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Cam McLeod

Home Base / Eden, UT 84310, USA

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Overview

Photography

Adventure Lifestyle Portrait

Film

Director

Biography

Cam has traveled the world shooting skiing and adventure sports for commercial and editorial clients, including Columbia Sportswear, Rossignol, Atomic, and Ortovox, to name a few. Known for his cinematic style and an authentic perspective, Cam is sought after by companies and magazines who are looking to build complex storylines from a single frame. “I’m constantly looking for layers and depths in images that feel genuine,” he says. “Images that have a lot of emotion.”

Born and raised in western Michigan, Cam McLeod attended a small liberal arts college where he studied health sciences with a focus on exercise science and human movement. In 2009, he moved to Utah to pursue graduate school as a physician assistant. But Utah’s mountains lured him in another direction. As a self-taught photographer, he began shooting local skiers, mostly friends.

In 2015, a photo he took of a relatively unknown skier making a deep powder turn under a tree in Myoko, Japan landed on the cover of Powder magazine, and it earned a nomination for the magazine’s photo of the year. “That really helped my career take off,” he says. “More athletes wanted to work with me. That’s how I got introduced to the people at Warren Miller and it’s how I started shooting for Helly Hansen.”

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Cam’s the rare collaborator who does the work to understand brand goals while bringing the creativity and versatility to elevate each project. He holds himself and every project to the highest standard and clearly communicates to the brand and to the talent to ensure we yield great results every time.

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Nick Castagnoli

Brand Marketing Director, Rossignol Group North America.

On location in Iceland during a year long campaign across the globe with Columbia Sportswear.

I love getting close. Not with a long lens from afar, creating an illusion of closeness but in there tight, with the subject. I want you to feel like you were there, like you were a part of the moment.

To McLeod, being a good listener is especially important when working in risky mountain environments, where shoots require a collaboration between the environment, the athletes, and the creative team. “We need to listen to the mountains and to the team in order to make safe decisions to execute a job without risking people’s lives,” he says. “Your ears are as important as your eyes.”

Whether I’m in the backcountry or on set, good communication is what makes things go smoothly.  I feel like I excel at good communication.