I was asked to help shoot the Brooks Running Europe campaign. A happy man and with a long way to travel to meet the crew. The destination this time was in sunny South Africa, from The Netherlands there is no time difference but I had to come for the east. Perth the be more detailed in West Australia. The jetlag was a tough one but, I did have a couple of days to adjust, great slowly get in the African rhythm and clean my lenses and empty the memory cards while hiding from the 40+ knots of winds under a crystal blue sky which I recognise form the Mystic days. We had an beautiful house in Camps Bay to call home during the shoot but on arrival we unfortunately didn’t end up getting the place. It was a scam. Locations scouting was meant to be done by the art director and production but because of the house situation, there was a lot of stress to find a house for 14 people with the pressure of the shoot coming up and we. Well I guess everything happens for a reason and it did, Booking.com helped us out and we ended up with an even more beautiful place.
The strong winds finally settled and so the shoot could start. As always we had lots of shoes and apparel to shoot the coming days and not having the locations sorted doesn't help. These days their are so many film crew working in Cape Town and we’re all battling for the same locations and to be allowed to shoot you have to have permits for pretty much every pavement in the city. So, another challenges for the production crew and challenges for Ivo de Bruijn (second photographer) and I. Luckily we were working with a crew we know very well and the Athletes helps to create those great images we grasveld down for. The only thing we struggle with was the more urban locations, Brooks wished we had found more urban settings which is hard when the country has so much beauty on offer and the struggle with the permits. Besides at two locations we had to have a gunman to protect us next to us. Welcome, Cape Town. We’ve always felt safe and I understand that the proportion needed to be taken. The days after the shoot we treated ourselves with wines for the Franschhoek wine region and a beautiful pealing left header at Elands Bay where we surf for two days in the mist, hiding for the African sun. Perfect.
