Behind the September J.Crew Catalog

There is a new post over at J.Crew's 770 blog, called "Setting the Scene" by Ashley Sargent Price, art director in chief. She shares a few quotes about the photos of Saint Petersburg that made it into the catalog.

Because so many things factor into getting the picture right— timing the light, choosing angles, editing backgrounds—our scouting days are crucial. In Russia, our planning ended up translating literally. Our scouting snapshots matched the final catalog edit almost exactly. –Ashley

We wanted the iconic Hermitage Museum to frame the model, not compete with her. Shooting at a low angle makes her long and elegant.

Canal + cobblestone + traditional onion dome architecture = quintessential Saint Petersburg.

Turn the camera a few degrees and you can’t avoid the growing crowd. Shooting into the building (with a tight crop) gave us control over the background and highlights one of our location musts, the Mariinsky Theatre (one-time home to Mikhail Baryshnikov).

Many of the dance studios we scouted were basic and dark. When we found these windows, I knew we had to take advantage of the milky (and ever forgiving) backlight.

Shooting from the bottom of the hill hides the groups of tourists visiting the Spas na Kravi Church without obstructing the picture-worthy architecture

A happy accident—we stumbled upon this location while scouting a bridge nearby.

Timing is everything! This picture taken an hour later in the day wouldn’t have worked—once the sun gets too high, the light instantly turns hard and unflattering.

This really is one of J.Crew's better blog posts. This is exactly what I want to see more of— these behind the scenes look at how J.Crew puts together their catalogs. LOVES IT!

What are your thoughts on the J.Crew blog post? Do you like learning more about their location catalogs?