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The holidays may be over, but Brett Carlsen is still feeling the Christmas spirit. The Sayre, Pennsylvania based photographer was contacted by AARP about photographing Cherry Hill’s annual Santa University for an article on their website. As his fourth major Santa-themed assignment, Brett was the perfect person for the job.
AARP gave Brett a general idea of the content they were seeking, but trusted him to place his own spin on the project.
I love taking the reins on things, so having the freedom to come up with a few narrative ideas and styles was really empowering and satisfying.
Santa University takes place in a hotel conference room just outside of Denver, a logistical nightmare for many photographers. The beige, windowless room wasn’t ideal, but Brett and his assistants came equipped with plenty of lighting equipment and an upbeat attitude.
It’s pretty hard to not have a smile on your face for the entire weekend when you’re surrounded by a small arm of wisecracking, carol-singing grandpas.
The client also wanted Brett to shoot motion alongside stills, which meant choosing the perfect moments to switch between mediums. But Brett’s experiences working alone or with bare-bones crews helped keep his reflexes sharp, and both the finals images and the video he produced thrilled the client.
Santa and his elves at AARP weren’t the only ones happy with the result. Brett received compliments from friends near and far– even people he hadn’t heard from in years!
I think people get overwhelmed with dreary and emotional downers of stories, or conversely puffy and poorly shot series. I like to balance and make a few fun and happy pieces, but still provide respect and care required to make them photographically satisfying. You can’t just go make something feel good, make it look good too.
From the Denver conference room to a mall near Chicago, Brett dedicated himself to showing the makings of this season’s Kris Kringles, giving him even more additions to a growing portfolio of Santa-based images. He’s even considering publishing a book inspired by his Santa experiences.
Now, there’s a reason to start the year-long countdown to Christmas.
See more of Brett at brettcarlsen.com!