Behind every great image is a team of people making it look “natural”. From the initial concept to making that a reality – there is a different person sprinkling their expertise onto every step of the way. On our recent shoot we had the photographer, Creative Director and Assistant, Stylist and assistant, the videographer, the hair and makeup artist, a runner, a driver and various parents to cajole younger models - it’s a real team effort to create images this beautiful!
The most effortless and easy breezy images have the most work behind them! Imagine a beach bar in Bali, full of Clientele and we needed to get that holiday shot of a gorgeous model relaxing on her hammock – but the hammock wasn’t playing! We had to have 4 people pulling it this way and that way to get the perfectly pretty foot shot.
Stunning locations can be found where you least expect them. These dramatic shots were right next to a dusty, gravel road in the process of being resurfaced with a sheer drop down the side of a cliff face. Crew members stood under the baking sun (lots of sweat!) and had to narrowly avoid cars, scooters and lorries zipping their way around the winding roads. It was worth it though… look at that image!
It’s a cliché to say never work with kids and animals, right? Well, as much as we love seeing those tiny toes in super cute sandals, they can be a handful! Toddlers need naps, all kids need constant food & energy levels peak quickly so you have stolen minutes of focus and then they’re done. Luckily many of the crew members have kids themselves so it wasn’t hard getting creative with entertaining them with silly noises, puppets behind the camera and toys we didn’t mind being in shot.
Picture this. It’s 2pm in Uluwatu, Bali. The sun is at its highest and a full photography crew are gingerly making their way down some very roughly hewn steps in order to get to the stunning ocean-view villa that had been booked for an afternoon… 4 porters were following behind with 2 weeks worth of wardrobe, multiple laptops and of course 100’s of shoes. However, when they get to the bottom they find the tide is in and the only access is balancing along a thin escarpment, rending the path to the villa unusable.
The hotel had told them 2pm check in but it was impossible! So the crew sat for over two hours waiting for the tide to go out; The photographer with $$ of equipment, models with overnight luggage, drivers and assistants all sat waiting until the waves had stopped driving up the bottom steps. At one point wardrobe for the following day's shoot was being held up and discussed (see image above) because we may as well make use of the time, right?
When eventually safe passage was restored the crew had to scramble quickly to the villa, because what was supposed to have been a 4 hour shoot had been reduced to 1.5 hours and we had only 1 afternoon to produce amazing images like this one.