Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Keeping Busy-Trip to Alsaka

I've been wanting to post for a little while now and finally have a little breathing room before we head out again.

We had a wonderful opportunity in September to shoot a job in Alaska. The client was a Mutual Fund company who manages The University of Alaska College Savings Plan. We were sent to Anchorage, Alaska to photograph kids between the ages of 6 months to 6 years. Most were Alaskan Native. All were Alaskan, born and raised. The locations ranged from inside home locations to outside Alaskan scenes. The concept was have Alaskan kids looking at the camera in a more spontaneous manner with copy that would be perceived as though the child was talking to the viewer (which was meant to be the parent).

Shooting in Alaska in September can be tricky because of changing weather conditions. We opted for being up there for seven days Saturday-Saturday(scout day, 2.5 day shoot< travel in and out, and a float day as back-up). One of the shots we had to do involved six very young kids sitting on a log. we were slated to shoot this shot on Tuesday. After the scout on Sunday, the weather forecast was looking pretty unsettled for the latter part of the week. On Monday I made an executive decision that we needed to shoot this shot later that day IF we could get the kids. The producer (who was awesome) got it together. We shot the image at 7:30 PM outside, on a point that looks out over the water (which can get very cold and windy), with no wind and mild temp. and beautiful sunset that lasted for an hour. It couldn't get any better than that. The photo gods were looking down on me that day. After that the weather went south and was cloudy, cold and rainy the rest of the shoot days. Luckily we didn't need the sun after the first shot.

Shooting the Native Alaskan kids was challenging. They were more shy than I was used to. In the end we got them to open up and exhibit the innocence that all kids do. We all got into making the kids feel comfortable. One shot involved a kid coming in the front door after playing in the mud completely covered in mud. I was setting up the shot and heard all this noise outside. I looked out and saw Tom (the art director) completely covered in mud in a mud battle with the two kids that we were using for the shot. I was totally impressed. Tom definitely got his hands dirty to get the shot. I owed him big time after that. One other helper was one of the kids grandmother. She was an amazing person. She got the whole crew laughing when she shouted out to the kids "who wants some of Grand Pa's MOOSE MEAT". I would have loved going over to her house for dinner.

One thing we tried to do was keep costs down for the client. I ended up renting a house for myself, my assistant, and the Art Director. This was a risky proposition since I had never worked with the Art Director. As it turned out it was a great experience. Having to ability to be under one roof, be able to brainstorm, and view/edit at the end of the day was invaluable. We also got along (which was a good thing)!

I hope to go back there again soon. I never realized how far away Alaska was. My business travels have taken me to Europe and South America but I have never felt farther away than Alaska. Pretty cool. Here are some snaps while we were there.

Till next time...
Float plane trip

glacier

fun's over, back to work

time to scout, maybe

Brendan and I, My headphones didn't work but I looked cool

Tom riding shotgun

glacier

stop for a pee break


cold day



Exit Glacier

Exit Glacier II

Exit Glacier III

Tom after mud fight with kids