THE BEACH - FOR THE FIRST TIME

So a friend and fellow photographer decided it was time to expand her photographic repertoire and venture into the realm of fashion. That's quite a big step, cos I remember I was taken on my very first fashion shoot with Paul John Wright. Don't get me wrong, I loved shooting people and capturing that emotion, and had tried some fashion shoots on my own.........well I called a fashion shoot until I had to step up to the plate, and my word it was an eye opener of note. No chance of pitching up with a model with a bag full of clothes, a camera and no lights.....HELL, this took planing, location planning, directing skills, wardrobe, make-up, the list goes on and on. And that's even before you have taken your camera out.Once the camera comes out you start to sweat bullets, cos now the real action starts and the creativity kicks in, and man that develops some heat. But what a rush, and when it finally ends, you have that crazy time between packing up and downloading the images onto the computer, when you just hope and pray that you got at least one decent shot, to make the whole adventure worthwhile.

Well I had to learn quick, and thanks to Paul, made it through to the other side.

So when I was asked to assist in a FIRST fashion shoot, all the memories flooded back, and realised that a true test of your ability, is the ability to guide someone else. That, and of course I'm such a cool guy - colon, open brackets. (for those :) )

So the planning began, a theme was decided, a model chosen, a location found and a date agreed - first box ticked. Then discussions began, and the shoot went from a 3 hour beach shoot to a 2 day monster which would have required us to eat, no sleep and drink, have at least 2 cameras (each!) and who knows how many SD cards to capture it all.

But sanity prevailed.

Arriving on location at Sardinia Bay, our first hurdle was to climb the monster dune that now guards this pristine beach we were about to invade with all our kit. But to my absolute delight, WE HAD GAFFERS - I wanted to jump for joy, but thought it would be a tad unprofessional.


Sards is a family beach with lots of kids, walkers and folk there just to enjoy its beauty. But more about that later.

As always, my first action was not to unpack the kit, but to dive into the models bag to see what exciting things were packed. Fortunately I have not been slapped, YET! Needless to say, as with all my shoots, the laughing began and could see this was going to be a good one. Especially when I unpacked the dress I had brought along - sometime people can be so narrow minded :)

The gaffers were great fun, and became the clothes horse for the model to hang stuff on - and I was the one getting flack for the dress?? They took it in their stride and we all had a good laugh.

OK, so remember the family beach thing earlier. Well, there was a young couple with their 2 young kids. The model was bikini clad, and as the evening drew to a close, the young mom was keen to leave, but the dad was adamant to stay and play with the kids until the bitter end. One eye on the kids of course. I am sure that was a very silent trip home in the car. We had a good chuckle.

So the shoot was a huge success. The model was perfect, the gaffers were a hoot and the images look amazing.


Me......well I think I got my one shot!

Go check out the ones that made the cut and let me know what you think.
Craig Anderson Photography

Until next time

ADIOS

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