This client direct shoot came in for Inti St Clair from AMD computers. We kicked off with a wonderful scouting day, followed by an incredibly rainy shoot day start. Oof! After we got up and running, the skies cleared and we had a great shoot day. The rest of the shoot went really well and without complications. I tried a new breakfast catering option with croissant sandwiches and it was a total hit! Lunch is always big portions of the healthiest meals I can find in any city. Anyways, here’s a few great shots from Inti…
What an amazing experience to have with friends. Chris Crisman has been a huge enthusiast of Mezcal for a long while, and he made a great connection with a very boutique mezcal curator and exporter in Oaxaca Mexico. The company founded and operated by Dalton Kreiss is called Maguey Melate (muh-gay may lah-tay) and is most well-known for their Mezcalero of the Month Club, which delivers artisanal small-batch agave spirits directly to your door. Coincidentally, Dalton is from the same hometown as my wife, Dubuque Iowa, so we instantly had a lot to talk about.
The real adventure was spending multiple days visiting the most unique palenques (farms, sort of) at sunrise, meeting such welcoming mezcaleros and their families, and sipping tiny glasses of mezcal throughout the whole day.
Have you ever done a photoshoot inside of an Airport? Now I can say that I have! I partnered with Pouya Dianat at Beam Imagination for Delta Airlines‘ newest Sky Club, located here at our own AUS Austin International Airport. This place is GORGEOUS. Delta recently added a whole new wing to AUS terminal with ten new gates and it’s so much more modern, bright, and spacious than the rest of the terminal. We cast and hired models from all across Texas and had some real gems among them. The Delta hosts were really key to the success of this shoot as well! I hope to be able to use this lounge the next time I fly.
The very charming Vanessa Gavalya landed a super fun job that would take our team from Dallas to San Francisco to shoot some interesting scenes for AT&T directly. The shots would cover all branches: Mobile, DIRECTV, Wireline Fiber, and Microwave Tower Radio. Locations were spectacular from mountain tops to Golden Gate Park. We had all the very best helpers from AT&T to make sure we were representing all the products and services in their best manner.
The only struggle we have on this trip was that while at dinner one day while we were preparing to move from the northern SF areas down towards San Mateo, our rental SUV was broken into and they stole several bags! Thankfully it was mostly personal items and the essentials we needed to keep shooting were all intact. Whew! SF Police were of absolutely no help as this type of crime happens approx 600 times a day and they cannot keep up. Insurance covered us but it took a few months to iron out.
I am in love with this infographic from Sethero.com! Check out their article and the full resolution image below. Although my Print+Video world doesn’t expand so greatly into all of these roles, more and more of the Movie lingo is creeping in.
The Ultimate Film Crew Positions & Department Breakdown
Every Job Role on a Film Explained (With Infographic)
I feel like I had just met Nick Barnes and all of the sudden I get a call to help In The Wee Hours Production with this project. I expect that they were extremely busy, so I’m glad I was able to co-produce this shoot for them. About half of the crew had been found before I came on board, but I also got to bring some of my own favorites to the team. I’m so glad to have met so many of these ‘new to me’ crew though! I really liked the work that Kayla and Krista Kummerl of the art department did for this shoot. They worked their butts off! And the other highlight was Susan Gebhard, whose food styling career has really take off since last we talked. Nick was so smooth and easy to work with, and connected with the models so effortlessly. The video director was pretty harsh in my opinion and I don’t know if I’d like to work with them again in the future.
This is the third time I’ve produced a studio shoot for ServiceMaster Fire/Water Damage, but now Alexander Zoltai will be the photographer & director! Immediately I started to reassemble the dream team for design, set building, and special effects painting: Rob Walstead (art/design), Brian Simpson (build), and Ron Albert (sfx). These fellas would have the heaviest lifting on the project, and a huge part of the budget of course. We rented the big studio at ACME Stages which have always been such great hosts for us, and they have a ton of equipment on site for rentals – you can’t go wrong! We had plans for a burned living room and office, plus a flooded basement set. We shot each set for one day, then turned to the next set. While they sfx team was putting finishing touches on all this, we squeeze in a location day for some SNOWY exteriors, and holy cow did it snow for us!! You can’t pay for snow this good. The end of that location shoot day was a little challenging to get the vehicles free from their parked positions, loaded, and back on the road safely, but we pulled it off nicely.
Ashton Rodgers landed this Toyota Tundra shoot in November and I was excited to work with him again. We booked a few excellent locations for this shoot including: the very fancy Commodore Perry Estate (Resort Hotel), one of our very favorite private ranches, and a beautiful house with the best driveway we could ask for – provided by Subdivision Locations. The timeline was pretty short on this one, so we really had to hustle to make it all work out. The Crew on this shoot was fantastic and I knew I could count on each of them.
Meanwhile in San Antonio, Callie Lipkin got a super sweet project for UnitedHealthgroup (UHG) from her rep (and my friend) Paula Gren / The Gren Group. I had never met Callie before but I gotta say this woman has a lot of firey energy to offer! We had two fun days of shooting at Wellmed facilities: a senior activity center (so cute!), a Wellmed clinic, and the newly completed Wellmed HQ in San Antonio. The Wellmed folks were really great hosts for us. I visited all three locations in advance to do some location scouting AND casting for the seniors that we would use in the images. We found out some of these folks were real characters, and almost everyone wanted to get into the shoot. The Wellmed employees at HQ were a little more bashful, but we got the right mix for the scenes we wanted to set up. My good friend John Brewster helped me with the casting and we have a fun day in SA.
Alexander Zoltai came out to shoot Starkey Hearing‘s “Patient Journey” campaign, showing the full experience that each customer could have with a visit to Starkey. We hired a solid group of models to represent the patients and doctors who would check their hearing, make a custom impression of their ear, sell the product, and finally deliver and fit the devices. As usual, we had a lot of fun with this shoot – many of my favorite crew were on board for this one. And you might recognize one of the models/actors from earlier this year who was also in a hearing aid shoot of mine, by coincidence; he’s just a good looking guy!
Apparently this was my “summer of hearing aids” as we kicked things off with Tom Strand for UnitedHealthcare Hearing (for the 2nd time during Covid!) in Minneapolis. During this 3 days shoot, we’ll be filming at a house, a bakery restaurant, and a clinic. As with other shoots I’ve been on with Tom, this one had both a still photos and video motion capture element to keep up moving quickly. I’m gaining an even deeper understanding about the video world on every shoot. My new role to highlight is the AC (Assistant Camera) who is responsible for assembling anything camera related, not just body and lenses, but also handles making sure the videos stay in focus while the DP moves around and we are directed to pay attention to different parts of the scene in front of the camera. Spencer Nelson is absolutely crushing this role. He’s also been on other video shoots with me and I cannot thank him enough for his hard work.
Alexander Zoltai got the request to come out to feature the newly redesigned Starkey Hearing Corporate Campus, and it all looked great! What a makeover! We simply used employees as models to show off the different spaces around the office, which worked perfectly. These clients have been good partners for years, and I was so happy to get back to work with them. Creative Director Molly McCabe is one of my fav creative clients, and I look forward to the next one (the trickier one!) later this summer.
