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Photo shoot with pro snowboarder Jordan Mendenhall
7 January 2008, Photoshop
Within days I found myself inside the store, standing on my tippy-toes to get a glimpse of the machine in action. As I neared the front of the mass of people, and while standing in front of the LCD monitor, my eyes became fixed on a particular game demo...AMPED. In short, that game alone was the reason I bought the XBOX. As I brought the console home that evening, I could hardly wait to hold the ergonomically correct controller in my hand again, and carve my way down slopes I knew all too well in perfect snow conditions, run after run. All from the comfort of my living room couch.   Anyone that has played Amped, reads Transworld Snowboarding magazine, or keeps up in anyway with the fast moving extreme sport of snowboarding, will know the name Jordan Mendenhall. A few months back at the end of last summer, I had the opportunity to have a photo shoot with this amazing athlete, here in the state of Utah where he lives. It was quite a production to say the least. We had a film crew documenting the entire shoot, and to make it more complicated, we shot outside on the street in daylight, which required permits and serious crowd control. Oh yeah, and lots and lots of water. We took way longer than expected to set up, as we had to block out lots of light, and we ended up with only 7 minutes with Jordan. He was a great sport as it was nearly 100 degrees that day, and I had him wearing really nice snowboard pants. Let's just say this poor guy was pretty toasty. After Jordan left we started with the models. Again, this was all shot with strobes in daylight, so we had tons of reflected, unwanted light to block out... not to mention hair & makeup's worst nightmare, sweat. The models were great and acted their parts, regardless of the extreme temperature and crowds of people constantly passing by. It was funny, some people passed by several times hoping to get in the shot, so every once and a while --when we had to let some traffic through-- I would fire off just my lights, and everyone got excited... thinking they had got on camera. After we got what we needed with the models, it was time to shoot the gear. So one by one we carefully positioned the beanie, goggles, jacket, boots and snowboard to match the various perspective angles. The entire backdrop: chairs, tables, marble floor, lights, sinks, faucets, mirror, and yes, even the wallpaper as well were all shot in pieces, and at numerous locations throughout the city. Phew   Though this image still has a bit to go, I couldn't wait any longer. Here is a completed image, next to the composited "set", ready for models. I had not shot the mirror yet, nor the tray of towels. I always have a difficult time working so hard to build this quality of a set, and then covering half of it with the rest of the composite pieces. I've included some video screen shots, and production stills to help you get an idea of how much work goes into one of these productions.                      Here is a list of my process for this particular image: -1 hour meeting with Jordan -30 min wardrobe research w/Jordan -several hours of concepting -sketching out multiple layouts to verify the concept -entire day of location scouting -hours of prop research/purchasing -talent/model search -wardrobe for models -shot list creation for video -shooting permit -street permit -city permit -fire department sign off -police department sign off -city sign off -gear rental -full studio light setup - 8 hour total, (various locations) for photo shoots -not realizing we were using some grumpy guy's power outlet, and getting an earful... 30 sec (seemed like 5 min) -several days of heavy post-production using Photoshop Now ya know, and knowing is HALF the battle, but that's a whole other blog post. REPLIES
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