Blogging has been a little less frequent than usual these days, but it’s only because I have been so busy shooting some pretty awesome ad campaigns.  We have 3 new campaigns coming out in the upcoming weeks, but before we get to those, I want to share with you this recent ad campaign.  It is for the Ski & Ride School at Heavenly Mountain Resort, and worked with Hammerquist Studios.  What a fun and hilarious concept.  In total, there are 6 different diagnosis profiles,  and you can see them in the advertising section of my site.  Big thank you’s go out to Fred Hammerquist, Dylan Kahler, and Nick Berry.  It was a blast working with you guys on this.

We got to do our own casting for this project, which is something I have really been enjoying.  The characters and types of people I like to photograph are a little harder to find, but the thrill of the search and the reward when you find that perfect person is so worth the extra effort.

Thanks to our friends at EVO for the amazing wardrobe and gear we used in the ads.  If you haven’t been to the new EVO store in Fremont, you should check it out.  It’s an incredible retail space and beautifully designed.  Even if you aren’t into outdoor adventures, the store and restaurants next door are worth a visit.

Styling:  Morgan Dillon
Hair & Makeup: Cara Aeschliman
Assistant: Gregg White
Retouching: Gigantic Squid

Cal McAllister / Co-Founder and CEO

Gabe Hajiani / Production Director

Stephanie Peirolo / Director of Strategic Partnerships

Christine Wise / Director of Planning and Strategy

Ian Cohen / Co-Founder and CCO

Todd Grant / CCD

One word sums up the experience of working with the team at the Seattle based ad agency, Wexley School for Girls: AWESOME.  The long and short of it, is that these guys and gals are a riot, and life is never dull when working or hanging out with Wexley.  They never so much as bat an eyelash when John shows up asking them to take their shirts off, dress up in chicken costumes, sprawl across the baby grand, or any other fantastically strange idea John has thrown at them over the years.  Well, actually, not everyone was on board with this concept off the bat, but everyone came around eventually after a good pep talk.

Most business executives need headshots for speaking, press, articles, etc., and the leaders at Wexley are no different.  These portraits are of the Wexley senior leadership team. As you can see, not only are they all pretty much topless, but they have Sara Coates and I smashing and manipulating their faces with our hands.  At least the men do.  The women got a couple of male interns to stand in, and it just so happened to be their first day on the job.  It was awesome, and one of those shoots where we were laughing so hard we cried a little.  Some people may have cried from awkwardness too, but it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes.  Thanks Wexley for being great sports, and for working with us to create such awesome photography.  I like to think this kind of work is the stuff that stands the test of time.

These pictures have already received some of the greatest comments on Facebook.  It’s almost like a social experiment the way some people are so confused  by these portraits.  ”They aren’t really going to use those for press are they?”  Yes, yes they are.

Here is a quick behind the scenes video of the shoot.  Can’t wait to see what happens next time.

Thanks team Wexley, and thanks as always to Gigantic Squid for retouching!

As an artist, campaigns with a positive social impact are always very appealing to me.  PBJS in Seattle called me several months back about this campaign for The Nature Conservancy, highlighting the First Stewards Symposium in Washington DC, which takes place next month.  This is the first national climate change symposium dedicated to addressing how climate change impacts coastal indigenous people.

I got to work with some great people on this project, CD Peter Gaucys, ACD Brandon Hilliard, and AD Vinny Pacheco.  In one of our meetings about creative for this shoot, someone brought up how the only photographs we associate with American Indians are old and quite dated.  Those old black and white prints you see in a museum.  This was an opportunity to create 3 great portraits of modern American Indians surrounding a really important set of issues.  I am really proud of how these portraits turned out, and I am excited to see what comes from the symposium next month.

Below is an excerpt taken from the First Stewards website which outlines the purpose of this symposium. What a fantastic project to be a part of!

“This first-of-its-kind national event examines the impact of climate change on indigenous coastal cultures.  The symposium will bring together as many as 300 coastal indigenous tribal elders, leaders, scientists, witnesses, and other scientists and policy leaders from around the nation to discuss traditional ecological knowledge and what it can teach us about past, present, and future adaptation to climate change. Five regional panels of tribal leaders and tribal and Western scientists will examine how native people and their cultures have adapted to climate change for hundreds to thousands of years, and what their future — and that of the nation — may hold as the impacts of climate change continue.”

If you find yourself around the National Mall, Smithsonian, or the The National Museum of the American Indian in DC and you see these images on flags, banners, etc, I’d love to get some snaps.  Thanks!

Can you relate?  You wake up in a haze, thinking a cup of coffee will do the trick. Trying to start your day out on the right foot, but instead you get a mouthful of bitter disappointment.

I had several goals pinned on the wall as I began the process of putting together this personal series. Shoot in detailed environments. Experiment with backlight where a light source is visible, or has a prominent role in the image.  And finally, have fun with facial expressions.  That was the easy part.  The hard part was coming up with the concept to make all of the elements come together. Gives you a whole new appreciation for copywriters and art directors!
Thankfully I work with some incredible people, and after some brainstorming, the bad coffee face idea was born.

So how does a personal shoot like this come together? A lot of hard work, and a crew of talented and creative people. The car shoot was the first of the three, and this BTS video by Eric Becker is a good walkthrough of what it all looks like on set.

The second shoot was the kitchen image.  Locating and securing the home was by far the most difficult part. After finding and locking in the location, we received a text the night before the shoot, which said it was no longer happening with no explanation.  I knew that kitchen was perfect for this shot, so after a lot of leg work and negotiating, we were back on track.   There is a certain mindset I feel is invaluable and absolutely necessary to make it as a photographer.  Tattoo these phrases on your arm, and never forget them.  No excuses, always ask questions, politely don’t take no for an answer, and do whatever it takes to make it work. There is always a solution, no matter what the problems you are faced with.  Wrapping your mind around these ideas will help prepare you for the struggles you are guaranteed to face as a photographer on almost a daily basis.

