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Around a year ago, Los Angeles-based photographer John Davis was shooting a project for Colby College in Maine when he received a slightly urgent call from GMMB in Washington, DC to perform a shoot for AmeriCorps NCCC, a division of CNCS. There was a shoot scheduled for the following week, but they had no photographer and only a short window of time to pull off this project. John’s name was given to the agency by an industry colleague who knew he would be perfect for the job. At first, John was a little skeptical because of the short turnaround time, but he knew he could pull it off after learning more. He was already familiar with the client, having shot for them a while back when they were working with another agency.
The goal of this project was to shoot an image library for AmeriCorps NCCC alongside a video crew that was shooting a separate TV commercial at the same time. These images were also planned to be a part of a larger project for AmeriCorps NCCC for commercial and collateral use.
The TV spot was the primary goal of the project and they had already planned out their production, so everything was pretty much in place for shooting the stills. John didn’t have to do much planning at all, which was good considering he was taking on the shoot with very little prior notice.
I literally shot over the shoulder of the video crew since they weren’t running audio. The motion storyboards would stand as my shot list while I made the still portraits between takes.
The video crew was very small and they were shooting with vintage anamorphic lenses that took a while to switch out. This provided John with plenty of time to direct his own shots. It worked out great, as John he was able to get the exact shots he wanted for most of the locations. In addition, the agency provided him with a mood board that included some of his own images he shot previously to expand upon.
This shoot was different from John’s normal professional routine. At first, he was anxious about shooting alongside a video crew that he had never met before. This concern vanished when John finally met the team and realized he had collaborated with their client rep previously. John really enjoyed working alongside the whole crew and the volunteers they were photographing.
Everything went smoothly and the whole team just clicked. The NCCC volunteers were all young, energetic and eager to show us what they do. AmeriCorps is an amazing and essential Federal Association.
Although it went smoothly, the shoot was not without its challenges. Their first location was in the mountains near Colorado Springs and they did not have time to adapt to the altitude and extreme heat. Luckily, they had an amazing local production assistant with them that had a truck full of water and advice on how to avoid heat stroke. John appreciated that advice very much! In addition to the tough location, they also had to do quite a bit of stump jumping as they maneuvered the rental SUV off-road into the mountains.
At the second location in San Francisco, they didn’t need to worry about the climate, but John had to capture an NCCC volunteer looking out of a team van while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset during rush hour. As one can imagine, this was not as easy task. To make it even more difficult they needed to capture both stills and video within the same time frame. John was shooting with a Canon DSLR and the video crew was shooting with a RED camera attached to an overhead steady cam harnessed to the DP. They both ended up leaning out of the door with their assistants tethered to them from behind. It was very difficult, but they captured the shots they wanted.
It was an adrenaline filled shot with a view of the sun setting over San Francisco Bay.
John received outstanding feedback from this project and the client was blown away by what they captured. The challenging shots and obstacles were worth it in the end. As John likes to say, “Happy client, happy photographer!” His favorite part of the project was traveling to new places, working with good people and photographing volunteers doing amazing work. And during the two weeks of traveling with his assistant, they made it a point to eat a burger in each new city, which they labeled The Great Burger Tour!
The client was so thrilled with John’s work that they have already scheduled a few more projects with him. John was hired to shoot for AmeriCorps VISTA, and they are about to start five days of shooting for their SeniorCorps and Senior Companion divisions. John is extremely grateful to continue working with such a great organization and an amazing group of people.
John also wanted to make sure to acknowledge one elder volunteer that passed away suddenly after his AmeriCorps VISTA shoot. The volunteer’s fellow VISTA members that had been involved with the shoot contacted John to let him know of his passing and how accurately his photographs had captured their friend’s spirit. They were extremely grateful to have the portrait to remember him by.
These are the kinds of experiences that remind me how lucky I am to be a photographer and how photography can have huge impact on people’s lives.
See more of John at jdph.com!