Just a few short weeks ago, the Patriots Cheerleaders traveled to the beautiful island of St. Lucia, courtesy of JetBlue, to shoot their first-ever fitness calendar. Hosted for the second time by beautiful Coconut Bay Beach Resort & Spa, this gorgeous all-inclusive served as the perfect backdrop for all of the photos for our 16-month calendar and our fitness videos! Shooting mid-July to produce a calendar to have in hand for September 1 was no easy task. First there was in-store and on-line shopping. Lots and lots of shopping! Yandy provided so many beautiful outfits, definitely simplifying the process! Director, Tracy Sormanti, carefully paired each cheerleader in advance, so each page will feature two squad members, wearing complimentary apparel. Upon arriving in St. Lucia, cheerleaders were surprised with the announcement of who they were shooting with, and given their outfits.
A photographer from Los Angelas, Megan Batson, was hired to shoot this year's calendar, and met the cheerleaders on their layover flight. Upon landing in St. Lucia, Tracy and Megan scouted the resort, viewed all of the outfits and began planning the shoots; best time to shoot at each location based on time of day lighting, which cheerleaders would work best at each, etc. The make-up artist, Lisa Roche, and hair stylist, Jen Tawa, were busy all day, styling the cheerleaders, with fun music and motivational signs posted on the walls. KISS lashes and nails were set up in the room to complete the styling, and we even had a spray tan unit set up for those who wanted an extra "glow". Some teammates chose to spend free time in the hair and makeup room, watching their friends get ready for their shoots. Others were busy with the 5-member video crew, shooting a series of "Focus on Fitness" videos and a few other surprise content pieces which we'll be posting throughout the season, beginning shortly!
Once all 34 cheerleaders were photographed, we got to say, "that's a wrap"! We enjoyed a great flight home, with fond memories of a fun trip, but with a LOT of work ahead. Between 300 – 500 photos of every shoot were taken and Megan (working from Turks and Caicos), and Tracy (working from Foxborough), both worked independently to narrow down each set to their favorite 5 images. They shared, looked for cross-overs, and made the selection for each page. Megan color corrected images, sent to our graphics team and the final 16 photos were ready 2 days before the print deadline.
The final step was selecting the cover image. A focus group was formed, as we were successful with this process last year. A group of 8 men and women were chosen to receive 4 of the 16 images, and asked to rank them in the order of their preference. We are certain fans are going to love cover as much as the focus group did, as the choice was almost unanimous. We are just as certain that fans will enjoy the entire calendar as it can be described as fresh, healthy, beautiful, fun and spirited. It will be available in the Patriots ProShop and the online ProShop beginning September 1.
Cheers to a healthy and fit year!