I’ve been looking forward to partnering on a shoot with Martin Sundberg for years, and now we finally got one! This was a 3 day shoot for Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies (MACP) in Milwaukee WI at the gorgeous Lynden Sculpture Garden in June. Midwest summers are really the best! This gathering of artists, teachers, and instructors was so uplifting. We got to spend time with these folks, talking and collaborating about how they have arrived at their place in this world, and how to bring some of that magic back into your own world (or classroom). We set up interviews with people from both sides of planning and attendees to create this comprehensive video.
Richard Schultz came to Austin for this overnight shoot at our downtown Whole Foods flagship store! This shoot ended up being a co-production from Amy Whitehouse who started the job, but ended up with some date conflicts so I covered her. I was a little worried about the overnight aspect, as some logistics were pretty tricky, but we figured out the best approach. The crew started getting a little silly around 3am, but with the right amount of coffee and snacks, we made it through the night. We also tried a new restaurant for catering “lunch” at 1pm, but I was pretty disappointed in their quality and portion size – they knew what we had to do for preserving the meals from 10pm drop off until 1am meal break, but I think they really failed. The store’s team made sure we had a gorgeous and pristine space to shoot in. Super bonus, my friend Gideon Tsang was cast as one of the Whole Foods workers so we got to chat on set a bit. So good!
Doug Adesko came back to Austin TX for another round of photos for Indeed, but now for their Enterprise division. For this 3-day shoot, we got access to a really great warehouse, complete with forklift, a super clean community clinic with great light, and Indeed’s very own new office building on the north side of town here. These locations were all a bit tricky, but as usual Subdivision Locations took care of us. We also had such wonderful models on this shoot. Photographer Doug was pretty picky about who he wanted in front of his camera, so he paid close attention to the casting process. We learned a lot from the last Indeed shoot with Doug, so this time, we were ready for his fluid shooting style. This was a fun one!
Medtronic came back to David Ellis for a shoot they wanted to represent their surgical division. The biggest request for this shoot was a really broad range of specific racial diversity for clear representation around the world. The remodeled teaching surgery suite was nearly perfect for us! The space was just a little too wide and had too many features compared to a working Operating Room. We arrived a day early to prep the space and make it look perfect while being reversible too. Wardrobe, Hair, and Makeup were pretty simple, but they had to get through a LOT of people in a short time. We had many combinations to film, so we had a really full day. I’m so happy with the end results!
Ashton and I had a fun exercise here to get the most bang out of a very modest budget. We had to rethink our approach entirely to capture ‘Cool Trucks Doing Cool Truck Stuff’! This two day shoot for RAM Trucks through Razorfish ad agency was done at two amazing private ranches found through Subdivision Locations. The crew was tiny but mighty and we got some really badass captures!
With the CDC’s new guidance based on Community Levels, I’m happy to say that I am ready to modify my Covid Protocols. This decision comes after a long time considering how and when would be the right time to do so. The CDC Community Levels for the counties in which I most often work have been Low for several weeks. Many of the photographers, ad agencies, and crew members that I work with often have been asking about loosening the protocols, so we’re taking steps to make production during this low season of covid easier, faster, and less expensive. Every shoot is unique and our approach will be customized accordingly, but overall, this should make folks a lot happier on set.
While large production companies and Film Unions may still be using a very robust and expensive “2020 Standard” of their safety procedures for a while, my team is ready for change. Here is a link to view my New COVID Protocols PDF:
Clients and Ad Agencies, What are your biggest concerns as we return to set? What questions do you have as we move forward? Please email me your thoughts: producer@matthewslimmer.com
This Toyota shoot for Ashton came through ad agency: Moxie Marketing Services, LLC d.b.a. Formerly Known As, which was hard to keep track of because FKA is the new name, not their former name. Wait… what? We booked two outdoor locations: Lakeshore District right near downtown for a great urban vibe (perfect for the Rav4) and also Pace Bend county park (also perfect for the Rav4!!) so Subdivision Locations did all the permitting and legwork to make it happen. Instead of hiring off duty officers for traffic control, we were able to hire the park rangers – who had a great time with our shoot requests!
There’s no doubt about it… Gulf StatesToyota loves Ashton Rodgers! And we love the ad agency MMB580 too. We partnered for a shoot in Austin to feature the newest Highlander model and with a very short timeline, we decided to use one of the prettiest city parks in town: Zilker. We set up a camping scene on the perimeter and also had a great view of the city skyline. Lastly, we scouted a road nearby that allowed us to get a few sweet rolling shots – Ashton’s favorite.
Andy Mahr got booked on a shoot for Charles Schwab to feature their Ampersand which represents their Retirement Planning Services and the “Power of &”. This work came through The Richards Group in Dallas who have been a great partner in the past for me! The two big components of this gig were: #1. clients wanted a 6ft tall ‘prop’ that is their very own ampersand, in 3D, that people could interact with, and #2. that “&” prop needed to ship to Cleveland Ohio where the clients had a large office. Thankfully I know a really great prop shop called Avec Mode! His team built out this prop really swiftly, right before they got into the intensity of SXSW in Austin. They were also tasked with building a crate that would keep it safe through shipping from their workshop Austin TX to Creative House Studios in Cleveland OH. This was my larger learning experience. How to Freight Ship an 800lb x 7ft tall wooden crate across the country. I found a website called Freight Quote that allows you to enter shipment details and they give you about 5 options for couriers and delivery times.
CREW Robert Amador- Digi Tech Shane Boughton- First Assistant Sahm Hanson- Hair & Make up Mary Vespoli- Wardrobe Chris Leskowicz- Video Camera Assistant Don Gregory- Video Lighting Gaffer Michael Larkey- Video Lighting Grip Jeremy Drazdik- Audio Tech Jaycie Tayerle- Production Assist Liz Conway- Teleprompter Operator
This shoot for the Indeed Hiring Platform came in for Doug Adesko through Homestead Creatives directly from the Indeed creative team. Doug has a very loose style with nearly editorial and fashion looks while still being lifestyle comfortable. We had 4 great locations over 2 days: House, Coffee Shop, Architecture Office, and Train Station and a photo team just large enough to support what we need without being too massive. Much of the day, the camera/lighting team was trying to catch up with how fast Doug wanted to move through the scenes – he’s so speedy! But those imperfect situations foster the style that Doug generates.
Firmspace Coworking for Executives in Chicago even better than their Atlanta location! Andrea Calo and I flew in and got great shots of all their best spaces. We hired a few models from local talent agency BMG Model & Talent Chicago.
This ended up being a remote producer gig for me while David Ellis shoots for Clarifix in studio in MN, and thankfully my favorite production coordinator (turned producer!) Devon Ericksen covered me on set for the shoot day. Sidecar Studios hosted us in September with body paint artist Lana Chromium did her magic to make the concepts come to life.
