case study #2: forsake

CONTENT TRIP TO TOFINO, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Embracing the rain and curating a visual story for Forsake’s waterproof styles on my Content Trip to the coast of the quaint & lovely town of Tofino.

TLDR: I recently embarked on a gorgeous Content Trip with sustainable footwear company, Forsake to the rainy and rugged landscapes of Tofino. Forsake asked for an interesting direction that turned out to be a creative genius move: deliverables to include only half product shots, and half storytelling landscapes + detail shots. Despite relentless rain, the team infused creativity into showcasing Forsake's waterproof styles amidst Tofino's breathtaking backdrop. These images were used across Forsake's web and social platforms. Read on to learn about the process of a Content Trip + the in’s and outs from pre-production to final gallery.

Through several recommendations and me absolutely swoooooning over photos, I chose one of my Content Trip locations to be way way way out west: Tofino, British Columbia. In case you’re curious, here is the quant + beautiful location on a map:

Through a few flights, a rental car and a ferry, you can get there no problem. Tofino is known for it’s surf and it’s moody vibe mixed with the ocean. PNW scenery with a coastline? A dream. I risked this location as it is somewhat unique (and reaaaally out there), and pitched it to my clients. One of my all-star clients, Forsake, said yes and gave me a creative direction I have never heard before, but I loved it.

Each Content Trip, I always hop on a creative call with my client to understand their marketing needs and vision. They asked me to shoot only half of the photos of the actual product. The rest? Detailed shots of the scene, landscape, portraits… to get creative and really tell a story.

As I am typing this now, I still believe that was the smartest content marketing decision I have heard of. Though photos of the experience, I saw the intended audience was really able to to step in and see what an adventure would feel like in their product. It allowed so much room for connection. And as a photographer? The more creative freedom we have, the more magical the shoot will turn out. It’s simple photographer math. 😉

So I got started! Leslie, my lovely assistant, began to spearhead the model scouting with my client, and I got on the locations. We decided on a male / female couple, and a gal on her own to model. I built our brief so my client was up to speed.

Here, we have: moodboard, product list, models choices, flight and car details, shot list, any briefs, location imagery, maps where we are meeting or shooting, and where we also communicate any ideas or needs that pop up. This is the oil of the machine, where the real magic happens so the entire team is ultra-clear about the vision and eliminates most of the guesswork when it’s go time.

I always hop on a Zoom with my models so a) I know they are an actual human being b) I can break the ice and get to know their personality, how they present themselves, and more about their experience modeling and c) see if they are reliable and ready to shoot. I always have my models research the brand’s socials + web to get a feel for their brand messaging and how we want to cohesively blend in with our shoot in terms of style and posing. On these calls, I also get to pick their brain about their favorite spots in the area, and we oftentimes will create an itinerary together. It feels like a true team putting on the production together.

Once we have the overarching theme down and I nail down the brand ethos, have the product list at my fingertips, and set our models, I create the extensive shot list through Airtable. This is again, collaborative with my client in case adjustments need to be made. I give room for creative freedom, but in this shot list we have everything we need — which model is shooting which product, where it will be shot, what time of day, props needed, orientation of the photos, and what the visual storytelling element is.

We were ready! We got the story down, and I felt I had an enormous amount of creative freedom going into the shoot.

As for the schedule, my Content Trips are usually Monday - Friday. Normally, it goes as follows:

MONDAY: ARRIVE / TUESDAY: LOCATION SCOUT / WEDNESDAY: SHOOT DAY / THURSDAY: SHOOT DAY / FRIDAY: SHOOT DAY + LEAVE

Now, on that Tuesday, day before shoot day, I noticed an verrrrrry interesting thing. It hadn’t. stopped. raining. the. whole. time.

And my panic came in a few waves. As photographers, especially outdoor photographers, it is our job to embrace the elements. It is also our job to deliver photos that are going to be aligned with our client’s needs.

In the rain and my ridiculous outfit of rain gear and sweaters, I ended up with one of my favorite brand shoots to date. All the styles I shot were waterproof, so it actually ended up better than we could have imagined.

