Rangefinder Magazine
November 2005

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Lifestyle Photographer Chase Jarvis Lorraine A. DarConte
Keeping It Real

While on assignment for Freeskier magazine and the Swiss Tourism Department in the Jungfrau Region of Switzerland, this image came together after a storm left two feet of fresh snow. We were beneath this large cliff, and the skier model, Scott Rinckenberger, hiked into position above me. He threw a series of snowballs so we could locate which line he’d have to take to be on the horizon from where I was shooting. Via radio contact, my assistant timed his dropping into the chute with a reprieve from the wind. Scott blazed through powder field exactly on line, and I let the motor-drive blaze. (Nikon F5, Fujichrome Provia)

To keep production costs low for this Diamondback bicycle campaign, we had to make Seattle look like Southern California. We scouted the two sandy beaches in the region and decided on this one. We didn’t have a permit, so we kept our production crew small (about 10 people). We used one on-camera Nikon SB-80DX to fill the foreground and a radio-controlled SB-80DX to fill the two trailing riders. We moved down the beach a little for background “extras”—just everyday beach-goers whom we hadn’t hired. I shot this image running backwards down the boardwalk in front of the models. The overall feel of the image, its exposure and the foreground model’s facial expression make the shot. We succeeded in making August in Seattle feel like July in Santa Barbara. (Nikon D1X)

This lifestyle shot from the Eastern Washington desert is an atypical product shot: You’re not looking at the front of the product, and it’s shot with a tilt and shift lens. Also, this is one of those off moments I love to catch. I had the models head out to the rocky ledge and wait while our production crew picked up from the last shot. While they waited I started photographing them without their knowing, so they were being natural.

Chase Jarvis is one photographer who has turned his camera toward this evolving market. “A lifestyle photo,” says Jarvis, “is not people actually doing ‘the thing,’ but doing the things around the thing.” For example, he notes, if he was shooting a camping scene for REI (manufacturers of camping gear), traditionally that might entail a photo of people cooking around a campfire. But in a lifestyle photo, the campers would be packing up the car or tent or playing Frisbee at the campsite. The situations he photographs are, he says, “slightly more real. They evoke more of the ‘off moments’ in life—what a normal person does—not the perfectly designed and captured moments that habitually appeared in advertisements a number of years ago.

“A good example is skateboarding,” states Jarvis, who cut his teeth photographing action sports. In the past, he would focus on the art of the sport. But today, much of his portfolio evolves around the sport’s “lifestyle,” which includes what skateboarders (or skiers, or runners, etc.) do when not skateboarding.

“I’ve tuned into the sensibilities of many of the subcultures,” explains Jarvis, “including their fashion and music sides, in order to continue developing my work in a more authentic and compelling way.”

From Philosophy to Photography
Jarvis has a degree in philosophy and even completed pre-med. “But when push came to shove, I bailed on medical school,” he admits. “After college, I moved to Steamboat, CO, a ski bum town with a very laid-back lifestyle. I had just inherited a camera from my grandfather who passed away. So there I was in this great environment with all these great athletes, doing the things I enjoyed—skiing, snowboarding and fly-fishing.

“I was meeting a lot of nice people who wer`e on the cusp of being famous, and I started taking their pictures.” Jarvis submitted and sold the images to magazines, and a career was born. “My experience in that niche became really solid, and I knew what a good photo was and what was authentic.” Jarvis was able to connect with a lot of companies based on his ability to photograph real athletes in real situations as opposed to something produced in a studio environment or by a photographer unfamiliar with sports.

Bottom left: I shot this image for First Team Sports, a Minneapolis-based company that owns the Ultrawheels inline skate brand, at their catalog and ad campaign shoot in San Diego. This image wasn’t storyboarded. We were crossing the bridge towards a scouted location when I looked down and saw this shot. We nailed it in 15 minutes and went on to the location. This image didn’t appear in the catalog but has gone on to sell more that 100 times at gettyImages.com. (Nikon F5, Fujichrome Velvia)

“I saw a lot of stuff out there that didn’t work,” he notes. “For instance, an SUV advertisement featuring a rock climber climbing without gear. He wasn’t a real climber, and if [the company] was truly trying to attract that demographic, they needed a real climber with real gear. Instead, they inadvertently insulted the consumer. So by knowing the right equipment, etc., I was able to make a name for myself.”