Just look at these poor grumpy models suffering from sinus pain. Well, not really 🙂
My good friend and Producer Tara Trullinger, that I’ve known since that massive Amex Small Biz Saturdays shoot in NYC, had a project for AT&T in Houston that she wanted an extra set of hands for. I said yes, of course! The shoot was mostly outdoors and it was HOT out there. We struggled a bit to balance covid compliance with wearing face masks, but the knowledgeable CCO kept us in line. I got to see some parts of Houston that were new to me, and got to work with a fantastic photographer named Andre Perry that traveled in to do the work.
David Ellis and I battled through 16 versions of estimated to land this job for his repeat client Medtronic, but now through Lippincott agency, and it was totally worth it. Really, they just wanted to see so many options on how we would approach the project. There wasn’t anyone else bidding against us, so we knew we had it. Just took a while to figure out how we would be shooting this one. The creative team from Lippincott was really excellent to partner with. Their ideas and structure gave us the right amount of direction to collaborate through. The mix of models that we had was so perfect and we had a great summer setting in MN to capture indoors and green beautiful outdoor scenes. All of this went into a newly evolved set brand guidelines for Medtronic to use moving forward.
Little & Company hired Alexander Zoltai to cover some new student life portraits and situations at the University of Dubuque. The shoot was super smooth and easy. We had portions of the day setup for clean white background portraits, with some wardrobe help from Shannon Darsow, although we wanted to let the students’ style shine in the photos so there wasn’t any shopping involved for us. The university gave us all the help we needed for transport around campus and helping hands from the admission office. My wife is from Dubuque IA so I’ve been here many times to visit family, but this is the first visit that I made without her. So strange! But I did make it out with the fam to Happy Joe’s Pizza – a real gem if you don’t already know it.
The PLDG agency with one of my fav art directors, Heather Laubach, booked Tom Strand on a photo and video shoot for Medtronic‘s Endoscopy division. I’ll admit that I didn’t know much about Endo, but the MDT team taught us all about it. The real winner here is the spectacular location that Charlotte Ariss found for us! There’s a real operating hospital near Minneapolis that doesn’t do surgeries on the weekends, so they will allow film shoots. The funny part is that we had a 3 day shoot, so we needed to wait Mon-Fri before we could get back inside for our 3rd day. And yes that’s a REAL person on the operating table. We tried to get a realistic medical mannequin, but during covid, shipping times made that impossible. So we ended up hiring a model extra to basically take a 4 hours nap on the operating table. What an easy day for them! Bring your favorite podcast and headphones.
We shot video for this too, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on it …yet.
Tom Strand got the great idea to hire a designer that he had recently seen to be our real small business owner in this 3M commercial for their stickiest tape – Box Lock. Jena Holliday of Spoonful of Faith did such a wonderful job in front of the camera! She said she was nervous, but it never showed. Again, Tom is so kind and gentle when working with talent and he coached and directed Jena with ease.
Sticky Post It Notes everywhere! Tom Strand has been shooting 3M images for many years, but this was the first time that I’ve been on a Post It shoot. The colors are SO FUN and each collection has a story behind it. Stylist extraordinaire Ann Marshik is my #1 person in Minnesota and I was thrilled to get her on this shoot. We used a real mom & daughter in a few shots that we needed people in them. Charlotte Ariss provided the house location for us in St Paul – it was a little small for a covid shoot, but had everything we needed.
This was another early covid shoot where we had to do casting for real wives+husbands, or grandmas+grandkids, or any other ‘pods” for safety. Tom Strand was cool and calm as always as we worked through some really pretty park scenarios at the indoor spaces of Edinborough Park in Edina, MN. This was February after all 🙂 And there’s one super reliable, clean and unbranded clinic that I keep going back to. I think this was my 3rd shoot there!
Firmspace Coworking for Executives in Atlanta was just as good as their Houston location! Andrea Calo dropped in and got amazing shots of all their best areas. We hired a few models from local talent agency Atlanta Models & Talent. Unfortunately I was not able to attend this one, but since we had other consistent threads to follow, the team got it all done in a day.
Matrix Fitness has been a long time client of mine and this round awarded to Alexander Zoltai for a shoot in Minneapolis! We loaded the best home gym equipment that Matrix offer into four incredible homes. Some homes had a great view, others we converted their living room into a home gym. There was even an indoor basketball court at one of the houses; can you believe it?! Absolutely all my favorite crew were on this shoot, including one of my very closest people, Nicki Schaper. She took the Covid OFficer training program in order to help me out on this shoot. The whole four day shoot week was a real delight.
How many copies of those red leggings did we have? 🙂 Brand color red, my friends!
Again, I’m not the type to get star-struck, but meeting Jonathan Van Ness was pretty neat. This project with Inti St Clair was for Target Stores and Purina through the GOLIN ad agency. JVN welcomed us to their house here in Austin TX to do the shoot with their own pets. It was utterly adorable. Larry the cat was my favorite! He’s the agreeable grey and white one. We set up plenty of covid protocols specifically for JVN’s house, and had a medic on set since we had untrained animals on set. I also added extra zoom streaming on-set cameras for the fully remote ad agency, client, and animal welfare folks to view what was happening in the room, not just showing the images that Inti was snapping. All the crew went home with extras from the Dog & Cat treats that Purina sent us for the shoot. Overall, a super fun day and I continue to be amused by JVN’s home and garden adventures via their hilarious IG stories: https://www.instagram.com/stories/jvn/
Andy Mahr and I headed out to Uvalde TX to feature a few cotton farms to capture images of the high tech harvesting machines and their farmers for BASF seeds. We flew drones and had all the amenities we could want outside on a beautiful farm (via Austin Base Camp – Dewey!). There wasn’t a whole lot of need for props, so Andy and I supplied what few things we wanted, aside the perfect things that the farmers already had on hand. We did get aggressively yelled at by one of the farmer’s neighbors, letting us know that there was no covid out in the country and we shouldn’t wear masks (some of the crew was at high risk). Behold, rural Texas. Oh and the “best” hotel nearby was truly the scuzziest place I’ve slept in a long time. Eww!
BTW, thankfully this was 2 years before the horrific school shooting in Uvalde. I don’t know if I would have said yes to the project
Baylor University hired Tadd Myers along with Johnson & Sekin ad agency to create some new images for their website and promotional materials. We dropped this shoot in the heat of summer which gets pretty brutal here in Texas! Each of the program areas of study that we featured had an absolute rockstar of an instructor/professor, and a small group of top notch students to participate in the shoot. We had a couple of beautiful sunrises during these day, which gave us the best light possible. I love my work!
You could think of Firmspace as the best version of a Coworking space for Executives. Everything here was “next level” for quality and refinement. Andrea Calo is so great at capturing these architectural spaces, and I helped by bringing in a dash of lifestyle with a few hired models from First Models and Talent in Houston.
