Back to School campaign || Studio, two weeks || Models, Wardrobe, Glam
'Never work with kids or animals', someone once said. I tend to agree with the animal part, but kids shoots can be fun with a little planning! For instance, make sure to pace out your days with group after group of colorful inanimate objects, then bombard everyone with 4 camera-shy, sugar-high kids all at once! I may have been a wrangler in a former life, but I'm glad I'm not in this one.
Nursery makeover || Two Days, location || Minimal crew, tight schedule
A simple load-in/load-out one-day shoot for this nursery makeover partnering with chef Gaby Dalkin. With minimal budget and time, we successfully navigated the constraints of a small space and a small crew and even got out of the house in time for her three-year-old's afternoon nap.
Bedroom collection || Studio || Multiple stylists
Full disclosure: I rarely make my bed in the morning, and when I do it looks NOTHING like these. A gifted soft stylist is even harder than that haystack needle, but it's worth it when you know that every customer's (and AD's) eye is going right to the bedding. Plus seamlessly weaving an extra stylist into a shoot is always a fun challenge.
Gift Registry || Two weeks, studio || Editorial, flexible schedule
The quiet ones need love too! Videos and celebs are terribly interesting projects, but we all know it's the intos and overheads that pay the bills. Shooting for weeks with a host of surfaces and loosely-grouped products comes with unique challenges, but when I get to pop on set and hold a coffee and a hand... then I remember that it's all a bit of fun in the end.
B2B Makeover || One day, location || Minimal crew, no direction
Sometimes they're also fun! Following a refurnishing of Soldier Field's family lounge and skyview VIP suite by our B2B team, I spent the day with a photographer, an assistant, and zero direction capturing the refresh. Definitely high on my list of scrappy favorites, plus the personal photo ops were too good to pass up.
Dorm category refresh || One week, studio
Working on growth channels can be so satisfying, even though they're usually the scrappiest projects. Evolving this line of dorm products was a real challenge considering the SKUs were very minimal but needed the full marketing treatment. Plus rigging in a studio as if you were rigging on location was a real mind-bender for the art department!