Although Jarvis became quite successful at photographing people who risked their lives playing out their sports fantasies, he yearned to broaden his horizons. “I was becoming tired of hearing the questions, ‘Are you in Alaska?’ ‘Are there 22 inches of fresh snow?’ and, ‘Do you have a guy that’s willing to do a back-flip off an 80-foot cliff?’ There’s a narrow market for people doing back-flips off cliffs,” he states. “And once you’ve done that, you can always resort to it if need be. I started looking for broader clients, such as airlines and automotives, because so much more creativity is expected of the photographer.”

More Real, Less Ideal
Jarvis hasn’t abandoned sports photography. instead he’s helped develop a new niche where the images are less extreme and more real. “Authenticity is the way in which my work stands out from other people’s,” explains Jarvis. He’s not talking about cliché images either, such as a shot of a guy running down the beach with a surfboard. “It’s more about a guy struggling to get his wet suit on,” he says. “It’s a little bit more real and a little bit less ideal.”

“I do like to use professional models,” admits Jarvis, “but I’m pretty specific about the kind of models I hire. They’re usually good looking, but that’s not the primary goal of casting. They have to be surfers or runners, depending on what I’m shooting. I used to focus primarily on having the best athlete, but as the lifestyle elements in my work emerged, I thought, hey, let’s get people who aren’t the most core. I don’t need Tony Hawk [skateboard legend] for this ad because it doesn’t involve getting upside down on a skateboard 20 feet out of the ramp.” Instead, he looks for someone who grew up skateboarding but perhaps now is an Audi engineer. “They have modeling experience, they look the part, they are authentically involved, but they aren’t cutting-edge athletes.”

Jarvis’ methodology varies depending on location, crew size, etc. “Generally, I like to have the models go through the mo- tions—such as grabbing their surfboards and running down to the beach—before I shoot. I just stand and watch and look for the little moments where someone stumbles or jumps over a rock. Then I tell them I’d like to do it again, but I want to focus on a couple of loca- tions along the way; for instance, everyone jumped over this rock, it looked good, the sun was setting, blah, blah, blah. [The shoot] always starts out as something authentic, and then I can shape it to a storyboard or layout. If the art director says the models need to come in from the left side of the frame, I can tweak it to accommodate the specific needs of the shot or project.”

Jarvis uses film and digital almost equally. “I really enjoy the digital realm—I sleep bet- ter at night,” he says. “But I shoot whatever the client wants, and I shoot just about every camera I own on every gig. Even if the client wants digital, I’ll shoot a few rolls of film and vice versa.” Jarvis notes that many of his clients that are wary of digital, once exposed to it, wind up using those images for the obvious reasons—they save time and money. When using film, he shoots Fujichrome Provia 100F and 400F, Velvia 100F, Fujicolor NPZ 800 and NPS 160; Kodak Ektachrome 100G, 100GX Print, Portra 160VC and NC, 400 VC and NC, 800; and Ilford 400 XP2 and Delta 400.

Jarvis’ cameras of choice include a Hasselblad H1. “I cannot say enough great things about the H1; it’s an incredible machine. It features autofocus and shoots 2½ frames per second. With the H1, I was really able to light up the lifestyle images because it winds quickly, and I’m catching those unposed, ‘off’ moments— the moments right before and after the model is ready.” Jarvis also utilizes a slew of 35mm Nikon F5s and “every gosh-darn lens they make.” He also shoots Nikon’s digital series, the D1X and D2H, depending on how many frames per second and/or file size he needs.

