New Ad Shoot

Here is a shoot that was a fast one from concept to the page.  It is also a good example of how good, solid collaboration can lead to good results in a short amount of time.

Here's the scene:  I got a call last Wednesday afternoon from Titan companies wanting to do an ad with their new spokesperson, World Champion tie down roper Stran Smith.

Titan is coming out with a new Stran Smith line of trailers and is kick-starting the buzz about the product in media like Western Horseman magazine.

The first image is the concept sketch that was sent to me by the folks representing Titan - a  simple sketch that shows a simple concept.  Their instructions were succinct:  Shoot an image that features Stran prominently in the frame but add a bit of drama so it is not immediately clear who's in the image.

I am lucky.  I've known Stran for a while now as he and I used to be neighbors.  He now lives on the edge of town so accessing him was a snap.  After coordinating with him on Tuesday evening we agreed to meet on Wednesday evening to do the shoot.

The shoot was pretty straightforward:  Stran stood in his roping arena while I laid on the ground and shot in an upward angle.  I manually exposed the background and underexposed a full stop for a more dramatic look.

While I did a straightforward silhouette at first, I then added light to the scene with either a single Canon EX-580 flash and on one one set-up, I used two flashes.  One either occasion, the flashes were set on manual at dialed up to full power.

I shot a variety of set-ups and let the agency decide on which image they liked best (you can see the diagram at the bottom of this post for the selected image).

In all, this shoot, from concept to magazine ad, took about 36 hours.   Look for this ad in the January Western Horseman.