Post #6 – USCG Marketing Photoshoot – Miami, FL – March 2019
The US Coast Guard has probably been my favorite client thus far in my career. I love the content we get to capture, the creative freedom, the new situations we are put into, and the team I work with.
I decided to drive down to Miami From Maryland (big mistake, 2,200 miles total) for the week and stay in South Beach which was only a couple minutes from base. It took around 16 hours to reach Miami, which I did, at 4am. I’ve never been before and was immediately impressed by how much bigger it was than I thought it would be and seeing skyscrapers lit up different colors in the middle of the night and en empty road headed right downtown.
We started off on the water the first day on a 150+ ft cutter that was already out in the ocean for a few days. It was equipped with a smaller boat that was launched off the backside, a full kitchen and a crew. Thoughout the shoot I was able to capture a staged boat chase, cutters doing maneuvers with Miami & the sunset in the background, and some water rescues. We also had some really fantastic food the crew whipped up for us after a full day of shooting on the boat. The USCG has always been super hospitable to our crew on every shoot.
The last shot felt like a race against time to get the sunset & boat pretty much how I wanted it. I wasn’t expecting to ever be telling the Coast Guard what to do, but here I was telling them how to maneuver so we could get the right shots. It was pretty silent on the water that evening until they boats would come at us full speed while Nico & I were on the bow, they would get within 20-30 ft at full speed right on their side. I got to be on the other end when it was the video crew’s turn to capture out boat going full – speed and doing maneuvers all over the bay. I got knocked around a little bit, but I loved it. My D4 got bounced around too, but like any Nikon I’ve ever owned, they just keep working.
A great week of sun, ocean, fish, good food, a great crew, drones, good beers, fantastic footage, boat chases, Wynwood graffiti, and tacos. Can’t wait to go back one day.