I wrapped this series up with the park bench shot.  I scouted several parks in Seattle until I found a bench I really liked.  It ended up being in a large forested park, which was a perfect place to shoot.  The permit was affordable, and it was a wide open space without crowd’s of people and traffic to worry about.  After the shoot with the bench and model, I woke up at sunrise the next day, and shot around an urban neighborhood near downtown Seattle.  It is important to make sure the light and angles of the environment match the light on the bench and model so the finished product looks as realistic as possible.  I made sure all of the landscape images I shot had the sun in the correct place according to where I placed lights on the model shoot.  I also used a tripod so my camera height and angle was the same as it was during the model shoot.

I love working like this because it gives me complete control of the final image without being restricted by certain realities.

Thanks to my awesome crew for helping make this project shine.
Talent: JJ Kissinger, Gabe Rodriguez, Katelyn Price
Production: Elizabeth Atwood
Retouching: Ian Goode / Gigantic Squid
Assistants: Will Foster, Gregg White, Oliver Ludlow
BTS video and stills: Eric Becker
Hair and Makeup: Cara Aeschliman
Wardrobe: Bryan Carle

Thank you’s also go out to Seattle Parks and Rec and Windermere Capitol Hill.

It’s an embarrassment of riches!  I am especially proud of the work I created over this past year, and it is an honor to have that work recognized by the international photography competition ”Prix de la Photographie, Paris” (Px3).  This is my first time in the international game, and all 5 of the images above were selected as well as 2 honorable mentions.

From left to right:

Luke Burbank, host of Too Beautiful To Live for Seattle Met.  Art Director Benjamen Purvis.
Dennis Haysbert for Seattle Met.
Keli Carender, founder of the Tea Party political movement for Seattle Met.  Art Director Benjamen Purvis.
Plants Vs. Zombies / John Vechey, co-founder of Pop Cap Games for Inc.  Photo Editor Monique Perreault.
The Keatley Family 2010.  Personal work / self promotion.

This is the first look at a campaign I have been working on for MiiR Bottles over the past several months.  These ads will be both online and in print.  Soon to follow will be the debut of my first commercial as a director, which will be equally clever and funny.  As simple as a water bottle sounds, there are so many great ideas to work with because there are a lot of water bottles on the market that are difficult to use.  I think this comes across pretty clear in these ads.

I would like to say thank you to Bryan Papé of MiiR who is always so supportive and trusting of my vision.  And thank you, also, to Ian Goode of Gigantic Squid for making the waterbeard magic and going the extra 100 miles to make these turn out as good as they did.

If you were wondering, this is the campaign I hinted at last month when I posted an image from one of the water capture shoots.

Here’s lookin at you Colorado.  I just wrapped up this shoot for Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado, and last week they released their new branding and ad campaign featuring Fred McGilicutty, captain of the snow patrol at Copper Mountain.  This billboard can currently be seen in Dallas and Kansas City.  Wish I could be there to take pictures of the actual things.  If you find yourself driving through Dallas or Kansas City, feel free to wave at Fred and tell him I said hi.  I hear it’s nice in KC this time of year.

I would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.  I feel especially thankful this year and I am very grateful for everyone who has taken the time to read my blog and take an interest in my work.  See you on the slopes.

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It turns out that you actually have to buy a Match 4 Lotto ticket for your chance to win $10,000, but you may not have known about that if you didn’t read about it on this blog.  Right?  So technically you can win $10,000 by reading the John Keatley Blog…

Ok, so enough about winning money.  The pictures above are from the new Washington State Lottery Match 4 ad campaign that I recently shot with Cole & Weber United.  I have always enjoyed Lottery ads because they often incorporate quirky humor, along with fresh creative concepts.  I got my first taste of working with the Washington Lotto a few years ago.  It was also the first ad shoot I had ever done.  Publicis was the ad agency working on the account at the time.  It was a smaller scale job, mostly running in newspapers, and point of sale, but ever since then I have wanted to do more with the Lottery.

That’s what made this so fun and rewarding for me.  It’s a client that I have been seeking out, and I was selected specifically for my brand of photography.  I was given the freedom to “do what I do”, and that always seems to bring about the best end product.  Same story with the Sounders FC ad campaign that I recently shot.  Go Sounders by the way!  Undefeated!

These pictures are of the members of the Match 4′s.  A singing group comprised of stereotypical Washington locals who are so excited about winning $10,000 that they just have to sing.  That’s not the official concept actually.  I just made that last part up.

There it is.  My very first billboard.  This is the inaugural season of the Seattle Sounders FC, the newest expansion team in MLS.  Seattle is getting fired up about our soccer team, and it’s fun to be a part that excitement.  The ad agency I worked with was Wexley School For Girls, which I always enjoy working with.

Now I know what some of you are thinking.  Did he paint those people in the background?  No.  That would have taken way too long.  We ended up using a cartoon modeling agency, and hired a few dozen cartoon models to stand in the background.  Ok, that’s a joke.  To give credit where credit is due,  Rachael Ludwig is the artist who created the background art.  I shot three scenes for this campaign.  Fan with a scarf, fan with a flag, and crazy Sounders fans banging on a drum.  The ads will be used for billboard, transit, print, and online.

The shoot was at Quest Field, home of the Seahawks and Sounders.  Since we were there, I figured I would maximize my time, and take care of some additional business.  I have been intending to try out for the Seahawks special teams, so they gave me a quick look.  Here are some pictures from my open tackle and field goal trials.  And a quick video from the photo shoot.

Lots of screaming in this video. Soccer fans are crazy!