Dream It. Make It. (Or...when schedules and the stars are misaligned.)

One of the coolest projects we’ve worked on has been a series of ad campaigns for Palomar Health. Palomar wanted a fresh look to go with their gorgeous new hospital building. What excited us most about the project was the creative freedom they gave us: they wanted something unique that didn’t look like stock or like any ad campaign their competitors were running. Our first shoot centered around their Medevac and Life Flight emergency services.

This shoot in particular presented some challenges. They wanted us to use real staff members, not models. We needed to work fast so as not to disturb their busy schedules doing what they do best: saving lives. In addition, the Life Flight team was willing to participate but would have to be on call during the shoot, meaning they might lift off and speed away at any moment.

Our solution was to shoot the image as a composite. With most of the planning taking place in pre-production, the shoot went quickly and could be broken down into separate elements to lessen the time commitment for the staff. In addition, the final image could be adjusted specifically for various print and TV outlets. You can check out a step by step of the final image assembly below.

The second campaign we produced was focused on their Cardiac Unit. They wanted the same style as the Medevac shoot, but this time the main challenge was photographing 5 staff (all on call that morning) and placing them in a “superhero” environment that really expressed the modern, cutting edge technology available in Palomar’s Cardiac facility. Again, we proposed a composite image as a solution.

This time, the doctors were photographed on white seamless with lighting that would match the background once it was built. They each had about 5 minutes of time to give, which was plenty for our needs. Then, we spent a few hours photographing elements of Palomar’s Cath Lab to use when creating the final space. You can see the editing process from start to finish below.

We are also very proud to announce that the Palomar Health Print Ad Series “Passion People Purpose”, with all images photographed by us, won Gold at the Health Care Communications Finest Awards. Their TV and multimedia advertising, in which our images play a part, also won.