Vanessa Gavalya is such a delight to work with. Everyone loves her and she is so sweet and understanding of everyone on set. Vanessa landed this shoot for Lemi Shine household cleaning supplies with an art director who really knew what he wanted to accomplish. They were a great pair for this shoot. The crew we surrounded Vanessa with was super talented and ready for whatever needed to be done. The location was provided by the clients, so we didn’t have to look far to find a wonderful space for our shoot.
This was my first large scale shoot during covid, and we had some challenging restrictions while we were all just figuring out how to do work during covid.
Many of my peers and I have been collaborating to bring you all a set of new policies and procedures to keep your production safe. There are several changes coming to our production world, and we all are adapting to the situation as we learn more. We have been gathering via Zoom and Facebook daily to keep up with the freshest information and solving problems as they arise. We have support from incredible legal counsel, certified OSHA & safety consultants, dedicated insurance agents, and technology geniuses in order to bring you the best production possible for these new conditions. Your next shoot in 2020 will look a little different, but we will find innovative ways to make great images for you.
State and local Film Commissions, as well as large production companies across the country have been publishing their new safety procedures. Here is a link to view my COVID Policy and Procedures PDF:
Clients and Ad Agencies, What are your biggest concerns as we return to working? Would you even want to be on set? What questions do you have as we move forward? Please email me your thoughts: producer@matthewslimmer.com
Safe Sets™ – COVID-19 Level A Program Created by Safe Sets International, the free course provides guidance and information on best practices to resuming productions with COVID-19 safeguards.
On completion of the test, you will also receive a Safe Sets™ COVID-19 Level A certificate that can be used to demonstrate to your team that upholding a safe production environment is important and that you value their health and safety.
This program is designed to communicate the most current health and safety information relevant to our community of filmmakers, producers, crew, and industry professionals. The materials have been sourced using reputable, science-driven resources and reviewed by medical experts.
The course provides some safe practices to specific film production scenarios While the information for this particular virus continually develops, the science behind infectious disease control is relevant to many viruses – from common cold to pandemics – so the information in these guidelines should be adhered to moving forward. Additionally, all rules and guidance from municipal, provincial/state, and federal government bodies must be followed.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS COURSE FOR ALL OF MY CREW.
Safe Sets now has an advanced course for Leadership. If you want more, consider this:
Safe Sets™️ COVID-19 for Leadership (Level B) This course provides advanced level education on the virus and it’s known interactions with humans, as well as what you can do as a producer, supervisor, on-set leader, coordinator, health & safety team member (including COVID teams and Compliance Officers), and general production staff on a film & television set.
Cost is $45.00 for this course, but I think it’s well worth it if you’re considering work as a Safety Officer / Compliance Coordinator on set.
If you’re looking for an even deeper dive into Certifications, consider this course:
Production Infection Control Course Infection Control – 101 Let’s make our sets safer. John Cordes is an OSHA authorized trainer for General Industry and specializes in infection control. The main objective is to understand how to mitigate the risk of infection in your work environment.
Cost is $100.00 for this course, but I think it’s well worth it if you’re considering work as a Safety Officer / Compliance Coordinator on set.
I don’t often get involved in fashion style shoots. They’re so unscripted! And I like to make a really tight plan for what the clients want. These clients wanted less structure and plenty of space to wander – so we gave it to them! This pretty much turned into an Instagram shoot. Our content creators (photographers) were Sami Weaver and Addie Brokaw. Go check out https://www.instagram.com/targettag/
Oh, and this was my last shoot before the COVID pandemic. Yikes!
Meanwhile in Austin, the weather is nice and warm. Tom Strand came down for a U.S. Bank shoot here to feature their Mobile App in a variety of situations on location. We had a park, a coffee shop, a grocery store, an apartment, and two houses to shoot at! Tobie Wahl at Subdivision Locations found some fantastic spots for us. And the fabulous Bonnie Markel took care of all props and wardrobe needs – she’s so great.
Alexander Zoltai tackled another shoot for Starkey Hearing and brought me on board for the project. This was the largest and most complicated job that I’ve worked for Alex, and I really look forward to the next one. Clients were absolutely amazing – this was direct for Starkey without an ad agency involved (as many are these days). We had a perfect balance of expertise, decisiveness, creativity, and my favorite: previous photo shoot experience! They were a little picky about models, but in the end we found some really special talent that pulled off the roles extremely well. Alex worked his magic while staying calm and focused to create some gorgeous images. At his side was Mark Tarman shooting video seamlessly with Alex’s style and direction.
This is round three of WeWork location photography with Andrea Calo. Two more locations recently opened in Austin and Houston, so we set out to get great new photos of each space. In Houston, I knew one person that works regularly at WeWork so I asked her to come over to the new location so she could be a part of this shoot. Jen said yes. The Austin location really has a great view of the downtown skyline, and that was my favorite so far. We had the same strong crew as the last shoots, who pulled us through these two wonderful shoot days.
Alexander Zoltai and I had two really fun days shooting some new brand material for JAMF. They do Apple Device Management For Enterprise, Schools, and Small Businesses. The art directors on the shoot, Collette Litzinger and Sara Janssen, were good friends of mine and it was so great to connect with them again! The actors were all JAMF employees and everyone had great personalities and did a great job in front of the camera. These “small crew” shoots are some of my favs and I’m always amazed at how much we can get done with a compact team.
Here’s another rockin shoot with the wonderful David Ellis. We shot here at Medtronic back in 2015 as well, but this time we had a much longer list to accomplish and were using a combination of employees and hired models. There were some seriously tricky scenes that we needed to get into and out of so quickly! The facilities that we had at our fingertips were really interesting and we really felt like we were getting some “backstage access” here. Each business area came with a specialist that helped us make the scenes perfectly realistic.
I’ve been trying to work with Jeff Wilson for a long time. I really like his work and his energetic personality. He booked a job for Samsung Business-to-Business through Tucker Creative Co ad agency so we could have a great time with the Samsung newest tablets for a few shoot days. I knew all the props would be in good hands with Natalie Ogura leading the team – one of my favs.
WeWork called on Andrea Calo and me again to shoot several more of their newest buildings. We actually had to delay because some of them were still waiting for furniture to be delivered. Four locations were styled and photographed by our team, with on site model recruiting by me daily. I’m still amazed at how much we got done here!
There were SO MANY great shots, but here are a few to share:
Usually there’s not enough time for a full Food Stylist team on my shoots, but this client really needed the best in town! Nader Khouri came to Texas to shoot at one of the prettiest Ruth’s Chris Steak House locations, in downtown Dallas. This shoot would also push the limits on what we can get done each day before the Restaurant would open for business. We had a long shot list for stills AND needed to capture assets for 2 social video posts in multiple formats. The lighting was delicate but perfect for this space, and our gaffer Jimmy did a spectacular job with his team. The best editor in Canada handled the video and he did a great job. Big thanks to the entire team!
WeWork has been making huge efforts to shoot high-end very intentionally designed photos of their newest and most beautiful spaces. Here I had an opportunity to join Andrea Calo for 3 office locations in Austin and Fort Worth Texas. This project came in last minute and we pulled together an excellent team to nail their shot list. This was our first in a sequence of shoot dates for WeWork, just getting better and better each time!
