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!

Chris Buck needs no introduction, but I am going to say a few things about him anyway.  I had the chance to meet up with Chris in New York a few years ago, and he was very gracious to make time to meet with a young photographer such as myself.  I have always admired and been inspired by his photography, and over the past few years, he has had a tremendous impact on me from the business side of photography, as well.  He has taught me some valuable lessons I will never forget.  I will always be grateful to him for that.  Chris is an award winning celebrity, advertising, and editorial photographer, and he just started a blog which I can promise you will be worth following.  Do yourself a favor and check out his website chrisbuck.com and make sure to add his blog chrisbucknews.wordpress.com to your reader.  You will be glad you did.  Welcome to the blogosphere, Chris.  Do we still call it the blogosphere?

Image © Chris Buck

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.

That’s my neighbor Mark Miller, reporter for ABC affiliate KOMO in Seattle, getting water thrown in his face.  No, I am not waterboarding him.  That wouldn’t be very neighborly at all.  I am simply teaching him a lesson.  Ok, I’m kidding.  Mark sees some pretty interesting stuff at his job, but I would guess this is the last thing he expected he would be doing when he woke up today.  ”Hey neighbor, would you be up for getting water thrown in your face while I take a few pictures?”  He did mention he expects nothing less when I call, though.  Fair enough.  Why did we throw 121 bowls of water in his face?  I just finished shooting an ad campaign and it is in post production this week.  Today we realized we needed a few more assets to really make this thing shine, so with Mark’s help, we made it happen.  Mark won’t be in the final image, but I needed to capture water splashing on skin.  It’s going to look great when it’s finished.

Thanks Mark!  You are a true professional and a good friend.

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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Say what now!?  It’s not everyday that a product so life changing, and so amazing comes along.  We live in a world where we are encouraged to consume as much as we want, and to take take take.  That’s right, don’t worry about tomorrow, or where you will put all of your stuff.  Just get more stuff!  Well prepare to be sucker punched in the face, because this product is going to change the way you think and live.  More importantly, it will change the way you store your stuff.

Cap-sac isn’t just a hat, it’s a fanny pack for your head.  No joke.

Cap-sac launched this Spring, and they have been flying off the shelves.  I know, I know.  This is not your fathers fanny pack, but they have been getting a lot of good publicity, and that translates into a lot of good sales.  I was hired to photograph the Cap-sac ad campaign and press photos this summer.  Anytime I can work in shorts and a tee, in 90 degree weather, it’s a good shoot in my opinion.  Since this was a fun one, I thought I would share a behind the scenes look at the shoot itself.  Enjoy.

And since we are talking about fanny packs on your head, here is a little something extra for ya.  This video contains language that may not be suitable for all audiences, and may not be safe for work.  Unless you work on a ship, or a construction site.  Then it’s probably not a problem.

* If you are using a blog reader, you may need to visit my actual blog post to see the slide show and video.  Can anyone tell me why that is?  I have been trying to figure this out for a long time, and nothing seems to work.  Why won’t flash content show up in Google Reader?  Ahh.