Bridgerland Phone Book Cover Shoot

This is a text included mock up of the final photo that was selected...

This is the final pick photo before text...

I was commissioned to shoot the 2009 Bridgerland Phone Book cover shot. The Bridgeland Phone Book is in its 26th year of printing and distributes over 75,000 copies each year.

The concept I was given to work within is red vintage hot rod cars with a cache valley icon as a background. This final photo combination tied together the signature color of the Bridgerland Phone Book "Red", with the owners love of the Cache Valley Cruise In and vintage cars, and an iconic Cache Valley Landmark (Utah State University's Old Main Building). I shot several nice images with the vintage cars in various positions on the USU Quad, after narrowing it down to 4 images the phonebook company owners (Tom and Wendy) picked their favorite.

The one minor nitpick of the image was that it was preferred (by the client) to have 6 or 7 cars in the photo, but due to the vertical nature of the phonebook cover and the desire to have the cars prominently up front it wasn't practical to have more than three complete cars. The other issue that bugs me a little is that I prefer to have only one main focal point and this image has two (cars and "A"), but I have to keep telling myself this isn't fine art after all and its going to need strong focal points to compete with all that text anyhow! If I didn't have a client to appease and had all the say and more time, I would have tried a shot from the front of the old main in evening light with just one car...

What I like about the photo is the use of many compositional concepts within one image. I used simple framing at the top of the image with the leaves, which also gave contrast to the forth coming text. I used an angled leading line ie the sidewalk edges to lead the eye into the photo, adding a more 3 dimensional look and feel as well as having a clear foreground (sidewalk) and significant mid ground (the cars) as well as a interesting background (the "A" old main tower) to enhance the sense of depth of the composition. I also used the rule of 3rds once specifically for the placemnt of the red cars in a horizontal sense and once again for the placement of the "A" old main tower in a vertical sense. The biggest mistake rookies make in shooting scenic is not having interesting elements in all their grounds covered ie "fore-", "mid-", and "back-" often a rookies scenic/landscape type pics only have a background and that is about it. I used the angle of the cars and the angle of the cars to enhance depth and add interest, plus lines that are angled, ie not parallel to the photos sides or top add interest and relief to for the eyes.

All in all the final results are great and the client is very happy so, job well done in my book.

A special thanks to Ed Black and the car owners for their valuable time and organizational help!

This image was liked but was passed on as the client felt the cars weren't prominent enough, and the car owners all were wanting that front car spot, and did not like being in the smaller rear 3 or 4 slots...I liked the sense of distance/3D that the angled line of cars gives the image...and it was one of the few ways I could incorporate all 6 cars into the image as that is what the client was hoping for.


What I like about this photo is that by cutting off cars it gives the illusion that there are more cars than are really are. I can easily imagine this as a shot taken during or after an auto show on the quad. Client and car owners didn't like the cars being "cut-off". I like the huge band of the signature color red and the prominence of the cars...


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