ONE TRIBE: FASHION IN 5 DAYS

What seems like many moons ago, photographer and friend Steve Squall contacted me about shooting for his new apparel company, Tribe. At the time, I had only heard of Tribe and really liked the branding and attitude behind it, but really knew nothing about it. Over time, Steve and I became closer friends and I really gained a liking for what Tribe represented and more importantly, the product they sold.

MONDAY

After we “tested the waters”, Steve and I scheduled the shoot date for the official collaborative editorial look book for Tribe’s new collection called “Strike First - Strike Steady”. The time line hit me like a freight train and before I knew it we were 4 days out and had no location, no models, nothing. Glass Label, my film production company, had just completed a 48 Hour Film Project and my life was a frenzy of shoots and meetings. The day was Monday, July 22nd and we had scheduled the editorial for that Friday, July 26th.

Steve and I work on a different plain. I like to be “overly” prepared with a timeline, shot list, storyboard and whatever I may need to get the best results. Steve on the other hand; fly with the wind, run and gun, improvisation…. So, Monday I received a text from Steve asking about models, I went into pure planning mode. We passed back and forth about 20 texts and I send out a gamut of Facebook messages regarding the shoot. Fortunately, we had already scouted our models, but contact had to be made.

We had 3 of 5 models booked and on board. Our next goal was the completion of our team, we called in a favor from the talented makeup artist Isidro Valencia and brought on a stylist Megan Thomas to assist. Tribe founder Jeremy Richie rounded out the team as creative director. Our next step was concept and mood.

TUESDAY

We finally received confirmation from 4 of the 5 models and decided to move forward with the 4. We knew the aesthetic, but needed “conceptual characters” to forge from. Our aesthetic was simple; 1985, pacific northwest, summer, warm, lake & beach. While Jeremy spent time on story boarding, Steve had called in a favor from Brian Atchley who owned a small power boat. Will all those images in mind, we employed Brian to take us on a scouting trip UP the Ohio River.

WEDNESDAY

Over the course of my high school years I had spent many summers on the river and remembered a few cool spots, the only problem: it was going to be a long boat ride. As we jetted down the Ohio, memories flooded into mind and I soaked in the evening sun over a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon. What a life, I thought to myself. We hit two or three spots with average results, I honestly wasn't impressed and started to second guess the scouting adventure. There were no beaches or nothing that resembled what we wanted. After travelling up river 20 miles we hit a man made cove that didn’t catch my eye until we idled across to the lateral side. My initial thought; “This might work”, by the time we headed home; “That’s it”. The mountainous sand dunes and patchy grass was the perfect element to add to the overall aesthetic. The 45 minute boat ride home was a long one, especially because my iPhone died right in the middle of an epic Facebook update.

THURSDAY

With the location on tap and the mood board coming together, I was starting to feel confident. We still had to set a time and place for hair and makeup. Fortunately, my parents live near the Ohio River and about 2 minutes from our “cast off” dock. That evening, I was able to set a call time at 3pm, at my parents house, 24 hours before the shoot. Also, I was able to finally verify model Melanie Hernandez. I knew she would be a much needed asset to the team. I felt determined and excited to take on the shoot, but for whatever reason I was still had a tinge of nervous anxiety about it. The travel logistics weren’t in our favor.

FRIDAY

3pm came quickly, I showed up at my parents house to a barrage of cars already and waiting. I rushed up the driveway and opened the house up for load in. Isidro showed up shortly after and the process began! Unfortunately, we were pushing time. Minute by minute the sun was moving down and we still had a 45 minute boat ride to our location. By the time hair/makeup was complete and we arrived at the dock we were about 45 minutes behind schedule. The boat was filled to capacity with 11 people on board. We rushed down the river and didn’t slow once. Our sun had dissipated into a mild overcast evening, but we had plenty enough light to work with for 2 hours. Once we beached, we unloaded gear and I setup one light and a few essentials. While Dylan did some fixing up on the boat hair, I grabbed Melanie and dove right into the first set.

I started powering through shots with a steady quickness. I was all over the place, mostly on the ground rolling in sand and dirt. As Steve was capturing B-roll video and grabbing stills himself, I rallied couples, groups and individuals. Over an hour had passed and we were reaching our departure point. I still had to get in the water. I popped my camera in the underwater housing and jumped in the river, I had been looking forward to this moment for sometime.

Since the camera eye piece is only about an inch above the lens, when your camera breaches the surface of the water so does your eyes, nose and mouth. You can’t see anything and you’re holding your breath. So, I switched the camera to continuous mode and took a deep breath and guessed. The shutter rattled off like a machine gun. Focus and repeat. I did this for every model from depths of 6 feet to 10 inch shallow water. I had no idea what I had captured, but by the last individual set in the water, the sun has set and it was time to go, like right away. I broke down my light(that I didn’t use whatsoever) and jumped in the boat for the chilly ride home. It was a breath of fresh air and I felt very accomplished, despite only using natural light. From what I could tell the images looked fantastic and dramatic.

