Here is the first behind the scenes video of Arrows by Fences featuring Macklemore. This is so fun to watch for me because the last 2 months have been such a blur. As you can see, all of the sets were built in a warehouse and shot on green screen. Ian Hubert, Nate Taylor, and Ian Goode did such an amazing job bringing this to life with stunning imagery and VFX. I hope you enjoy it.

If you haven’t seen the actual music video yet, here it is: Arrows - Fences feat. Macklemore

A few weeks ago I wrote about my most recent shoot with Macklemore for the cover of The Source. We also thought it would be fun to share a behind the scenes video to show you how the magic happened. Thanks for checking it out. Shout out also to Just 2 Guys for putting this together for us. Cheers.

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!

If you haven’t seen the September 2010 issue of Men’s Health yet, pick it up now. I have 6 full pages featuring my favorite football player, Jake Locker. This was my second time working with Jake, and he is one of the most kind and down to earth people I have photographed. Now, I know what you are thinking. Did he bring his pet coyote to the shoot this time? No, he didn’t.

So, what’s up with the helmet? And as big as this kid is, how can there be a helmet that is too big for him? I think it was a lineman’s helmet. Before the shoot, I requested a ball and a helmet. Someone from the university brought us one helmet that happened to be several sizes too big. It wasn’t until we were shooting that I asked Jake to put it on, and we discovered it wasn’t the right size. I’m totally fine with mistakes like that, though, because it turned out to be my favorite picture from the shoot. Fun and unexpected. Outtakes are the best!

For those of you who don’t know, Jake was recently ranked by ESPN as the number one college player in the country. These rankings are subject to change, but he has a legitimate shot at the Heisman this year if things continue to go well for him. As a Husky fan, I hope things go well!

I have been working with video a lot more lately. Some behind the scenes, and also a few photo and video assignments, as well as video only. I really like how this video turned out, and it should give you a little glimpse into how I work on an assignment like this.

Special thanks goes out to Men’s Health Photo Editor Mark Haddad for this assignment. I would also like to mention Affix Music which is a great resource for licensing music for slideshows, video’s etc. Amazing customer service! They are in the process of rolling out some new license options which will be even more specific in addressing the needs to photographers working with video.

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