Bare Feet, a Jump in the Lake, Nowhere Else to Be: Giant Giants Sees the Spontaneity of Summer

Long days on the water, canoeing on quiet lakes, impromptu swims, exploring the unknown, and evenings with friends that stretch past sunset. Dom Francis Pellegrino of Giant Giants has a way of finding the moments that make summer feel endless. Rooted in a deep connection to New England, the work celebrates adventure, freedom, and the simple experiences that stay with us long after the season ends.

We caught up with Dom to talk about growing up in New England, the places that continue to inspire his work, and why summer is still his favorite season to photograph.

You were born and raised in New England and still call it home. How has growing up there shaped the way you approach lifestyle photography and storytelling?

Well, this is an easy one. I’m a New Englander through and through. I truly believe we have the best of everything here. Growing up here, you can easily take it for granted, but even while I was young I knew what we have here is special.

I live in Massachusetts. We get summer, fall, winter, and spring. I can be at a beautiful, sandy dune beach in an hour, or in the mountains of New Hampshire sitting next to a river in two hours, or in New York City in three hours. We have beautiful old architecture and winding wooded roads, modern fancy tech buildings and great restaurants, and all the seasons as I mentioned. 

Every single thing you can imagine for a lifestyle campaign happens in New England at some point throughout the year, and it’s such a rich, beautiful, textured place to live and witness the seasons.

Boating and sailing, hiking and camping, city life that feels modern but can also feel like Europe. It’s amazing here.

I travel all over for work, but I always come home to New England and will never not live here. It just feels like home.

Summer seems to play a big role in the mood of your work. What is it about summer in New England that continues to inspire you?

This is also such a trite explanation, but it’s actually true. We pretty much have June to mid-September with the most perfect weather.

Canoeing on lakes, camping under the stars in Maine, hiking mountains, sitting by a river with your feet in the ice-cold water, sailing on Cape Cod, eating lobster rolls on the Vineyard, driving trucks off-road on the beach with nobody else around. The fresh food, the beautiful locations. Everybody packs the most into summer because we have to, and you can feel it in the energy.

Now, I’m not one to hate on winter. I actually love it. Just four months ago there was two feet of snow covering everything and I had a great time. But there is an energy and a buzz about New England when summer hits because you only have so many perfect beach days and you gotta take full advantage.

It makes it easy to push through your work or whatever you’ve got going on to make sure you take full advantage, because you’ll be regretting it all fall, winter, and spring if you missed even one awesome opportunity during the New England summer.

What do you want to do when you’ve got all the time in the world, friends and family, and a perfect day? And I mean, while we are the subject what is your prefect summer day? 

In my younger days it was always up north for an epic hike and camp in the white mountains, the best one being Falling Waters Trail up to the ridge along Mt. Lafayette, easily one of the best (loooong) day hikes in New England. But, more lately, as in since I've had kids, I've become a bit of a glamping beach bum. By that I mean, from April to October I got my Land Rover pre-packed with the ultimate off-road beach kit for easy all day getaways to the Cape. 

You can drive over the dunes and find your own private beach spot on 4 different Cape Cod beaches, stretching miles and miles of public yet private feeling coastline. We go for the day, and bring everything you could imagine, without having to haul it across a scorching parking lot, beach chairs and hammocks, a shade tent, a complete pop-up picnic table, a grill and a cooler full of lobster, steamers, and burgers. We stay sun-up to sundown, swimming, reading, grilling, napping and making the most of those hot summer beach days. 

A lot of your images feel like real moments rather than staged scenes. How do you create that sense of authenticity when you're working with talent on set?

I’ve talked a lot about the setting, New England summer locations, and that’s because they are all perfect here. But then when you’re doing a production, really all I’m trying to do is create the scene for the reality of what we’re trying to do.

You make it authentic by including nuance that you only know by living it, and that is what I bring to set.

I try to slow down and connect with the talent, not make it hurried or stressful. Talk with them and have them try to connect with these same kinds of moments, even if they’re not exactly the same. Maybe they’re coming from New York. Maybe they spent their life in a city. Maybe they’re shy, not quite outgoing.

So we slow everything down and we just kind of connect to a memory of time with loved ones, time with family, that relaxed, unhurried pace of life on vacation when you’re actually engaged in doing what you’re doing. Not thinking about emails, work, no phones in hand, just living in the moment.

Lifestyle imagery is built on truly engaging and living life in that moment, and so we just bring that to set, whatever scenario we are working on, and try to hold that space.

Thank you so much, Dom! You’ve inspired me to go to the beach now.

See more of Giant Giants' work and ongoing adventures