To photograph skiing and snowboarding, we often shoot from helicopters. In this shot, we did not. We were on assignment for Freeskier maga- zine with members of Atomic Ski’s Freeride Team. The Silverton Ski Area, a skiers’ and snowboarders’ paradise near Telluride, CO, was closed this day to everyone but our crew of eight, which meant we had ample deep, untracked powder and the ability to stop the chairlift at will. We agreed on a general location, and the athletes took the chairlift ahead of us and waited at the designated spot. My assistant and I boarded the chairlift, equipped with a radio. When we glided above the location, we radioed the chair operator to stop the chair. From this bird’s eye view, I photographed the skiers making turns in the deep, fresh snow. The sunlight behind the skiers cast beautiful shadows, so I worked to incorporate them into the shot. This image of Rex Thomas became the cover of the 2004 Freeskier Photo Annual. (Nikon F5, Fujichrome Provia)

It’s Not All About Him
Jarvis has always relied on word of mouth to promote his photography, but he recently tried his hand at a few more conventional methods. “I had a solid niche in my industry, but as I was working beyond the borders of this niche for larger agencies and European clients, I needed to find creative ways to reach these people.

“I’ve always had a pretty good web site, but recently I really sank a lot of time, energy and money into making it exactly what I wanted,” states Jarvis. “I had fantastic designers helping me out, but it was also important that I consider it a marketing tool and that it reflected professionalism and authenticity.”

He also placed a few ads in sourcebooks, but it’s his mail campaign that garnered him the most attention. The series of eight, four-fold brochures, featured the personalities of eight people he previously worked with—from schoolteachers who were weekend warriors to pro skateboarders. “The people were the core of the concept,” says Jarvis. “Each piece talked specifically about that person. The pictures spoke for themselves, and at the end of the piece it says if you’re interested in this kind of photography, contact my office.

“I researched and customized the mailing list to specific agencies I wanted to work with—more lifestyle clients such as the beverage industry, music, and airlines. I mailed about 250, one every three weeks. The response I got blew my expectations out of the water,” says Jarvis. “I got emails from art directors who said the campaign stood out because it talked about other people rather than me.” As a result of the mailers, Jarvis was hired for several jobs from companies he targeted.

“These days, my primary endeavor is about exploring young, healthy, 18- to 38-year-old urbanites who are doing things I like to photograph. I like to record the lives of active people,” he reiterates, “but I don’t want to be classified as an extreme sports photographer.” In the past, companies that produced products for outdoor use, primarily sports, were Jarvis’ main clients. “But I’ve since carved out a ‘softer’ niche of the same types of shots—action and lifestyle—to supply a pipeline of images to a wider variety of clients including, video game companies, deodorants, global mega-brands, banks, you name it, even Fortune 500 companies.”

Today, Jarvis’ client list has grown to include prestigious companies such as Apple, Budweiser, Southwest Airlines, and T-Mobile. Jarvis currently lives and operates out of Seattle, but in November he and his wife (who, luckily, speaks fluent French) will open a second office in Paris. “The advertising market is growing in Paris, and it’s central to London and Munich where they’re doing a lot of work I identify with. I’m hoping it will be a fun business move.” Concludes Jarvis, “I’ve got the best job on the whole planet; I couldn’t be happier.”

	(Left) I was on an art-directed winter lifestyle and snowmobile shoot for Getty Images, and our models, Scott and Lucia, were growing restless as we set up for our next shot. They started jumping around to stay warm and laughing. Struck by their spontaneity, I grabbed my H1 and let fly with a few frames, letting the pop-up flash work its magic. (Hasselblad H1, Kodak Portra 160VC)
	(below) For Seattle-based Brooks Sports’ 2005 catalog, our mission was to shoot Brooks product in front of atypical Seattle landmarks. The famous Experience Music Project, a Frank Gehry-designed Seattle landmark, boasts a metal façade that makes sunlight do cool, trippy things. The idea for this image came after seeing a friend’s snapshot: What if you juxtaposed a natural image of a runner and that peculiar building? I pitched the idea to Brooks’ art director, Melissa Hanson, and she liked it. (Nikon D1X)
		(left) These shots of Alfonzo Rawls are really cool because of their simplicity. The portrait was shot with a softbox, and the action image is au natural. Alfonzo is a retired pro skater from Southern California. He invented a compulsory move called the indy kickflip. He’s a great innovator for the sport, and a really nice guy. I was lucky enough to work with Alfonzo on this Corbis shoot art directed by Peter Schnaitmann. I haven’t seen it yet, but I was told Apple Computer licensed images from this shoot for a collage in an ongoing lifestyle campaign. (Hasselblad H1, Kodak Portra 160VC)