Fashion Photography: Cover Shoot
In March, a couple of weeks back, I found myself admiring the view from the 8th floor of an apartment window on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I was thinking of how I could incorporate the scene I was so longingly appreciating into the images I was about to make. Michael, my assistant, and I scouted the apartment for what would work, both for the cover and interior pages. In terms of the cover, I kept coming back to a scene in the bedroom as a possibility. During the pre-production we had discussed a few ideas for the cover, but never settled on anything final. There were a few images I put into the mood board that incorporated views out a window. All of us agreed, editor, myself, Michael, that the ledge in the bedroom, set against the quintessential Manhattan view would work. The bedroom was the perfect size to shoot with the bed and then reconfigure everything and shoot against the window.
Behind me the dialog between the editor, Mariana, our cover model and her assistant filled the room with conversation that echoed down the hall. The dialog shifted between the modeling industry to the wardrobe that was styled for the shoot. My assistant, Michael, was moving equipment around, setting things up. Depending on time, we would be shooting between 3-4 looks with 3-4 different sets within the apartment. The first agreed upon set was the bedroom. Directly across from the bedroom there was a kitchen area, a play area for the kids, and a small reading room off of that. The kitchen area would work for one of the ideas that Mariana had. From there we decided on a spot in the living room. There was a beautiful couch set against an orange wall that was close in color. Dale wore a vibrant orange top and a pair of white jeans that provided the perfect contrast.
Our shoot time, like our pre-production planning was short. Working within a narrow timeframe, we had to shoot the cover image in one outfit and change sets as fast as we could to allow for the other outfits. Our model for the shoot, Dale Noelle, a veteran to modeling, founder and owner of True Model Management, was in the chair being prepped for the shoot by Hair and MUA, Shqipe Gocaj. As Michael was finishing with setting the lights up, the next step were to plan the wardrobe. This was the first time any of us, with the exception of Dale and her assistant were seeing most of the pieces. For the cover we agreed upon a dress that had arrived from Jovani Fashion just moments before we were ready to start shooting. As you will see below, the dress is stunning and Dale wore it well, very well!
I think we rocked this shoot. Mariana was ecstatic on set and the flow was great. This shoot had a lot of time crunchs, in terms of planning and execution on the day of. It was fun to work quickly, under the pressure of getting the shots in as fast as we can. While I have not had any exposure to photographing A list celebrities, yet, I look forward to when I get 5 minutes with, oh lets say Jason Statham or Kristen Bell. This shoot was awesome. I had such a great time working with everyone. A HUGE thank you to Dale, Dale's assistant Rachael, Mariana, Michael, and Shquipe. I am proud to have worked with everyone!