Back in April, Jonathan and I took on Part 2 of some wonderful United HealthCare shoots through the Minneapolis agency Zeus Jones. During Part 1, we froze our butts off in MN AND struggled through a company move during a blizzard but that’s another story. I’m just happy to be back in Texas. The very talented Rachel Hardacre art directed us through the scenarios, calmly and decisively — this woman is going to take over the town. I’m serious. She’s great. Jonathan got into his groove and did the same as always: blowing through each setup with ease and inventing twenty new things to capture along the way. The talent chosen all did a great job on set, and even got a little bike ride. OH, and I finally got a kitten on set, for the very first time. Eep!
Ok, so this was one of the CUTEST shoots I’ve been on. Old folks are hilarious and just packed with stories! Jonathan Chapman has such excellent understanding and trust in these *movie* stars showing off great relationships with each person’s (fictional, shhh!) caregiver. Plenty of warm moments here. Surrounded by some of my absolute favorite crew, we pushed through this full five day shoot and many locations around Minneapolis.
I really love working with Vanessa Gavalya; she treats her models and crew so well, and has such a great collaborative flow with her clients. This is our second shoot for Samsung in Dallas, however this one was with a different agency, Tracy Locke. I keep finding that shooting in Dallas is so much easier than other metro areas, especially when it comes to finding and permitting locations, plus all the great crew!! Cheers to two amazing winter shoot days.
No matter what your natural gas needs are, Spire Energy has you covered. Interbrand agency hired Jonathan Chapman and team to shoot this series in Minneapolis. Locations were beautiful and perfect – we even used a model home one day (crazy!) – and goodness I do love MN style a 3 car heated garage. Casting was a breeze, and I really love the models that turn up in Minneapolis area. Great crew too – all I could hope for in a super smooth shoot.
This shoot came out of nowhere, but I’m so glad we landed in DTW. Jonathan Chapman had done some work in the past with the creatives from Doremus New York, and they were wonderful to work with again! This was certainly a quick drop in to Detroit, but I really liked what I experienced. The last time I visited DTW was also with Jonathan but for American Express Small Businesses (see blog post). The folks at Little Caesars Arena treated us really well, and gave us some really special access to the locker room, which was much different than I expected! It’s super nice inside there. We had the whole place to ourselves!
It’s not often that I get a shoot with a Studio Set Build, but for the level of damage that ServiceMaster wanted, this was the only way! Photographer/Director Jonathan Chapman and I coordinated with and a really fantastic art department and set builder team to create a Hotel Lobby and a Retail Store that we would BURN and FLOOD respectively in ACME Studios in Minneapolis. Most of the burn components were torched outdoors, then assembled in studio. The flooded set all had to be done at once in studio, and we had sooooo much water to be careful with. If the rubber contained broke, we would have a huge mess to deal with. It all looked pretty realistic and the actors loved it. Our clients went away with some really great material!
This was one of the most fun and challenging shoots of my year. Zeno Group advertising in NY hired Tadd Myers to shoot some new material for Bernzomatic Propane Torches. Tadd’s natural skill for working with real life Makers and Crafts-people made him the obvious choice. The look and feel of Tadd’s shots are a perfect fit for the brand. The reason this one was challenging was because we couldn’t simply hire models to show up and do the tasks, we needed the people to performs these amazing and artistic works with confidence and ease. Tadd had a hot lead on one space and that maker space filled most of our schedule, plus a few more supplemental artists that I found elsewhere. These were some HOT Texas summer days, but we made it through, sweaty and all.
I think that Jonathan Chapman really likes doing these University shoots, and every client goes home with a gorgeous shoot! Rasmussen College is private college boasting about excellent programs at 22 campuses in Minnesota, Illinois, North Dakota, Florida, Wisconsin, Kansas! Whoa. Our shoot was promoting their MASTERS programs in Healthcare, Nursing, HR, and Data Science. Jonathan made the most of two bright open locations, and a solid group of experience talent! Take a look.
I cannot even begin to express what a pleasure it is working with Bill Miles. The man is a legend, or at least should be. Bill came to Austin for a wonderfully fitting shoot: Kids to promote College savings from a young age. I love it. The program is called UPromise, and the creative was lead by New York agency Cosgrove Associates. Just a few days hanging out with very cute kids. Admittedly, one kiddo had a total bratty meltdown… completely un-bribable! …but we got what we needed. The scenes were all unique and perfectly suited for the message. Check out the video and photos below!
This was a pretty big deal for me because I don’t often get on shoots where the main intention is for multiple commercials, and I gotta say: Video Crews get big very fast! I’m astounded how much we can get done with a really solid photo team that knows constant lights. This one was the former. The Production Company RW2 Productions hired me to cover a lot more than the usual for a Line Producer, which is definitely the way I like it. The ad agency Hanson Dodge Creative came down for the shoot with good numbers as well. I was really excited that Andrew White (photographer/director) and I were a great match. Our location scout found three spectacular spots for these videos, and honestly this should have been one day longer to shoot it all; our 2nd day ended up billing at around 18 hours. Insane. The only way we pulled it off is by doubling up on two sides of a duplex which we dressed in 2 different ways! You’d never know, but they spaces are identically mirrored. The motorcycle shop was a gem as well, as it was actually a design studio. I feel like so much of the heavy video equipment is a total waste of time, but if they wanna lay track, then go for it. Sheesh! I couldn’t be more pleased with the final product though!
Ketra has designed some really beautiful lighting for home and office use. Felix Sanchez from Houston came to Austin for this shoot and we rented a nice AirBNB house to use for the photos. We needed early access to swap out all of the homeowners lights to Ketra system, but it was totally worth it! We hired 3 local models and a handful of extras for the “party” scene. We had a little weather to deal with, but it all turned out nicely. I’d love to work with Felix again!
Lands End and Jonathan Chapman return to Austin for another round! This time for their summer catalog. Since we already did one shoot for them in Austin, this round was smooth as silk. The locations were great and we had some really nice light in each scene. The models were pretty awesome too – you never know how they’re going to work out for you! Clients were thrilled with the final product and I was happy to have another shoot with my good friend Jonathan.
Here we spent two fabulous days shooting for DELL’s EMC Medium Business team via Y&R Austin. I’ve been wanting a Dell shoot under my belt for quite some time! Matthew Mahon did a spectacular job working with creatives and giving perfect direction to the models. This man is full of ideas and wonder! We transformed a hotel lobby and an office space to be exactly what we needed for Dell. Both locations were extremely easy to work with and accommodating. Here’s a couple sample images.
Brandon Werth aka BLK WLF is a wonderful person to partner with. We traveled to Houston to capture some really great images of students and instructors in the classroom. Altierus career college specializes in healthcare and trade school education. The personalities we were able to capture were so warm and welcoming. Since I went to a tech school for my own education, this brought back some great memories for me.
