A two-page spread in trucker's magazines promoting Schneider National's $5000 sign on bonus ran with the banner headline "Bigger Is Better". Mad Dog Marketing's Mary Fawcett needed a photo of a fisherman holding up a huge game fish to drive the idea home, so we worked up this image of an angler hoisting a monster Muskie, the holy grail of sport fishermen.
Two problems presented themselves: One, we didn't have time to fly out to a picturesque fishing spot, so it would have to be shot here in Chicago. After casting Steve Owen of Ford Models to be our happy fisherman, Mary acquired a stock shot of a western lake to serve as the background. We would match the lighting and perspective of the background and shoot Steve on the studio roof deck holding the fish. The second problem was where to get a convincing fish. An afternoon of calling local fishing retailers netted us our prize: A huge mounted tiger Muskie which we could use for the shoot and return. (Many thanks to Ed Shirley's in Morton Grove).
.The morning of the shoot we outfitted our model with the requisite fishing gear and set up shop on the roof deck, using the rising sun as our backlight and some electronic flash to fill in the shadows. Mary and faithful assistant Zander Schrempp viewed the images as they came up on the laptop tethered to the camera, and in fairly short order we had our shot.
Once the best expression was selected, it was time to get downtown Chicago out of the background and place our fisherman into the Idaho lake scene. Further details included closing the fish's mouth slightly and creating a "spray" of water to make the fish look like it was just lifted from the lake.
The ad is currently running in trucker's magazines and web sites.