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Catalog shoots are unique beasts, especially in the outdoor marketplace. You have designers that want to see their new jackets, backpacks, gloves, pants, socks, or hats looking perfectly sexy… all those selling features up front and center. The problem is you also have the marketing department that want those big iconic images, a la Patagonia, that speak to the brand as a whole (they know Jacket X won’t be around in two years but the brand will be). Adding more pressure to the situation is the fact that you are shooting these new products 6 months ahead of time, which means you head to the opposite hemisphere to shoot them ‘in season’. Usually there’s a big team of people including, cast (models) and crew (stylist, hair, makeup, art director, scout, photographer and more) working hard to make the situation as real as possible as they whip through as many outfits as possible. And while this scenario works well for pure catalog (Orvis, Eddie Bauer, et al) you can’t fake it in the outdoor world — and those who do try it come off looking awkward and out of touch.

You can’t fake action, you can’t fake lifestyle, and you can’t fake knowledgeable talent. What makes a great outdoor shot great is that its not perfect; sometimes there’s snot, sometimes you are wearing a down jacket in the rain, and sometimes everyone in the frame isn’t wearing next years pack perfectly buckled.

So it was with excitement that EMS asked me back this winter to shoot in season in their backyard (my old backyard) of New Hampshire. They asked me to gather a small groups of talented outdoor athletes for 6 days of shooting climbing, hiking, and skiing for a series of short mini-adventures that I got to plan.

Watch the video of our freezing day up on Cannon and the click below to Read More.

Sounds simple enough… but I don’t know any other ‘catalog’ shoot that would have given the photographer the same freedom (there were several DAYS when there was no Art Director in sight). We packed up with next season’s prototypes (samples weren’t ready yet) combined that with legacy product and supplemented it all with the athletes gear when needed. Further the goal wasn’t to shoot specific product as much as it was to shoot photos the embodied what it meant to be outdoors in New England in the winter. Over the course of a week we shot (and got mild hypothermia [watch video]) a winter ascent of the Whitney Gilman Ridge, a sub zero overnight high up on Mt. Lafayette, a fun night on Mt. Cardigan and back country skiing in 2.5 feet of mash potatoes in Vermont.

Nothing went perfectly and that was the point. We aimed to have real adventures, give our athletes purpose instead of hiking back and fourth from the hotel… and I think it worked.

The take away message… Plan real adventures, give your athletes tangible expectations for the day and I think your images will reflect positively.

More to come.

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Well Peter Beal’s great Blog has an interview with Ex-Editor In Chief at Climbing, Samet, and he talks at great length about what it was like in the trenches, speaking quite openly about everything from workload to online media to photography.

Check it out HERE.

‘Basically, if you were the top editor on a feature or a department, it was also your job to call in the images; which meant it was mostly my job. We’d do our best, always having two people sit down and look at each batch of photographs together, so a consensus could emerge about the strongest images. But, I mean, I don’t have any formal training in photography, so the technical nuances a photo editor would pick up on I’m sure have eluded me at times.’

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There are a couple cool new interviews out with me if you like reading that kind of stuff:

The first was with Rock and Ice and several leading outdoor photographers (for their Photo Annual) you can check that out HERE.

The second is an interview of me that the Boston Rock Gym blog put together. They asked a lot of great questions, at least a few that made me think for a minute or two. I also let a very cool announcement coming next week slip in there… You can check that one out HERE.

Behind the scenes from New Hampshire and some other vittles coming shortly. tk

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I bring this up because we just wrapped up a ten-day adventure in New Hampshire, shooting catalog and in-store photos for Eastern Mountain Sports. The idea was simple but still progressive… give my crew and some badass athletes (skiers, climbers, runners) next seasons product and let us beat on it, on real trails, in real snow, during the ‘Snowicane’ on peaks that define the New England hiking/skiing/climbing culture. I’ve got more to share from the shoot (how many companies do you know that would give you artistic freedom and let you shoot athletes on overnights in -20 temperatures) but right now I want to bring it back to the beginning of this post because these are good… so without further ado -

Top 10 Shoot Quotes (in no particular order) — ‘White Lines & Red Noses’ – New England 2010

10. ‘Pretty much what I’m saying is go the fuck home and come back when we have this mess cleaned up’ – Random Vermonter when asked where the best place to park to get to the backcountry ski trails (and 2.5 feet of fresh NE snow) was

9. ‘That’s what she said’ – Anyone, everyday at the most inappropriate times

8. ‘Is the Frost Museum a place that explains how frost heaves happen’ — Would Like to Remain Anonymous when passing the famous poet Robert Frost’s old house in Northern NH.

7. ‘Tim I n…n…n… need to g…g…g…g…go down now’ – A slightly hypothermic Assistant Matt atop a very windy, very icy, alpine climb on Cannon Mountain.

6. ‘Reverse Cowboy’ – a totally sober Assistant Matt while playing King’s Cup (10 = Categories: Topic – Sexual Positions) in the High Cabin Hut on Cardigan

5. ‘Annie loves to give high fives when she gets buzzed’ — Corigan

4. [Singing] ‘Boots with the fur, the whole club was looking at herrrr’ – Theme song from the summit of every single mountain ascended (which was 7 times too many)

3. ‘Definitely type 2 fun’ (Fun after the fact) – AD Michelle after the snowy overnight adventure at the Cardigan High Cabin

2. ‘Tsssssssssss’ – The sound of Producer Annie’s Thermarest after getting stabbed by the cheese knife… 10 minutes after setting up high camp in sub zero temps

1. ‘What’s that NEW plastic smell’ – Skier Sam to Producer Annie while the aflame plastic base of the second Jetboil started to scorch the tent, literally 30 seconds after another crew member had melted the base of the 1^st Jetboil on the opposite side of the tent

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

…Robert Frost

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Okay off to bed, the madness really starts tomorrow:

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On another note, Assistant Matt and I are off today to shoot for the New York Restoration Project in NYC, then we meet up with the rest of the crew and head up to New England for a mini catalog shoot (ski, ice, hike, etc). Stay tuned for a few behind the scenes posts, I don’t have any ideas about what yet because conditions are uncertain… guess we’ll just have to see what materializes. Any requests?

tk

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