Lands’ End clothing and home decor retailer is based in Wisconsin (yeah midwest!) and needed some new images by Jonathan Chapman. They chose Austin TX for the setting in order to get some nice greenery during winter time – after all it’s November and already snowing up north. This project was all about their Business line of clothing and we shot for 3 long days in some really beautiful offices.
The majority of this project went super smoothly, but we did end up with one really tough location owner. It was a combination of a misunderstanding about how large our team was and the distraction we’d cause in this rental office, and the two of our crew members moved a couple of tv monitors on location without asking (which caused a huge blow up by the owner). I had to do my very best to smooth the situation and simply absorb this fella yelling at me for something that was obviously simple to move back into place plus the miscommunication about team size/impact. It was memorable to say the least, and worth writing about to re-live the situation.
When you get a call from overseas, you should usually take it! James Mollison had a wild idea for a Southwest road trip to highlight the newest items in the fashion bound Blauer Catalogue. I helped him find reliably wonderful crew and several ways to highlight all the sites throughout his trip here in Texas. From kids to adults, and farms to bars, he was really able to dig in to Texas culture. Take a look!
Funny thing is, a great photographer hired for a Beef shoot, might just be a vegetarian. Wynn Myers handled all the beautiful meat like a champ!! Hey beautiful lifestyle work mixed with top notch food styling made an easy shoot for us. Hahn Public agency was always willing to lend a hand where needed, and the clients from Texas Beef Council were positively delightful. We had a hard time finding just the right locations, but we ended up with something pretty special here. Take a look!
This might be the biggest studio build I’ve had in years. Jonathan Chapman did such great work on the last two ServiceMaster shoots that he was approached to do another shoot which was to to be overall much more intense with utter destruction! Previous shoot was done in a home, but curious that we couldn’t find a homeowner that would allow us to really burn some things in their house, or FLOOD their basement. We build at ACME Stage in Minneapolis instead where they’d happily allow us to get wild. Rob Walstead has a stellar career in set building and special effects so he was perfect for the job.
Here’s a great combo 2-City shoot with Jonathan Chapman! This occupied many weeks of my life in planning, but turned out better than I’d hoped. You don’t know it now, but you’re very likely received a bill from CSG… not exactly with their name or logo on that piece of mail, but they do handle billing for MANY of the well known technology companies to which you send a monthly payment. It was an interesting journey for us to learn all the ways CSG supports our needs. We shot a few days each in Omaha & Minneapolis to create an extremely versatile collection of images as well as a rockin good video! I’m pretty proud of how this shoot went; gaining access to locations that I never would have expected, and also utilizing resources as my fantastic VW boys to bring out a perfect VW camper van for us!
Taylor Morrison + Darling Homes built some real beauties for Wade Griffith to shoot with us for a couple days. We ended up landing some really fabulous models to be our fake families all around these brand new homes. The scenes were well thought out, and perfectly performed. We even had a little adventure towards the end of one shoot day (eek!), but it was all just a silly scare anyways. Wade gave great direction for lighting each setup, and engaging with each model. Here’s a few images from our shoot.
Today marks my 8 year anniversary working as a freelance photo and video producer for advertising. An additional 7 years as a studio manager for John Reed Forsman makes 15 total years in the field. Wow, that’s a long time. It has taken a lot of courage and planning to make it this long as a self-employed individual, and really only a few risks. Plus, the support from my wife has been tremendous! The road has been an excellent journey, and has taken me to so many places. The vast network of talented crew never fails to amaze me, and I couldn’t be more appreciative to all the people who have granted our team special access to areas the public rarely gets to see. We truly have a backstage pass to the world.
I’m thankful to all the photographers and directors that have entrusted me to coordinate and care for their productions, from the early beginnings of a concept all the way through to the applause at the wrap of our last shoot day. I’m also grateful to be in a position that I can consult the rising stars in our field that have questions about the freelance life, how to approach new clients, and how to land larger projects. We’re in a friendly but competitive community, but ultimately I think we all want to see each other succeed in our advertising endeavours.
Always looking ahead to what the future holds. I think this year is really going to be a great one.
Please let me know if you ever have questions about freelance working, and what that might look like for you. I’d love the opportunity to make your next shoot run more smoothly. email: producer@matthewslimmer.com
One more stop on the Markers train! Working with Jimmy never gets old; he’s amazing. This time we’ve dropped into Tampa FL area and drove out to Streamsong Golf Resort, featuring three A-list golf courses, a top-flight spa that’s worth the journey alone, a lakeside lodge, many other amenities and enough peace and quiet to obliterate any tension and angst. After wrapping the scenics, we also set up a nice studio in their event center where we learned all about making the most clear real ice. Unfortunately I didn’t make the time to swing a club, but the landscape alone was plenty for me.
ServiceMaster Clean provides Commercial Janitorial Services for Healthcare companies. They are keeping patients’ environment and facilities in great health. ServiceMaster brings their extensive cleaning knowledge, utilizing methods and products, to help prevent cross contamination. For this shoot, Jonathan Chapman and team came down to Austin TX again for a really interesting shoot. The last time I shot at a hospital or clinic, it was right before that wing of the building was open to employees and public. This time we landed at the Brackenridge Clinical Education Center, which used to be a hospital before they moved to a new building. The team was wonderful and we got some great shots!
I’ve been wanting to work with Austin local ad agency Preacher Co for a few years, and Nicole Mlakar landed this one for Venmo. Preacher chose Nicole for her beautiful approach to lifestyle photography, nearly fashion but still relatable. We lined up a very ambitious couple days in some really fun places around Austin TX, including our favorite convenience store + gigantic gas station Bucee’s. Some of these locations I really thought were going to tell us “no way” but our scout was amazingly persuasive. One day started out a little rainy, but turned out wonderful. Check out these images!
On this segment of the Makers Mark 46 campaign, Jimmy Williams and our team visited Charleston SC for the fabulous bar scene inside the Spectator Hotel. This sleek hotel in Charleston’s historic downtown channels 1920s glam with accents like hand painted wallpaper, a gilded elevator, and mirrored ceilings. The Spectator was named No. 1 Hotel in the U.S. by Travel+Leisure, making it the perfect place to capture another attitude of Makers 46. The bar manager Alex was an absolute delight and made us any cocktail we needed for the photos, and otherwise. We shot several scenarios, but the most interesting and surprising (to me) was when the creative team asked “what if we put a couple of people there at the bar?” Having no hired models ahead of time, I was asked to be one of these “bar patrons” in the shot. My career as a photo “Extra” continues; I’ll be sharing a modeling portfolio soon. In the meantime, you can see me in the pages of National Geographic May 2017 issue.
Other Magazine issues: Departures (May – June, September), Spirited Magazine (June), National Geographic (May, October), Wired (August), Bon Appetit (November), Rolling Stone (November)
After Ashton Rodgers and I had already been on two shoots for Gulf StatesToyotaCorolla and for Rav4, this time we’re still behind the creatives at MMB580, but this shoot was a lot larger! The unique part about this shoot is that the lovely and wonderful producer Nicole Lloyd began all production, up until when she decided that having her baby was far more important that this advertisement (imagine that!). After Nicole handed off the project to me, I took off running to continue the production with the same momentum that she began.
