Flip to the back inside cover of the July/August issue of EatingWell Magazine and you'll see a striking portrait of a life long farmer. Ramona has been named one of the magazine's honored "tastemakers". This is the story of our shoot.
As with any photoshoot, you'll run into challenges, but this one in particular was logistically crazy. The magazine contacted me on Friday and we had to get it shot by Sunday because the crops were being harvested Monday morning. The problem is, neither party was free Saturday, and Sunday had a very large chance for rain. After tentatively scheduling for Sunday at sunrise, we were rained out so we decide to try again later in the day. We got to the farm about two hours before sunset and though it was cloudy things looked promising. That was until we were actually in the field and it started to sprinkle, then rain, then full on thunderstorm. Now, picture the rain and lighting, and I'm standing in the middle of an open field on top of a metal ladder. To the right of me is Chloe holding our strobe high up over the corn on a large light stand so I could feather that beautiful soft light coming out of the Profoto B1 and 5 foot parabolic. It was a basically a contest for who could be the better lightning rod! Luckily we both lost, as in neither of us were struck. We moved through the scenarios we had planned as quick as possible as the rain started to pick up and we got our shot! The one used in the article can be seen at the start of the article, but below are the other selects I sent them.
When given a brief from an Art Director for a shoot, it's our job as photographers to bring their vision to life. But, more importantly and why we are hired for our creative talent, is for us to also put our unique spin on the brief.
One of my favorite things about this shoot was getting to know Ramona and her family who help run the farm. They have a strong connection to their native american heritage, and taught us a lot. I even had the chance to grind some corn with their "mano", and "metate" which are stones used by the native american people. The crazy thing is, growing up they would have to do this every morning to provide enough maize to be used in the day's meals. Every day! These are traditions that are going away with today's modern technologies but are still practiced from time to time by traditional families.
Lastly, here's the physical tear sheet of the photo in the magazine!
