STORIES FROM THE SET: WASH HOUSE

If you’ve been following the blog long, you know that most of our photoshoots tend to have some degree of difficulty to them. Maybe it’s inclement weather, maybe it’s a remote location which makes logistics a beating, maybe it’s having an insanely early call time or having to shoot overnight. Well, we’re happy to report that we faced absolutely none of that with Wash House!

“Dare I say it was even fun?” shared Mitchell. “It was so easy. Weather, logistics, lodging, food, travel – I guess that's the benefit of essentially shooting in our own backyard with a great partner like the museum, and being in close proximity to our team in Yoakum.”

The end result definitely achieved the appearance that we time traveled back about a hundred years, but in reality, we were just right down the road in Cuero at the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum. (We’ve shouted them out before, but if you haven’t had a chance to visit, definitely take the time for a tour next time you’re in our neck of the woods!) We essentially photographed the entire collection at their old schoolhouse, in a single room, using different backgrounds.

“Being able to photograph an entire catalog in one room is actually unprecedented for Double D, I’m pretty sure,” laughed Mitchell. “Cheryl tends to have very specific visions, and it’s rare that we can capture – or create – them all in a singular space. And we DID have to do some creating for this one, by the way. Leeann Wenske, our marketing manager, and Robert, one of our photo techs, actually built one of the backgrounds themselves.”

“Oh yeah,” Cheryl interjected. “We bid this out to set builders to create something that resembled the wash house I remember from Granny’s house. I won’t even tell you how much they quoted us, but it was definitely cost-prohibitive. We’re so lucky to have such a gem of a museum nearby that was so easy to work with – and a crew that’s not afraid to roll up their sleeves!”

Wash House was not without a little magic-making and some smoke-and-mirrors, though. We pushed the color balance for a cool blue that Cheryl had envisioned for this line.

“It’s a photography trick,” Mitchell explained. “It helped to age the editorial images, to feel like a long-ago time, reminiscent, kind of like when the tint shifts in a television show to let you know you’re watching a flashback. And it aligned with the color palette of the collection, so I think overall it executed really well.”

By now you’ve seen the catalog and the images, so you know the outcome was incredible. And we truly were so lucky to be shooting the entire thing inside, because it did pour down rain one of the days, but we were able to just keep on truckin’. But, perhaps the highlight of the whole thing, was our little guest stars – the Wenske girls!

“Leeann's girls visited the set one day,” Mitchell shared. “She has three daughters, and our three McMullen sisters dressed them up and threw them into the set. It was very sweet, and I think a fun treat for all six of them. You couldn't help but notice a parallel between them dolling up Leeann's girls and the back story for this collection of the McMullen girls playing dress up at their Granny’s.”