We scouted and chose some really great locations and models. In the equipment lineup, we had Tacoma, Tundra, Highlander, and Sienna! Each of them spotless and beautiful. Day one had the pickups in forest scenes, and day two we split between a farmer’s garden and a soccer field playground park combo. All the props and accessories really took a lot of effort to get it just right, but I think we really nailed it!
This time around, we got a taste for the chilly weather of Kentucky! This December also brought about 600 people which we weren’t expecting to be part of the images. It was challenging, but we created two unique images, of which Doe Anderson ad agency chose one finalist for the ad campaign. A fun benefit was that we now had an unlimited supply of hot cider and bourbon. Yum! The series is really looking great.
Magazines appearing in: Bon Appetit (December), Rolling Stone (December), Wired (December)
Minneapolis architectural photographer Andrea Rugg came down to Texas from back home in MN. The client was Choice Hotels and Clarion. She needed some help with integrating models into the shots, giving the whole shoot a lot more personality. She traveled with her favorite photo assistant Mark (also her husband), and I brought the rest from Austin. The challenging part was that we needed several models transported way out to San Angelo TX (4 hours West!). The client’s marketing team loved the images, and we all had a good time creating the work.
Crew: Lisa Gleeson – Hair & Makeup Artist, Mark Jacobs – Photo Assistant
“Cuba. Timeworn but magnificent, dilapidated but dignified, fun yet maddeningly frustrating.”
“A country where you can wave goodbye to Western certainties and expect the unexpected.”
“Don’t come here looking for answers. Just arrive with an open mind and prepare yourself for a long, slow seduction.”
“No one could have invented Havana. It’s too audacious, too contradictory, and – despite 50 years of withering neglect – too damned beautiful.”
I really had no idea how this experience would end up. This trip was planned at a time that travel from US to Cuba was still rather challenging and a little scary. Thankfully, we had a great partnership with US Cuba Artist Exchange based in Minneapolis to kick things off. Mariesa helped to connect us with a lot of wonderful artists, who then connected us with some of their best friends. We stumbled upon a few bonuses as we cruised across the country in old junkers (one which needed a roadside spark plug swap on our way to the airport leaving Havana!!) With tiny cups of strong sweet Cuban coffee, we saw the south and the north of the great island. Our bellies were always full and our conversations we always rich. These talented artists, musicians, drivers, farmers, and cooks will never be forgotten.
This is the first time I’ve heard from Evan Joseph, and I couldn’t be happier he called! We have a connection through Wonderful Machine, a community of connected photographers under a high end listing source. Evan is based in NYC but will travel for projects as needed. He’s an extremely talented architectural photographer that has shot some incredible spaces. His personality and work ethics were a perfect fit for me and our local team in Kansas City. We did bring in one key assistant, Greg, from NYC to help support the shoot (it’s always nice to have a familiar set of hands on deck). The shoot would cover a variety of lifestyle and archi shots in the One Light luxury apartments, and all over the Kansas City Power & Light District – inside and out. We sourced a really excellent local team and local models for the shoot. I couldn’t be happier with the speed and strength of the crew, and the performance of the talented models. We even found Joe’s Kansas BBQ (the original gar station location) – a strong contender for my beloved Texas BBQ!
This well done video is a excellent introduction to the District and what it has to offer. **This video is not my production, but the same company following our shoot.
Local favorite Matthew Mahon requested my help to produce another series of images for San Antonio based Rackspace. We hustled through a couple days to create several unique and relevant images for a new update to Rackspace’s own website. Again, we used their own employees to be the life and energy in all the photos, and everyone who participated was perfect! Creative was led by Y&R Austin, a real pleasure to partner with. Looking forward to the next shoot!
Here are a few of our favorite photos from the shoot:
What a spectacular honor to be chosen for producing this series of ads for Maker’s 46, the high end liquor from Makers Mark. Jimmy Williams is creating 4 ambitious ads for Makers Mark, starting with the Keeneland Racetrack in Lexington KY. Directing the creative behind these concepts is Doe Anderson based in Louisville. We’re looking forward to seeing several sights as we continue the campaign for Maker’s Mark.
Peter Yang headed back to Austin for an incredible shoot for hometown grocer Whole Foods‘ cosmetics division called Whole Body. The project was booked directly with Whole Foods’ own designers and coordinators, truly a pleasure to work for. We found some really top notch models here to show off their product in a fresh and bright way, Peter’s specialty. Each brand within the Whole Body collection was well represented on multiple models. We ended up shooting in studio at Photogroup South, which provided us with a nice space to get it all done with ease!
This shoot with Jonathan Chapman in Minneapolis was for Stella & Chewy’s new product called Meal Mixers, for our favorite dogs to make even the most everyday moments awesome. Haberman agency developed the campaign for television in major regional audiences, with additional regional + national support through search, social media, and a contest! We spent a full day in a gorgeous house with some really fabulous animal actors. The humans were pretty great as well!
See why people say dogs are the best?
*FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m totally a cat lover, but these dogs were pretty amazing!
It’s been 2 years since our previous shoot for Red Gold Tomatoes, but this year Jonathan Chapman and I found a way for me to attend the shoot days! Last round I was “planning and basecamp” but didn’t fly out to Indiana with the rest of the fellas. We did round up a similar crew as they were available and brought out a fabulous energy to the Red Gold family farms. Covering the creative were the fabulous Jim Landry and Ian Simpson from Clarity Coverdale Fury. Plenty or sunrise and sunset opportunities were captured both from the ground and the air (thank you, drone!). We got to spend time with some really spectacular families in their homes, on the farms, and in their communities! In addition to the feature videos we shot for each family, the main purpose for this visit was creating two videos (below) about kids on farms, and how these farmers connect to your own family at home. With all those early starts, I cannot stress enough how IHOP saved my life, morning after delicious morning.
Since our last shoot went so well, Jimmy Williams asked me back for another fun project. This time we’re heading to Virginia to shoot some fresh videos and stills for the newest Showroom by Ferguson. They sell and inspire high end designer Bath, Kitchen & Lighting fixtures. Jimmy had worked with the marketing department within Ferguson in the past, so we had a huge head start on expectations and workflow. The models all worked out great, total pros in their region, each supplied by Directions USA modeling agency. The goal was to show off many different angles on the wide variety of offerings. Jimmy and I built a crew from familiar core members and supplemented with talented locals, which made for a killer team. Bonus item: I had James River oysters as my very first oyster experience!
They’re one guy I know who always has a personal project cooking. It’s my friend, Jonathan Chapman. For this round, we brainstormed some ideas for shooting here in Austin TX that would give a real local feel. Joining the team (as usual) was Nicolas de Miranda, DP from NYC. Our goal was to create 3-4 stories and possibly weave them together. Longer term goal is to do this all again in other cities such as New Orleans, Toronto, or really anywhere else!
