Bear witness to the beginning of my sports modeling career! Ok, not really. I still make my living behind the camera, thank God. Though on this rare occasion, I'm in front of the lens. I may seem like a natural (aside from the stiff dialogue and tired look in my eyes- To my defense, I had just come off of a solid three months of travel and filming). But make no mistake, the real star of the show is the camera bag I'm using from Lowepro.
I've been working with Lowepro since I was a kid in college at San Jose State. Of all their developments over the years, making it a bit easier for me to haul my camera gear into wild places, the Photo Sport AW truly represents an evolution in camera bags. The backpack and sling are the first of their kind in the photo space to fully address the needs of the photographer/filmmaker AND adventurer.
This product line is testament to the fact that the Lowepro design team really listens to their users. Over two years ago, I sat in a cabin at Sebagao Lake in Maine with a group of Aurora Photos contributors, kicking around our thoughts on "perfect camera bags". Pete Hill, Lowepro's VP of Design and Development and Tim Grimmer, Lowepro Product Manger, sat amongst us all with notepad in hand, jotting down all we had to say. The Photo Sport AW series was certainly inspired, in part, by that meeting.
As an added bonus to this project, not only was I the talent, but at the same time, directed the spot. This gave me the opportunity to assemble and work with an amazing team. As could only be done in the Sierras, we shot this video in a single day within a 60 mile sweep of my house, making use of the season's last snow and newly dried rock and trails. Check out the video to see the bag in action. As well, keep your eyes on the October issue of the major photo publications to see the ads below highlighting my one day modeling career.
The Team / Behind the Scenes
My good friend and frequent collaborator, Dane Henry was Director of Photography and shot all the video, while Josh Semolik, Lowepro's staff photographer was on hand to shoot still photos and a top secret RC helicopter operator was there to capture the aerial footage. My wife Marina rounded out the crew as producer and assistant. Melanie Garcia joined for the climbing segment and Josh Bruner provided his snowboarding and mountain biking talents, in addition to helping to carry some seriously heavy loads. Once it was all in the can, the final piece was edited by Jason Bosch at Aurora Novus. We all worked together so well, you'd never know that I was having trouble keeping my eyes open after a solid three months of travel – or the fact that we crashed the RC helicopter which was carrying the camera. The Nikon D7000 and lens are fine, after a bit of TLC. Sadly, that's more than I can say for the helicopter. All in a day's work I guess.
