Sunshine on a cloudy day

When Erik Almas was commissioned to photograph some nature scenes for a Washington state tourism campaign, the weather was so dreary that the agency nearly bagged the shoot. "We were almost thinking about pulling the plug," says art director Brad Dundas of Foote Cone & Belding Seattle.

Almas, however, was undeterred. He turned a couple of rainy, overcast days into three rich images with a different look and feel than most travel ads. Washington, after all, isn't the Bahamas.

"They are a little different than other tourist marketing," Almas says. Dundas says the agency chose Almas after viewing one of his postcards and his web site and deciding his style was a good match for the campaign.

The "Say WA" ads that Almas shot include a couple relaxing in a hot spring, a woman stomping grapes at a vineyard, and some hikers overlooking a canyon. The ads are currently running in travel magazines like Budget Travel and Travel & Leisure. FCB creative director Mary Knight and art buyer Amber Geiger also worked on the campaign.

At the shoots, Almas photographed the scenery on 4x5 film and the models digitally, then composited the shots in postproduction. He says he uses film because he likes the slower process of composing a picture that way.

Getting to the locations was a bit of a challenge, Almas says, particularly hiking up a stream for the hot springs shot.

The majestic clouds in the ads were added later. Almas is fond of shooting clouds, and carries a camera in his car when he drives around. "You collect them as you go," he says. For the Say WA campaign, the clouds are separate shots from Almas' collection of cloud pictures.

The client initially asked for some wildlife to be included in the shots, so the agency obligingly placed a taxidermied raccoon and squirrel in two of the shots. The effect wasn't quite right, so the critters got cut later. The overall look of the ads, though, impressed the client.

"I know they really loved Erik and his work and he really made the state look unique and different," Dundas says.

And Erik's resourcefulness on rainy days also won him points with the agency. "He had such a good attitude and that really helped," Dundas says.