The Shot we needed

I love it when I’m commissioned to complete a task completely out of my comfort zone. I find it exhilarating. Trial by fire is my preferred method of learning anything. So when I had to set up a shot for The Grid / Sunwing Airlines Promotion I was super excited to test my photography skills.

The gig entailed taking a shot of “Hipster-like” paraphernalia from an overhead viewpoint. For those of you who don’t know what a Hipster is, just walk down the street and look for someone who’s walked right off the set of Waterworld? They aren’t as forgettable as Kevin Costner I assure you.

The Project started with a very fun exercise that I was really looking forward too. ACD Julie Stolberg and I started a massive list of items that we felt fit into well the Hipster vacation universe. We recruited people from all over the office to chip in their items. Brent brought in his hat, Danica & D. Han took in their cameras, and Franz raided his home to bring in a some pipes, and the scene stealing “Pope pen” he acquired in Rome.

To get the remaining, more challenging items I went into almost every single store on Queen st. West to find the perfect pieces for the shot. I found buttons, and vintage headphones at an antique store, and an awesome store owner lent me one her of her store’s decorative suitcase’s to complete the whole shot. http://69vintage.com/

I layed out all the objects on the floor and Julie & Franz came by to judge what items should make the cut. Which is much more time consuming than I originally imagined.

Then it came to conceptualizing how I can set up a rig to find ways to shoot this thing, steadily, with enough of a buffer for the focal point to breathe, and in the ideal minimal time required. Barry, with the help of Mitch designed a rig, pinning my Tripod between chairs that Mitch was sitting on. I wish I had a picture of it, but my camera was a little pre-occupied. Keeping it steady was difficult but we ended the shoot with a few useable shots out of a hundred or so.

Here was our best shot:

Not exactly the overhead angle that why tried so desperately to get, but we had enough to press forward with it. After some heavy photoshop work the shot the image above turned into this.

I’d be very excited if this opportunity presents itself again in the future, it was so much fun. It was like a treasure hunt!

Credits:
Julie- Creative Direction
Barry- Rig Constructor
Franz- Art Direction
Mitch- Comic Relief

Favorite Buy:
Pantone Toothbrushes that you’ll find in the top right corner.

Thanks to everyone for the supplies, your cool things are now immortalized forever!