Update From the Road… Fall 2016

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Well it has once again been a while since my last update from the road… So what have we been up to? Summer came and went by in a flash and it was probably the busiest summer I’ve had in 20 years. Since my last post we have been nonstop with one project after another. The last two months alone I’ve crisscrossed the country from corner to corner multiple times crossing the Mississippi 12 times for various projects. We’ve been to Arizona, California, Maine, North Carolina, Jamaica, Florida twice and back to Oregon on projects for Huffy Bikes, Merck Pharmacueticals, Miami Cancer Institute, Vista Print, High West Whiskey and Alaska Brewing. Most of these projects are still in post production or not yet released to the public so I can’t show them yet, but I’ll post them as soon as I am allowed.

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It is hard to believe but it has been a full year since we first left on our journey across the country. It has been a whirlwind trip so far and we have no plans to stop for the foreseeable future. To date we have logged close to 16,000 driving miles and I’ve flown well over 30,000 miles on various jobs that happened over the last year as well. See our Google MyMap to see where we have been.

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It’s been the experience of a lifetime…. we have been to some amazing places and met some really great people along the way not to mention shooting a zillion photos. I have to thank my wife for pushing me to do this as if it weren’t for her persistence we never would have left on this trip and the opportunities and projects that have come from it probably never would have happened. My American Worker Project took off with a bang and continues to garner great exposure. Back in July we shot hot air ballooning in Sedona Arizona and most recently I shot in the Firestone Walker Brewery in their wooden barrel aging plant. A few new proposed shoots to continue the project include potential shoots with the US Coastguard training at Cape Disappointment in Washington and also shooting with the brave men and women who fight the wild fires out that have been raging throughout California this summer. We have also been shooting a ton of travel related subjects featuring the many amazing locations we have had the pleasure of visiting.

mv2Some of the best and most epic locations we had the pleasure of visiting included Monument Valley, The Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree and Yosemite National Park. We took advantage of all these locations for the High West Whiskey project which is currently in post production and creative stages with the ad agency. I am very excited about the images we have created here and can’t wait to share them with you. For now these teasers from my Instagram will have to do.

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As we steam headlong into fall things are continuing to look good as we are being considered for assignments and image uses for various projects for Chase Bank, STP, Fidelity Investments, and Orvis Fishing. Fingers and toes crossed on these as they look to be some really cool projects!

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Stay tuned for future adventures as our fall calendar is packed with travel to Washington, up into BC Canada, (around Vancouver up near Whistler) and returning back down through Oregon… With later plans taking us back into California, Utah and Colorado over the winter.

Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

firestonewalker0081 We recently had the opportunity to shoot at the Firestone Walker Brewing Company in California.      Firestone is a cool up and coming company in the brewing world.    Founded by Adam Firestone,   great grandson to Harvey Firestone of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and his brother in law David Walker.  Firestone Walker has a unique brewing process where they age their brew in oak barrels during fermentation.    This renders an oaky taste to the brew which is unique in a beer.

In our shoot we focused on the various processes from working the initial brewing vats through quality control,   sampling the raw brew stock to labeling and packaging.firestonewalker0148

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Shooting Vista Print in Jamaica.

I had the pleasure recently to travel back to Jamaica on an assignment for Vista Print.      I always love going to Jamaica.    The people there are always so nice.     We’ve spent many a month down there traveling to all corners of the map on assignments for Superclubs Resorts,  Jamaica Tourism and the like….

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This particular assignment was for Vista Print.    We were tasked with the mission to go to their international call center and photograph some of their most valued employees for a new customer service oriented campaign.    These are the people that man their call centers and are responsible for sales and customer relations and support.     Having a call center based in Jamaica is a bit out of the norm these days as most are hosted out of India.      The folks that work at this particular call center are a special bunch.    They all seem to genuinely love their jobs and it shows in the way they treat their customers.     Customer service is job one but it goes beyond that.   They have been known to develop ongoing relationships that go beyond what you would expect of even the best customer service employees.    One of these fine ladies actually had someone bring her cookies when she was taking a vacation to Jamaica with her family.    She tracked her down took time out of her vacation and brought her cookies!    Safe to say they are very likeable.

Because of that,  and the fact that they provide a quality product a very competitive prices,   Vista Print enjoys a large percentage of repeat and loyal customers.   The picture shown above is one of the many people we had the privilege of meeting and photographing.   Her name is Saju.   She had an amazing energy and was so pleased to be a star for a day for us.