said. "I was very careful with the other 5,000 brides to come. I'd tell them to unlock their knees and bounce a little bit."
For his part, Drake Busath is excited about expanding services in the Provo studio. "We want to create a duplicate of this business there. You can get the same services."