Thousands Of Photos

Past spring I got an idea of having a large scale fashion editorial photo shoot with my designer colleague Nina. We both wanted to get our newest collections shot somewhere different than just in a regular studio. It was to take place this autumn and the location options were either Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 or Dublin's beautiful suburbs. After careful thinking we marked mid September in our diaries to give us enough time to finish the collections but also to have the photos ready by the time the first retailers start buying the autumn/winter 2013/14 collections. For location we picked Dun Laoghaire on the coast of south Dublin as along past years September has proven to be still quite dry and green there - and it also tends to spoil one with a choice to shoot at!

Despite the huge amount of work and very little sleep before, during and after the shoot, this was the greatest of the ideas, I can tell you a few days after this very own fashion week of ours is over, as it resulted in over 1000 absolutely fabulous shots - plus nearly 2000 fabulous ones - and it also was a start of many new wonderful friendships.

For all those great shots we thank the old friend Billy, who spent long 3 days in the chilly and sometimes quite wild sea breeze hiking from one corner of the harbour to another about half a dozen times a day carrying the gear and struggling with the lights & flashes and at the same time directing the scenes. His great patience and pro photos are highly admired.

However, those particular pics wouldn't exist without our modeling talents Eve, Rebecca & Emma who with their brilliant acting made the collections alive after the fantastic makeup artists Karolina's,  Sarah's and the hairstylist Vicky's magic wands together with stylist Maria N.'s and our own  transformed these 3 ladies into nearly 20 different personalities! 

 

Working with the team was easy going and great fun and some of the greatest scenes were made up as we went on. The majority of pieces shot being of 2013-14 autumn/winter season I'm afraid I can't give away more on the shoot - except these few snapshots

However if you fancy putting together a shoot of your own and fell in love with our location, I can share with you some useful tips, links and contact details:

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- Team up with your designer colleagues; the more the merrier organizing especially a larger scale shoot is and your clothes can make wonderful combos too. 

- Models, actors, stylists, makeup artists, hair stylists:
http://www.starnow.ie/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/107609052648498/ (Dublin Models group on Facebook)

- Re paperwork remember model/artist and property release forms to make sure all involved are aware of their rights re photos. It's best to create a different form for every shoot specifying the terms discussed with the crew beforehand. You can find great templates here.

- For customers' and staff safety the hotels that are open 24/7 are not very comfortable with accommodating shoot crews in their public areas, but there are many beautiful restaurants in Dun Laoghaire that may wish you warmly welcome to shoot at theirs' before the opening hours. Julie, the owner of Hartley's Restaurant in gorgeous old rail station building kindly let us shoot in and outside their premises last Tuesday. You can have a peek at the restaurant and find their phone number here - beautiful, isn't it! 

- Not to be removed from our sets at the harbour area by the Harbour Police just in the middle of very tight schedule we needed a permission to shoot from the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company who were very helpful too - thank you Tim! If you want to capture any of the private buildings, like any of the Yacht Clubs in the area, with your fashion pieces you need to ask the property owners/managers for permission separately. The National Yacht Club kindly let us use their beautiful club house as a background in a couple of shots for which one of our big thank yous goes to them too.

- Should you like to have our models in your shoot, please drop us a message to heli@heli.ie and I'll forward your message to the ladies who can then contact you.

- To find info on any of the other artists click their names above which will link you to their websites or Facebook profiles.

- Remember to look after your shoot crew and other shoot related contacts before, during and after the shoot - be professional; recognize their input and talents, keep your promises and don't forget to keep in touch. - A heartfelt thank you to Irish jeweler Anne-Marie O'Rourke who helped us to show our recognition to our talented models and beauty team by giving us some beautiful handcrafted Irish sea glass pendants of hers to post out to the team members as a thank you for their brilliant work meanwhile they very patiently are waiting for their portfolio images. Please click the photo below to enter her online shop. To read her fascinating stories of sea glass and sea pottery click here.

 

Photo: Anne-Marie O'Rourke

- For the very last but not any least, a huge thank you to my lovely husband Paul Gilbert, who did a great job by looking after our personal transportation & logistics all week long. Also loads of thanks to Jason Jennings for letting us rent his modern and well equipped family camper for our shoot base. 

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More news re shoot to follow in a few months - and we'll proudly publish the fruit of it later in summer 2013.