Esprit Shoot
April 1-3 I traveled across the country to Stratton, Vermont to do a ski shoot for Esprit Sports. A few weeks ago, I got a random e-mail about a casting call and audition in New York City. They were looking for a female skier in her twenties "who can jump 6ft or so perhaps cross her skis or spread them in the air, etc." I submitted a link to my website and some other photos, and eventually got booked for this modeling gig.
It was an interesting and fun experience. I flew from Salt Lake to Cincinnati, where I had a two hour layover, and then my flight got delayed into Albany, NY. Once I finally arrived in New York, I picked up a rental car, a Mercury Grand Marquis, at the airport and proceeded to try and drive to Stratton. I must say that those roads in Northern New York and Southern Vermont are extremely confusing! I had the worst directions from Mapquest (I will never use Mapquest again, I’m all about Google Maps now), and on top of that, it was dark and started to pour rain like I have never seen rain before. There was intense lightning, thunder and fog, and I had a boat of a car that I was trying to navigate. Oh, and did I mention I was out of cell phone coverage? Luckily, I made it in time to meet the production crew for a late dinner. They stayed up and waited for me, and even had a filet mignon waiting for me at the Stratton Inn. There were stylists, make up artists, lighting guys, production managers…I couldn’t believe what a crew they had! After a delicious dinner and dessert of chocolate lava cake, I retired for the evening after a long day of traveling.
The next morning, I woke up at 6 am for the shoot (which was 4 am my time). We all had a great breakfast together, and then it was go time. First to the stylist’s room to get our outfits and boots, then to the lodge to get makeup and hair. Here’s a picture of me all done up with the makeup artist. Warning: this is not how I actually look. They told me they were going to do "light and natural makeup". I was shocked when I looked in the mirror:
Here’s the other girl, Lauren, who did the shoot, getting made up and ready.
The outerwear is so cute! The left pictures are of me, and the one top right is Lauren, the other model/skier.
We started out doing a lifestyle shoot. They had two generators, huge lights, and all the stylists around! It was unlike any ski shoot I’ve ever done before. To the right is the photographer, Poby. Check out his portfolio and website at www.poby.net ! He takes some truly amazing pictures. The next shot we did was the jump. Because the photos are for Esprit’s International Ad Campaign and may be blown up billboard size, he had to shoot with a 39 megapixel camera and he could only do one shot at a time. It took about ten jumps just for us to get the lighting and timing right. We did about 50 jumps that day to get the air shot. Last shot we set up was a ski shot where Poby set up behind a plexiglass shield and we sprayed him. Here’s a photo of that:
Lauren and I after the shoot was done. It was a great experience overall.
The next morning I got back in the Mercury and drove back to Albany, getting lost again. It helped doing the drive in the daytime, however, and I love the aesthetic of the East Coast. It’s so beautiful there!
Here are some photos of the drive back to Albany. I had two, long flights home, but made it back for some great powder skiing in Utah.
You will be able to see the photos this August on Esprit’s website, and they will be used internationally for their ad campaign.
