2012 Sea Gals Calendar Launched

Each year brings new challenges and opportunities, and this year much of my late spring/early summer was spent photographing the 2012 Seattle Sea Gals calendar. The calendar has just been released for sale, and I can finally share the cover image from the shoot.

With the help of two great assistants in Jon Hawley and Joe Nicholson, we photographed 32 dancers in two days (!) in and around CenturyLink Field. Mark Terao of Pure Image, Inc. produces the calendar, and everything is overseen by Sherri Thompson, the longtime Sea Gals director. I think I had the easiest job of anyone — shooting and directing the photos. Jon and Joe hauled c-stands, packs, lights, modifiers and sand bags over nearly every inch of the stadium and were amazing to work with.

I found it interesting that the big questions after the shoot were where in the calendar which dancer would appear — which month, in which of the multiple uniforms they’re photographed in, and the big question — who was chosen for the cover?  Sports Illustrated does the same with their supermodels for their annual swimsuit issue. “Who got the cover” becomes the big question.

What was interesting wasn’t so much that the women themselves were kept in the dark — it’s that I had no idea either. I’d see Sea Gals at training camp or other appearances and they’d ask how their photo looked and could I tell them what month they were? They absolutely didn’t believe me when I told them I didn’t know who was on the cover, much less who was going to appear in which month. The way I was kept in the dark is that the Mark and Sherri sent me multiple images of each woman to prep, leaving me with no idea which of the 60+ images I did post-production on would appear in the final version of the calendar.

Hopefully, they’ll believe me now, right? Btw, that’s Gelly on the cover…

Having spent most of the past two decades on the sidelines and baselines,  I’m no stranger to professional dance teams and the women who comprise them. Contrary to popular stereotype, these are not vapid, air-headed women who are only concerned with appearance and fame. Members of the Sea Gals include attorneys, business owners, teachers and college students. They practice two-to-three times a week, have performances outside of games, and do charitable work as well. They are hard-working and professional women who are great to work with.

The calendar is a fundraiser for the team. Proceeds help them with uniforms, travel and other costs. I’ll update this post with links to purchase the calendar as soon as they become available.

Lastly, in the next few weeks I’ll post some actual images from the shoot and what went into each of them.