Photo shoots, like golf swings, have a lot of moving parts. The challenge lies in trying to keep them all in sync.
GOLFâs recent day with Michelle Wie in San Francisco was a dawn-to-dusk exercise in coordinationâthe crews and the equipment, the sets, the locationsâcomplicated by Mother Natureâs failure to cooperate. Rain, fog, icy winds and only intermittent sun made a mess of well-laid plans, prompting a slew of on-the-fly adjustments.
âThere was always going to be a certain amount of challenge given all the setups we had to capture,â says the shootâs producer, Jason Stafford of Shoot It Productions. âBut when the weather hit, it definitely threw a wrench into our plans.â
Still, photography and video crews, like Tour pros, are trained to adapt. New locations were arranged. Makeup artists and stylists scrambled. GOLFâs team of videographers, and veteran photographer Dewey Nicks, adjusted. The one constant in this scene of constant change was Wie herself, an unpretentious star who endured it allâthe long hours on set, the last-minute changesâwith the patient, cheerful manner of the down-to-earth luminary that she is.
âIn situations like we had, the star can make or break you,â Stafford says, âand Michelle Wie absolutely made it for us. She was incredible. She rolled with it all and made it easier for everyone. If she werenât the kind of person that she is, it would have made it a very, very difficult day.â