Capturing Nature with Purpose: A One-Day Content Shoot

Not every video project needs to end with a fully polished edit. Sometimes the most valuable outcome is a versatile content library with polished visuals that can be repurposed across future campaigns, even before those marketing assets are clearly defined. That was the case when the Nature Conservancy of Canada approached us for support. They needed a collection of high-resolution photographs and cinematic video footage to strengthen their communications year-round. The goal was to build a flexible visual archive that would show real Canadians enjoying protected natural spaces.

We captured over 1 hour of usable b-roll footage and 2,000 photographs in just one day.

A New Focus on People in Nature

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is one of the country's leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to land conservation and biodiversity protection. Over the years, they had built a strong visual archive featuring forests, lakes, wetlands, and other landscapes — but much of that content did not include people. What they needed was imagery that reflected the human connection to nature, along with a more diverse and relatable representation of the people who visit and enjoy these conservation sites.

This content would be used across NCC's fundraising materials, reports, public campaigns, and social channels. It needed to feel honest, inclusive, and flexible enough to serve different purposes across formats.

Planning a Shoot with Range and Flexibility

The idea was to capture a variety of natural moments in a real NCC conservation area near Montreal. We worked closely with the NCC team to understand their goals, then developed a plan to create a full day of visuals — covering photo and video — that would give them a wide range of usable material. This meant casting a multi-generational family of five and creating enough variation in scenes, pairings, and settings to reflect different use cases.

Some moments focused on the whole family walking together. Others showed just the children exploring a stream, the parents walking along a path, or the grandmother sitting quietly by the water. These combinations would allow the NCC team to use different images depending on the tone and message of their campaigns.

Choosing the Right Location

We selected Réserve Naturelle Alfred-Kelly in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec. This conservation area includes forest trails, stone steps, a flowing stream, a scenic lake, and a dramatic lookout point — offering everything we needed without requiring travel to multiple sites. As part of the production process, we scouted the location in advance and mapped out a loop that allowed us to hit key backdrops efficiently on the shoot day.

The schedule was carefully designed around the light. We started later in the day to take advantage of golden hour and sunset lighting, capturing the forest scenes around noon and saving the lakeside clearings for the late afternoon, when the lower sun created more flattering, cinematic light.

An Experienced Canadian Crew

Our team was small, but everyone brought deep experience in filming outdoor content. The project was directed by Josh Usheroff. Camera operators Jean-Marc Abela and Richard Mardens captured everything from tight natural textures to smooth tracking shots on a gimbal. Photographer Justin Desforges worked alongside them to capture simultaneous stills. The drone team — Julien and Jean-François — arrived for magic hour to capture sweeping aerial footage of the family at the lake and at the cliffside lookout.

Because of our familiarity with shoots like this across Canada, we knew what to expect. We built the schedule to allow time for hiking between sites, maintained flexibility for lighting changes, and ensured that the team was prepared for a full day outdoors.

Producing Content That Works Beyond the Shoot

While the client did not require a final edited video, we approached post-production with the same care and intention we bring to larger campaigns. We captured over 2,000 images, then reviewed, curated, and color-corrected 400 for archival use, delivering a final set of 40 versatile, high-resolution photos. Images were provided in horizontal and vertical formats, with several framed intentionally to leave negative space for future headlines or text overlay.

On the video side, we delivered one hour of fully organized and color-corrected b-roll footage, broken down by scene and setting — forest trail, lakeside, lookout point, and stream — grouped into labeled folders so that any future editor could access, sort, and cut quickly.

This project reflects the kind of strategic, efficient, and intentional work we pride ourselves on at Black Box. We understand that not every organization needs a full commercial shoot. Sometimes they need high-quality content they can rely on for the long term. The Nature Conservancy of Canada walked away not just with images — they walked away with a content foundation they can build on.