I was commissioned by the US Virgin Islands Tourist Board in the Caribbean to do a large photo shoot of all three Caribbean islands islands. We ended up staying on each island for a week. It was hard work with early morning shoots requiring a 3:30 rise and shine call to action. But it was all well worth it.
You can see a portfolio selection of the work from these Caribbean islands here. My favorite Island after all the “looking around” was St Croix. I had a great producer for the shoot, Todd Hecht. Todd knew every nook and cranny of all three islands and was a tremendous help in getting unique images. We also had the staff from J. Walter Thompson Advertising agency who was supervising the project for the Virgin Islands.
One of the more interesting photo ops was Miss Vie’s Snack Shack. A cute little eatery out on the east end of St. John. Since all the photos were going to be used to advertise the Virgin Islands we needed model releases from the people. Well miss Vie was having none of it. Even though it meant some really good advertising for her. She was convinced we would take her head and paste it on a nude body, then post it all over the internet. It took Deb, my wife and assistant producer almost a half hour to convince her otherwise.
visit other Caribbean Islands
Last but not least, one of my favorite photos from the shoot. Actually I have a number of favorite shots. But this one was a pleasant surprise. We were having problems with the lighting on this shot We figured we would not get what we wanted. Advances in digital cameras had given me some options. So using them in photoshop we were able to pull this one out. This has all the elements for advertising a destination in the caribbean.
Wait, I have one more favorite to show you. This shot was done at the Cruzan Rum Distillery. After aging the rum in oak barrels they have to knock the bung out and pore it into a trough. This drains into a filter system before being sent off to bottle. The gentleman in this picture has been doing this one job for 25 years. He signed the model release with an X. S I wanted to capture the action. We lighted the scene I got the shot in one take!
Have you been to the Virgin Islands? What was your favorite island?
Gary
