These days, search engine optimization is as essential to a photographer’s career as having the right camera equipment. We at Wonderful Machine have covered the importance of ensuring your website is configured in a way that puts it at or near the top of the page when a potential client does a Google search. Putting time and effort into this aspect of self-promotion can mean the difference between landing a job with a global brand and not even being on that company’s radar. Atlanta-based Jason and Natalie Hales have spent the last decade utilizing SEO capabilities, a practice that has earned them consistent work with Coca-Cola.
We get most of our business either through Google or referrals. We are constantly working on our SEO, adding new work to our site, and using keywords that help land us on that front page.
We have always had SEO as a top priority from the start of our business ten years ago. It’s served us well over time.
Jason and Natalie (the latter provided this article’s quotes) have shot Coca-Cola products for years. Their most recent assignment with the soft drink institution sent them north to Charlotte, where they worked with Carolina Panthers player Kawannn Short and former head coach Ron Rivera at the NFL team’s stadium.
The client is Studio Now, which is an agency that works closely with the Coca-Cola family of brands. The first few projects we did with this agency were for Dasani and Dasani Sparkling, followed later by Diet Coke.
One of the team’s necessities for their first “red bottle” shoot was getting the right crew members, some of whom were local to Charlotte. After scouring the market for quality help, Jason and Natalie brought in six individuals and had them perform a variety of roles over the course of the one-day project.
We had [PA] Emily Butler running to the store to buy more product and [grips] Josh Bannen and Lindsey Miller physically holding soft boxes in place to fight the wind like sails. [Our other PA] Chapman Hughes stood and held an umbrella over talent to shade them from the sun between shots. Jessica Lyness Kendall, as always, nailed the grooming, which can be tricky for men. You don’t want them to look overdone, but they all definitely need coverage.
As for Beth Buzogany, without her the bottles would look lifeless. She adds the shine, the ice, the mist — whatever it takes to make that bottle look refreshing and like you definitely want to grab a Coke immediately. It takes a crew to do a shoot, not just the photographers!
Due to Jason and Natalie’s having a good bit of cachet within this industry, they can infuse their own ideas into assignments with big-name brands. In fact, Natalie mentioned that many of their clients like that the team “comes up with ideas for each shot instead of relying solely on the art direction.” Though the duo’s point person at Coca-Cola has high expectations, Jason and Natalie consistently meet, if not exceed, them.
This client usually comes with some pretty concrete ideas that they want to shoot and then asks us for our input on what else we could add to the shot list. We will usually come up with alternate versions of their ideas in case something doesn’t work when we get on set. A lot of times, we will end up with a hybrid of their idea and ours.
Our main contact is demanding but also decisive, so when he sees what he wants he’s really excited and then we move on. They expect a lot from each shoot, and we are always able to deliver. Not to mention they’re one of the biggest brands in the world, so it’s an honor to be chosen by them again and again to shoot their products.
Since they’re from Atlanta, Jason and Natalie had never been to the Panther’s stadium before doing this assignment. However, the veteran pair doesn’t see this as a drawback. According to Natalie, helming a project sight unseen has its benefits.
We are used to shooting like this. In a way, it kind of helps our creativity. We walk in and immediately start looking for the light, the backdrops, framing and come up with a plan. It’s nice to have a tech scout day but in a lot of cases we don’t, so we show up with an open mind and get ready to work with what we have.
In most cases, the shoot goes as the talent does, which was good news for Jason and Natalie in this instance. The photography team was highly complimentary of Kawann — nicknamed “KK” — and Ron.
Both the guys were really great. They were there on time and ready to work. Kawann is kind of reserved at first, but once we shot with him for like 30 minutes he started to warm up and was cracking jokes, laughing, and having fun.
They were both so professional and put together. We were impressed with their willingness to do everything we asked of them.
There were a few challenges that sprung up on shoot day, one of which had to do with the elements and the other that was postproduction based. It might not look like it in the images, but there was a ton of wind whipping around the stadium during the assignment. That, coupled with a lack of cloud cover, meant the crew had to be locked in the entire time.