The project codename is: “Why I…” and the meaning behind it is to tell you all why I do the work/hobby/activity that fills me up and makes me who I am. We have a mobile workshop horseshoe Farrier Andrew de Soto, a vintage japanese motorcycle repair shop run by a British fella, a sassy singer songwriter motorcycle enthusiast, and a well seasoned barbecue pitmaster in small town Texas.
Well, I finally had a chance to work alongside my friend and ridiculously talented digital artist, photographer Cody Hamilton. We got booked by Marketing Matters (now re-branded White Hat) ad agency right here in Austin to create new imagery for The Reserve at Lake Travis, and a brand new property in Rockport TX called The Reserve at St. Charles Bay. Both resorts were gorgeous! We brought out a small group of models to each and shot some excellent images. Coming to a billboard near you!
Once again, we ran away to a land far away. Jet Blue opened up a new route to Quito Ecuador for less than $300, so we grabbed a flight! Once that was done, we realized that Galapagos would be on the to-do list. This trip was a life changer! We highly recommend you make time in your life journey to see these islands by living on a ship for a week. Truly amazing!
Let me start by saying that Jimmy Williams is absolutely wonderful to work with. SFW ad agency (also based in Raleigh) hired Jimmy to direct and shoot a fresh campaign for Fruit of the Loom HD Cotton, their premium line of shirts in 4 cities: Bozeman MT, Montgomery AL, Elizabeth CO, and Reading PA. We brought with us 3 amazing crew members for camera, light, and grip expertise – together with the ad agency and client folks, we made a tremendous team! Within each market we had been connected with a screenprinting shop that loves the Fruit HD product and has a great story to tell. Also in each market, we supplemented our crew with talented locals – some of which I’ve already worked with and thoroughly enjoyed before! The interviews with the shop owners were colorful and heartwarming. Through all the b-roll captures of the printing process, I learned a lot about the screenprinting industry.
The last editorial shoot I worked on in 2013 for Entertainment Weekly with Jack Black. This shoot was for GQ magazine featuring the beautiful and talented Singer/Actress Selena Gomez! With photographer Victor DeMarchelier and most of the crew coming from NYC, they needed me here as a local. I helped finding locations, and securing the local crew and transportation. The NYC team was excellent. Total pros in each of their realms. I really enjoyed the traveling photo assistant and digi tech – Those fellas rocked. GQ even sent out a video team for her interview and another solo gal for the BTS footage. All together, we set up some really gorgeous scenes with so many great textures in and around the farm house, retired stable, and beautiful old airstream trailer on the property. Victor DeMarchelier evoked some beautiful emotion and looks from Selena, a TX native and resident. She looked gorgeous in every shot.
Alright, now that we’ve got one cruise under our belts, we’re ready for a longer voyage into the Caribbean! These shoots were scheduled nearly back to back with a brief break in between. Mark Katzman and team set out again for Princess Cruises to make some more images, this time a bit more family centric. Most of the logistics were much easier now that we knew the general layout of the cruise ship, and how to get what we needed, or of whom to ask our many requests. The biggest challenge on this trip was how we began the voyage one day late, due to excessive dangerous fog that prevented the previous 2,000 passengers from disembarking; the large ship couldn’t navigate the canal in this low visibility. The challenge for us was that new we had one less day to accomplish the shots, and I had to juggle my carefully designed schedule of shots, daily. Heads came up with a really good flow, and we did 5 days of shooting in just 4 days.
This cruise was slightly abbreviated, and we missed visiting Grand Cayman island. Instead, we got to stop briefly in Belize! There were even some opportunities to disembark and see Cozumel Mexico for a while. The shots we got on the less visited beach areas of Cozumel were very pretty. We had a brief rain shower followed by perfect sun. We were very much “winging it” and found a fabulous restaurant & bar to host our wacky photo team and models, with arguably the best guac + chips on the island. Yum!
Mark Katzman is such a talented, wonderful, and funny fellow to work with, and I was very excited to get a call from Paula Gren about another shoot with him. We would work closely with the creative team within Princess Cruises to build a beautiful set of images for Princess’ next line of mailers, promotions, and of course their website. Previous photography was very outdated and inferior to the class and distinguishment that Mark Katzman brought to the shoot. His ideas and concepts of how to pull this off made him the best choice for the project.
Shooting on a cruise ship had a very unique set of challenges, and limitations; while also being so well taken care of by a well rounded ship crew. This was the first sea voyage for several of our photo crew and models, but everyone survived the seas very well. We began in the lovely city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and would end in Los Angeles CA after 4 nights at sea. After boarding and scouting the ship, we found a multitude of places to capture moments staged by our team and the ship crew to show off how a Princess Cruise can be a magical place to celebrate.
This brief adventure took place in the Dallas area, beginning at the famous Possum Kingdom Lake and State Park. Photographer Demond Meek was chosen to shoot for Pure Fishing and specifically for Shakespeare Fishing Tackle via Dallas ad agency Moroch. Although Demond is located outside of TX, I connected with him through his Dallas rep agency Those 3 Reps, from previous work done on their watch.
We began with a very productive tech scout day at PK Lake, and the weather was phenomenal. Demond, our Creative Director, and myself buzzed around the lake in a small fishing boat and getting soaked with every bounce. We saw the massive cliffs of Hell’s Gate, and found perfect little nooks for each of the shots coming the next day. We had booked about a dozen models for each shoot day, making up perfect faux families. Well, we did have a couple real mother-daughters and father-sons on board. The second day was back in Dallas at Lake Grapevine, the best city lake I’ve seen in a while! Weather was looking rough for day 2, but we got a lot done after a late start.
This sequence of dates would include Galveston, Port Aransas, Brownsville, Del Rio, Gruene, San Antonio, Austin, and Amarillo. The more I see and experience in this state, the more enthusiastic I become about the project! I’m also greatly looking forward to returning to many of these cities and places with my wife for a more recreational visit. There are so many people from each of the locations which I’ve become quite fond of. I would love to continue supporting their businesses by shopping, eating, or otherwise.
Nick Simonite continues to be a fantastic leader and creative partner. The art director and copywriter from the Slingshot ad agency seem to mesh with him very well. All parties involved really appreciate his working style and demeanor, and we all look forward to the shoot days.
This was my first project with John Davidson, and we was a real pleasure to partner with. He’s got a great sense of humor and never misses a beat. John is full of ideas for interactions, the story within the shot, lighting, and camera angles. We were under the creative lead from ad agency GYK Antler in Manchester NH. The creative director and John paired up and created a fantastic new library of images throughout the massive Rackspace headquarters building in San Antonio.
Rackspace set up a large casting of employees for us all to choose from, and we really got lucky with the talent that showed up! More than 60 unique faces and great personalities stepped in front of John’s lens during the shoot. We built more than a dozen scenarios with several variations within each.
Here are a few of our favorite photos from the shoot:
