Behind the Veil
Posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008
Cloudveil employees got it rough.
Marketing department’s Candice Worthan and Nick Brosnan arrived at the Cache Creek parking lot yesterday morning at 7 a.m.
They met model Katie Stevenson (a marathon runner and master organizer for Teton Valley Ranch Camp’s 70th Anniversary Party) for a catalog shoot. Nick would be the boy model while Candice trudged behind the crew hauling a backpack full of wardrobe and shoe changes.
In the cold morning mountain shadows, Jeff shot the models unloading mountain bikes, Velcroing shoes and mounting their rides before the group took off in search of bright flowers and winding paths.
As the sun crested the peaks, helping the balsam root shimmer, the models made their way up the hill, riding toward Jeff and his D200. They wore next year’s Ts and shorts.
Nick wiped out first, in slow motion, just toppling over as if he had fallen asleep in the saddle. As we all laughed and looked back, Katie followed suit – she falling to the left, he falling to the right. So, we had models splayed across the trail, one behind the other, and four shoes clipped into four bike pedals.
Neither had ever ridden clipless pedals before. Worse still, neither I nor Jeff was quick enough to capture the moment on SD card.
They both laughed it off and powered up the hill toward the idyllic mountain meadow. They were soon fully into the catalog shoot rhythm: ride down, shoot, ride up, shoot, ride down, shoot. Strip n’ change, ride down, shoot, ride up, shoot.
I must apologize to those who flip through catalog pages imagining photographers just stumbling upon beautiful people wearing Cloudveil apparel, mountain biking together through alpine flowers. You must know: some of those photographs are orchestrated. Still, the models are actually mountain biking and they actually are outside. There’s no artificial lighting, no silk backdrops. It’s real mud, real tires and real muscles.
Yesterday morning, Jeff crouched in wildflowers waiting for the perfect pony tail swing and the strongest uphill pedal stroke and Katie and Nick sported Aruba blue and Taxi orange with style and grace.
The crew spent about four hours in the flowers, streams and trails, took a break and then went out to Grand Teton National Park for an afternoon hike.
Not bad for an office job.
