OCC students help yacht company with ad campaign

Greg Risling

NEWPORT BEACH -- Four OCC photography students have won an award

from a boat charter company for its advertising campaign.

Officials from the Newport Beach-based business, Adventures at Sea, were

searching for photos that could be used for its promotional campaign.

They approached OCC professor Rick Steadry, who teaches an advanced

photography class, to create a possible partnership.

“We told the class what our wish was and to see if they could capture

that,” said Kathy Leek, the company’s spokeswoman. “Our original project

was a thank-you card for our clients but we got so many great photos we

used them for other things.”

Students were challenged to capture exquisite shots of the company’s

gondola cruises in Newport Harbor. The four students that walked away

with the Art in Advertising Awards are: Wendy Birnbaum, Justin Hollar,

Chuc Nguyen and Eric Hammond.

Hammond, a 39-year-old Huntington Beach resident, decided prior to

shooting his pictures what he wanted. His winning photo showed a close-up

of an arch on the bow of the gondola.

“I wanted it to be really simple,” he said. “I wanted to get the forms

and the lines of the boat. This is really a good achievement for me.”

The pictures weren’t just used for the business. Some of the photos have

been published in Westways magazine, the O.C. Metro’s Dining Guide and

are displayed at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.

“This has been wonderful because it turned into several projects,” Leek

said. “The class just ran with the idea and provided an exemplary

product.”