When Scott works with a company to photograph their products, the approach he takes is shaped by the company’s story and message. Telling the story of a brand is different for each project Scott takes on. For NOMAR — a Homer, Alaska-based luggage, clothing, fishery gear, and custom upholstery and boat cover company — their story is one that Scott lives out in his own life.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Scott. He’s very easy to work with, said Jen Hakala of NOMAR. “The quality, the artistic eye that he has, it’s incredible. Our focus for too long has been our little Homer niche and our Alaska niche and, for going world-wide, he has that vision and can tell a story better than we were doing.”
NOMAR initially approached Scott to take photos for their new website because they knew that he understood their story: rugged Alaska living that embraced life in any weather, at any time of the year. Scott’s experience, such as surfing in Alaska before the snow has melted and as captain of the M/V Milo, coincides with the lifestyles and people NOMAR makes their products for.
“They know I’m going and doing the things that their products are built for. They didn’t want their clothing to just be on a white background.”
As Scott began to work with NOMAR, it was discovered that their website was not functioning in the way they wanted, so Scott also took up the job of creating a modern website for the company. NOMAR’s new website has a clean design that prominently features products, allowing customers to quickly find the items they want. To achieve this, Scott used Shopify, which also provides NOMAR with the ability to manage inventory, fulfill orders and track sales within a customizable website.
With the website in place, Scott is now focusing on the photography side of the project. The goal is to photograph all of NOMAR’s products for their website as well as general marketing needs, which includes visuals for trade shows, in-store displays and hang-tags.
“A big part is creating images that tell the story of how the products were designed to be used. It’s about creating authentic lifestyle moments — integrating NOMAR products into the lifestyle shoots I am already doing, or doing lifestyle shoots specifically for NOMAR. I was doing a shoot with Atz Kilcher and I brought some extra products along — he already had some. I did a shoot with Salmon Sisters and we photographed them using their NOMAR bags.”
When Scott does a NOMAR shoot, he is capturing actual life moments in Alaska. The first batch of photos he has produced for NOMAR take place in winter. The people live and work in the outdoor environment they are photographed in. They are going on an April surf trip, staying at a remote cabin in February, or checking on the homestead’s chickens. It would be hard to get the same authentic feel on a staged shoot.
“You live it; you can’t fake it. Stuff that’s authentic looks authentic. Stuff that is staged looks staged.”
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