Standerd Slides

Subject: Shawn Watson, Liquid Force Ad
Photo: Joey Meddock
TSQ Location: Book 2.2, Inside Front Cover

Once again, I was called on entirely late notice to get a shot for the LF ad. They had a shot in mind with Watson, but didn’t really know how it was going to look. All I was told was that they wanted to do something with all ten of his pro-model boards as a dedication to the past 10 years of him being with Liquid Force. I didn’t really know what I was going to do with the boards because I’ve shot some “quivers” before and it’s much more difficult than it looks. It’s tough to get all the boards in one shot (depending on how many there are) and to also show the featured athlete without it looking too staged.

So, for this photoshoot’s challenge, Watson and I had the wind to deal with. As you can see looking at the photo, all of these boards are set up perfect for a Domino falling-over effect. And oh yes, they did fall over, time and time again. It’s kind of funny after the fact because you can tell how frustrated Watson was looking at his face in this photo. We dug a hole with a shovel about 4 inches deep to support the tip of each board but it wasn’t enough to keep them steady. Then, once one board was set, the second and so forth had to be in just the right spot so the symmetry matched based off the angle I was shooting from.

We ended up having to put three cement bricks behind each board to help them stay vertical…after digging several holes to line up the angle properly. We were also blessed that day with 95 degree FL heat and the 100% humidity factor. Fun. All in all, I think the boards were set up a total of ten times. Between drying off the sweat, adjusting the lighting setup, aligning the boards, and dealing with last minute deadline stress, we finally made some progress. When all the elements were finally in place, I fired off a ton of photos in about two minutes. Total shoot time took nearly three hours. Not the ideal situation for a last minute request, but I was pretty stoked on the outcome of the shot.

-Meddock