We didn’t get to select the time of day, and we worked under a full sun. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Trying to complement the sun and keep harsh light and shadows off of the subjects was really tricky.
Also, it was incredibly windy that day. But with the help of our two strong grips and a few PAs, we were able to hold everything in place and get the shot we wanted.
The second big challenge was removing Kawann’s tattoos to meet the NFL’s requirements for shoots of this nature. Since the team didn’t cover up the defenxsive tackle’s ink prior to making the images, Jason and Natalie — who did all of their own postproduction — had to retouch every shot featuring Kawann, a process they detail on their website.
When we were on set, our producer asked if we should cover his tattoos while he was in makeup. The client said there was no need and so we moved on. If you’ve seen him, you know he has tattoos up and down both arms. After the shoot was over, the client came back and said there was a bit of an issue with the tattoos because of some NFL rules and that we needed to remove them in every shot.
So, instead of heavy retouching on just the bottle and then some light skin work, it turned into a full-on retouching project. At first it was daunting, but, in the end, it turned out really well and the client was happy with the results.
As were Jason and Natalie, who had a few images they liked best. Both featured Kawann, whose energetic demeanor breathed life into the final deliverables.
Our favorite shots are the one of KK drinking from the glass bottle with the rainbow lens flair and the one of him cheering and spilling the Coke. These two seem like classic Coca-Cola shots.
For the latter, we did that take probably five or six times. It was hard getting the Coke to splash out but not over his face or in a way that looked right on camera. We love the energy KK brought to making that cheering shot happen.
You’ll notice that every shot has two things: a glass bottle and the Coca-Cola logo facing the camera. The glass adds a sense of timelessness, says Natalie, who also mentioned that one of the main jobs of the bottle stylist is to remind the talent that the logo should always be visible.
I think it would take something away if we shot with the plastic bottles. Coca-Cola has used the glass bottles in ads since the beginning of the company, so I like that they still use them.
We also had a bottle stylist who was in charge of making sure that the logo was always facing out. Everyone who holds it has to be reminded constantly.
That reminder wasn’t needed for another of the team’s favorite shots because there weren’t any people in it. As mentioned above, Jason and Natalie have earned the right to execute ideas they’ve come up with spontaneously. Though they have a sense of what they’re going to do with most photos, sometimes it takes actually being there to truly flesh out the final image. Such was the case for this one:
That was kind of spur of the moment. They wanted some grouping of those three bottles together, but we said we would figure it out when we got there. The helmet showed up and it just sort of worked.
The work showed up all over Carolina both physically and online. Lindsey, the lead grip, made sure to get a shot of Jason and Natalie’s work on a billboard adjacent to a busy highway.
Since the work was Panthers-specific, Coca-Cola used it all over the city of Charlotte, from billboards to cardboard cutouts, as well as with lots of point of sale applications.
Seeing our work on a billboard is a thrill, for sure!
Though the shoot was put together and completed within a week, it wasn’t a particularly stressful endeavor outside of a few day-of challenges Jason and Natalie met head-on. The pair has been told they’re both incredibly easy to work with, which is part of the reason Coca-Cola keeps coming back to the Atlantans. That remained the case with this shoot, during which both Kawann and Ron commended the team for their great work.
It was really fun working with the celebrity talent and having the access that is involved with that. All of the people on set representing Coca-Cola and the Carolina Panthers were super nice and accommodating. When, at the end of the shoot, your talent tells you they don’t usually love photo shoots but this one was fun, that feels like a win.
It’s always an honor to be selected to shoot for a worldwide brand. They can literally choose anyone they want, and they chose us. We try not to take that for granted or get comfortable in our relationship with their agency.
See more of Jason and Natalie’s on their website.
Credits:
Lead Grip, Billboard Photo: Lindsey Miller
Grip: Joshua Bannen
PAs: Chapman Hughes, Emily Butler
Grooming: Jessica Lyness Kendall, Beauty Asylum
Bottle Styling: Beth Buzogany
Further Reading:
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