When five months of work culminate in one big day there is a lot on the line... We as the entire crew of Golf Cognoscente were so fortunate and blessed with all components coming together like MAGIC! It was simply ... Sprezzatura (effortless genius)!The weather was Desert Supreme on Friday Dec. 5 .... clear and sunny mid-70s. We all arrived a day early on Thursday to scout the Awesome Stone Eagle property in haze and clouds. I had tried to add an automotive component to the shoot but to no avail ... well when we were getting ready to make the hike up to the golf course at 1100 feet of elevation, from the pro-shop this retro sounding car pulled up ... a mint condition Champagne 1940 Packard convertible owned by Stone Eagle member Robert MacLochlen. We found a way to get it ON the driving range by way of gravel path and security gate and it was the perfect Gatsby era prop to our shoot.
We combined an HD Video DVD shoot and photo shoot all in one day and ended up with 3.5 hours of High Definition Video content and 680 photographic images. Our Golf Iconoclasts were Stone Eagle Pro Emeritus Al Geiberger, Ashworth principal partner and creative Director John Ashworth and Renaissance Golf Course Architect Tom Doak.
The format is truly one of a kind. Play golf with our feature subjects of Golf Cognoscente Magazine at a spectacular venue and record it photographically and on HD video to create an authentic and visually compelling new multimedia platform in Golf. Scott Clark played a few holes with Tom Doak, yours truly played a few holes with John Ashworth and Tom Doak and John Ashworth played a few holes with John Ashorth draining a 25 footer on the 18th for a natural birdie! The Fashion shoot took place with the Packard on the range and on 18 and 19! My great friend Al Geiberger was our host and instructed both Tom Doak and myself. He also explained the single pivot technique and put some HONMA equipment to the test.
Over the next couple of weeks I will chronicle the entire shoot, but for now I want to thank my business partner Scott Clark, our videographer Whitey Wilson and our photographer Erika Seress for a Fabulous job pulling this all together. Our Golf Cognoscente marketing partners Antas Golf, Marbas, HONMA, Martin Dingman, Walter Genuin, Esquivel, Dorfman-Pacific, Jox Sox, MacKenzie golf bags and E-motion are true visionary companies for coming on board and sharing our vision.
I would like to thank John Fitzpatrick and Ted Lannon of Stone Eagle for allowing us to shoot at Stone Eagle, which Tom Doak calls his most visually dramatic project above Cape Kidnappers and Pacific Dunes ( I have proof ). It was a fantastic experience to shoot our premier issue at such an AWESOME and unique venue. From the pro-shop staff, to the golf pro, to the food & beverage staff ... the treatment was world-class!
Auke
