Have you ever been so sucked into your own world that you don’t notice anything else around you?  Just the other night my buddy Joe nearly walked out of a bar without paying his tab. I practically had to smack him to get him to listen to what I was saying. I was like, “Hello anybody home?” (and no it wasn’t that 3.2 beer in his head).  When I got back that night, I realized that we all count on each other, from time to time, to keep us from getting too self absorbed and eventually, from looking straight dumb. Your friends will tell you that you forgot to pay the tab, that you’re trying to talk to girls with food in your teeth, or that your fly’s unzipped. And it’s no different in the photography world, if a photog produces crap work, they hear about it.

With that in mind, I am surprised that nobody’s called out the ad agencies and magazines for hiring photographers that have absolutely no clue how to shoot skiing, snowboarding, climbing, running, and other outdoor lifestyle sports. These sports have a massive, enthusiastic, and ever growing consumer base that brands want to attract.  

Read more to get to the meat of the issue

Successful marketing in the sport/outdoor world isn’t about selling this jacket or those shoes—its about selling a brand experience. This is different than selling a single product, say laundry detergent or the latest computer. Patagonia is the king at doing this. Few of their customers can rattle off the model names of every fleece in their closet, but they all go to sleep dreaming about an experience. They wake up wishing that they were doing it, and then they spend all day trying to get out of work early to do it! These consumers have purchasing power and can they smell bogus a mile away, so you better bring your A game if you want them to believe in the experience you are trying to sell.

I know I am not the only one that sees a huge disconnect between the idea and the execution of outdoor ad imagery. Do these guys realize that the best runners, skiers, climbers…etc… in the world laugh at a lot of these ads because of how fake they are? I know because I listened to them do it on a shoot just last week.

Off the top of my head, here’s four ways to make photographs represent that believable experience:

• Use real athletes, not models.
• Shoot in a real location, not a phony studio set.
• Capture the subtle details: know what makes a japan air different from a tindy grab or how runners define an efficient stride
• Your images need tell a story (“this jacket keeping you warm/safe on Denali”), not deliver a sales pitch (“buy this jacket”). 

Also, photographers must ask themselves: WHAT’S A GOOD AD CAMPAIGN? One that wins esoteric awards or one that gets people psyched?

What I’m saying is that if you’re trying to connect with the exploding action/outdoor sport culture, don’t buy images that are as tacky as walking out on your tab at the bar, hire people that live and breath it everyday.

[EDIT & Note -- I asked a few athletes—not professionals—that I shoot with to grab me an ad or an editorial or some piece of print media that they think gives them a negative impression of a brand's 'experience'. Here's what they came up with.]

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