Once we arrived at the dock, we all said our goodbyes and bailed. Steve and I meet an hour later for drinks and a calm celebration of our success.

The editorial was released two weeks later to a wonderful applause. Despite Tribe closing a chapter and shutting down their retail store the day after the release, the editorial has solidified their online presence which is were their sole focus has shifted too.

Just think, this all came together in 4 days, imagine what we can do in 4, 6 or even 8 weeks. Plans are in place, this whole thing will come full circle.

CLAY COOK

STEVE SQUALL

BEHIND THE SCENES

THE ART OF FASHION

I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Art becomes art at art in art. Say what?

When NFocus creative director, Gunnar Deatherage brought his idea for the August editorial, it really took me a while to really figure out what he was thinking. Even after storyboarding the entire shoot I was still nervous about it all. 3 of the 4 images would potentially be composites and that really frightened me. I knew I could do it, I just wasn't confident enough with my lighting and composition to make sure it actually looked right.

The concept of the editorial would be a woman who enters an art gallery and is then consumed by art, her own art and then becomes that very art. We wanted to express this through extensive makeup and Photoshop trickery. It would’t be an easy project in the least, but trial by fire and setting yourself up for failure is the absolute best way to learn, you won’t forget it.

I did some prep and bathed in knowledge as much as I could, pre-shoot. I was ecstatic and especially excited to work with Ms. Lauren Franck of Heyman Talent Agency once again. It would be a very long day and I knew that Lauren would be up for the job.

Our location was the Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts, otherwise known as KMAC. The first set would start with Lauren staring a painting and the shot coming directly from behind, full body.  The lighting at KMAC is actually pretty prominent, but I was running into the issue of making the image dramatic, so for over an hour I played with different light setups, using boomed softboxes, grids and even bouncing hard light. I eventually landed on good ole’ ambient light. I wanted the first image to have a sense of “dull” rather then excitement, there need to be something that caught the viewer, but off putting, leaving them with wanting more.

The second set was one of two composites, Lauren being pulled in by a painting resembling herself. Another example of tough lighting, I ended up bouncing one light from the sold white ceiling, I liked it right from the start so rather then playing, I stuck with the setup. I used a white diffusion panel on the actual art piece to make the post work a lot easier around the finer details. Looking back, I should of done the same with Lauren’s head, but you learn from your mistakes! That shot came easy, we moved onto the toughest set of the day. 

Lauren would be “taken” by a gold statue of herself.

We couldn’t switch in and out of the gold makeup so we had to plan the sets accordingly and really map out our day. I only had one camera so I had to use multiple tripods and leave them securely in place. We moved a large white riser in the middle of KMAC and I setup a one-light scenario, I wasn’t really happy with it but I rolled with it. I composed my shot and with Brooke Duvall’s assistance we had Lauren mock a “terrified” look. We then taped off the wall in the background to mark of the point of contact between Lauren and Brooke for reference when we posed Lauren on the riser with the gold makeup. It took quite a few shots and I didn’t know if we had it or not. I carefully removed my camera from the tripod ballhead and taped off the tripod.

Onto the next set, a beauty shot of Lauren slowly becoming gold which would be composed in a abstract fashion on the second image in front of the frame. The makeup took roughly two hours, I burned time by catching up on a few phone calls and Facebook messages. As we moved into the beauty set things were warming up and we hit a stride. Lauren rocked out a gamut of amazing images and I sent her right back into makeup to get painted in the full gold skin.

Another hour passed and we headed back down to the riser and had Lauren setup right where Brooke was once standing, we compared hand placement to the tape on the wall and went for it. However, because of Lauren’s height, posing correctly and maintaining positioning with the tape on the wall was not an easy feat. It took a grand amount of time just to make things looks right. I didn’t like the fact that there wasn't a safety net incase it didn’t work. By the end of the set, I knew it was all a gamble.

We changed looks and Lauren got her new gold skin touched up. At this point I was pretty worn out. It had already been a long day, but I was hitting that point of exhaustion. Fortunately, the last set would be the easiest. We setup the white riser in a blank corner and had Lauren stand up straight, I asked Gunnar to hold a boomed softbox overhead and within 30 minutes we had our shot. My favorite of the day. The entire team pulled weight and it was a great collaboration of amazingly creative people. It was a true honor to share the museum with everyone that day.

As with every publication, there is a pretty strong deadline. I immediately got to work on these images. The post work wasn’t easy at a all and I’ll be honest, we got lucky. With the third set, only ONE image out of the 40 we may of shot worked in combination with the other. 

Another challenge was creating a creative art piece from a beauty image. Me being a graphic designer was excited to get to that part of the process, but half way through I just wasn’t feeling anything I was doing. I fully admit being my own worst terrible critic and several of the drafts may of been better then the final composite, but in the end the halftone overlay worked for the overall image.

I'm constantly judging my work and pushing myself to be better and better. Did this fall short of MY vision? Perhaps… but I know it made a lot of people turn their heads as the response has been phenomenal. I’m always one to takes risks, this was one I won’t forget.