Forsake used these photos across their digital platforms — web + social.

case study #1: spyder footwear

CUSTOM CONTENT TRIP

Finding snow in the smack dab of summer: Mt. Hood Custom Content Trip for Spyder Footwear.

TLDR: Curating a custom trip for Spyder Footwear for their FW’22 campaign in the stunning landscapes Mt. Hood Oregon. Through the mountaintops, a cozy cabin Airbnb, an adorable St. Berniese we rented (!!) and side-of-the-road breathtaking scenery, we created a dynamic, diverse array of scenes. This four-day shoot was tailored exclusively for their FW campain, designed for their outdoor-focused audience across web, email campaigns, paid and organic social.

Read below about learn I work with my clients: from shot list to model scouting to moodboard to 4x4 rides up a mountain.

Spyder reached out to me in hopes to shoot content for their FW’22 line — they wanted active, snow, adventure, all encompassing a clean look that reflects Spyder’s reputation of a solid, sustainable activewear brand.

On our initial call, we needed to iron out one small kink: where in the world would we shoot a winter shoot, within budget, in September?

Through quite a bit of googling, researching over and over, we landed on: Mt. Hood, Oregon. The place where there is snow even in the summer, easily accessible and not as remote of many of the other mountainous areas.

Next step? Plan the shoot. My assistant, Leslie, stepped in and fully led the model scouting throughout the entirety of the project. She is client-facing, directly asking for the client needs and how they want their brand to be represented. The closest model pool was in Reno, NV so my assistant went searching. Model questionnaires look a little like this:

Meanwhile, I begin the location scouting. Through blogs, recommendations from others, Google Earth, and lots of other creative sites I create the the draft of our trip itinerary. On Custom Trips, we usually book an Airbnb with permission to have a commerical shoot and use that for our location and lodging.

The perfect Airbnb was found — this would allow a backdrop to strengthen and elevate the brand messaging of being an adventure-based outdoor company.

This is where the production really gets going and all the backend creative boxes are checked so we are ready to shoot. I share a creative whiteboard with my client through Milanote, where we can both contribute to the board, add photos, comments, and move elements around.

Here, we have: moodboard, product list, models choices, flight and car details, shot list, any briefs, location imagery, maps where we are meeting or shooting, and where we also communicate any ideas or needs that pop up. This is the oil of the machine, where the real magic happens so the entire team is ultra-clear about the vision and eliminates most of the guesswork when it’s go time.

Once we have the overarching theme down and I nail down the brand ethos, have the product list at my fingertips, and set our models, I create the extensive shot list through Airtable. This is again, collaborative with my client in case adjustments need to be made. I give room for creative freedom, but in this shot list we have everything we need — which model is shooting which product, where it will be shot, what time of day, props needed, orientation of the photos, and what the visual storytelling element is.

And within the process, as we can always predict… we ran into a roadblock. It’s interesting.. a lot of folks aren’t really sure what encompasses being a producer but it’s really quite simple: it’s just being a problem solver. Every shoot, no matter how big or small, I have grown accustom that certain elements will not go our way. And it’s my job to find creative solutions. It will always work out; it always does.

Our kink here? In my search of places to find snow, I wanted to make sure there was actual patches around the Mt. Hood area, instead of relying solely blogs around the internet. I called park rangers and tourism boards in the area and got the same message over and over: “Oh honey! There’s no snow because of climate change. Maybe on the top of the mountain but that’s a 2 mile trek.” Ummm… Not an option. I search high and low, called helicopter companies, called folks who control the ski lifts, on and on and no one seemed to be able to get me to snow.

I finally got on the phone with the Ski Area Sales Manager & Photo Shoots Manager at Timberline Lodge at the base of Mt. Hood. We figured out a plan to have a 4x4 drive our team literally UP the mountain. Literally. Straight up the mountain. And I think where we landed was pretty beautiful….

And as for snow in other places? My assistant joked, “It’s like you should get a snow machine”. DONE.

With everything in place, models booked, itinerary locked in, we had an insanely beautiful shoot that fulfilled their need for adventure-focused visual storytelling to captivate their audience in a multitude of campaigns through FW’22.