How to piece together a story
It took me 3 years to take the picture above. Let me explain. I took the following pictures 3 years ago. I was shooting at the skate park and I got inspired by the image of the girl on top of the ramp wearing Dr. Martens.
I am drawn to minimal images where the subject is isolated, so when I saw her hang her foot over the edge of the ramp I immediately thought "this would be a cool Dr. Marten ad!"
I kept shooting and I saw how dedicated she was to taking videos and pictures of her boyfriend (the guy on the bike). She was the only one willing to sit right in the middle of the ramp where the bikes land to get the perfect shots for his social media pages. Then, I saw these two black girls sitting on the opposite side with their phones out. Their facial expressions showed just how impressed they were with his skill, but they still made sure they were out of the way.
I left and forgot all about this day, the Dr. Marten ad... all of it. 3 Years later I was looking for an old picture and stumbled across these! So, I felt inspired to actually finish the shoot as if Dr. Marten hired me.
I went on their website and saw their "Rise above the Rest" campaign, and I thought, "this is perfect"
My story will surround bike/skate culture. No, you can't wear Dr. Martens to skate or bike, but the spectators sure do! The image of the biker's girlfriend shows that she too had to "Rise above the Rest" to get footage of him!
Anyway I shot a few more images (above) that would go along with the spread (if they were to go in a magazine". We( as if Dr. Marten is participating, lol) Needed some close up product images to go along with the wide action shot. So I went and bought some shoes.
This is what I landed on!
Good storytelling is when you can take random pieces and put them together to tell a cohesive story, even if they are shot years apart.
If you are interested in working with me on a project, shoot me an email and we can chat!