Last fall, I was headed to City of Rocks, ID for a tourism shoot and was asked to produce and shoot a campaign for Mountain Hardwear. I was blown away by the landscapes in City of Rocks, which turned out to be an amazing location for the varied needs of the shoot. Friends connected me with the perfect talent for the project from Salt Lake City and all the pieces fell into place. It was great working with Chey Smith and Steven Frederick, and as always, Genevive went above and beyond as my assistant, PA, driver, and fire-runner.
The weather forecast for the day of the shoot wasn’t great. On our scout day, we had full sunshine, making everything look perfect. We had to deal with every type of weather for the shoot, clouds, wind, rain, hail, and bright sun. It actually ended up making getting different looks for the large amount of Mountain Hardwear clothes possible! The rain shots became some of my favorite from the day.
At one point, we were tearing down the tent and a violent rain squall came rushing in, almost taking the tent, Chey, and a lot of our gear with it! Luckily, Chey avoided being carried into the sky holding onto the tent, and we took shelter in our cars waiting for the worst of the storm to pass.
I have to share Genevive’s commitment to getting us a raging fire for the shots. The firewood we had was a little wet and was hesitant to start. We did get it started while Genevive went to another campsite to ask for some flames, but she came running back yelling, “Fire! Fire! Fire!” I’m glad I turned around and captured this!
