Photography for Uniqa Marketing Campaign
When you have to do an outdoor photoshoot during that time of the year when you can’t really rely on the weather to be good all the time it takes more time to prepare for and plan the photoshoot. And if your client has a deadline for delivery of the pictures that’s just a few days away, then you can probably imagine that it can get really stressful. Such was the case with a photoshoot I had to do last April for Uniqa, one of the three telecom service providers in Suriname.
I am happy to say that I did manage to deliver the pictures on time in the end but it wasn’t easy. I can still remember not being able to sleep the night before the photoshoot because it was raining outside and I was worried that it would keep raining until the morning which would ruin our chances of shooting outdoors. I had checked the weather forecasts and had chosen a day when the weather would be the nicest according to the forecast information, but as it turned out, you can’t always rely on weather forecasts, especially not when you’re planning a few days ahead.
Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign
So I had a plan B ready right from the start. I picked a location for the photoshoot where we’d be able to shoot indoors as an alternative in case we just couldn’t work outside. Cancelling the photoshoot because of bad weather could not be an option since everything was planned for that day and at least one of the models would only be available for that day and rescheduling would have been an issue. This photoshoot was done at Hotel Torarica. They have some really nice outdoor settings with lots of nature that can be used as a backdrop, and this was one of the requirements the client had. In addition they also had some nice indoor locations for us to fall back on in case of bad weather.
Fortunately the weather wasn’t very bad when we actually had to work outside. There was some very light rain in between longer dry periods and we were able to do the outdoor shoots we had planned. The sky was constantly grey so that wasn’t very nice, but on the other hand the sunlight was very soft which as far as I’m concerned is a big plus. All I had to do was to try not to include the sky in the frame when possible.
Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign
I teamed up again with Euvie Karijoredjo for the makeup and hair, and Taciana Soerodimedjo for wardrobe advice and styling. The model casting was done by the client in advance, and I have to say that the models were really wonderful and easy to work with. The only exception of course was the little boy. Working with children isn’t very easy as they tend to have very short attention spans and get impatient quickly. In this particular case though I think the cute little guy did pretty well and I was fortunate to have his attention for a good while before he started complaining about being tired. 🙂
I’m sad to say that I don’t have any behind the scenes pictures to share this time. Normally I take the time to take a couple of quick behind the scenes snaps when I’m working, but in this case I was constantly worrying about the weather among other things and totally forgot about it. It didn’t even cross my mind to ask my assistant to take a couple of snaps.
Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign
For those of you who’re interesting in the gear I used: I used two Canon EOS 40D bodies with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L and EF 85mm f/1.2 L lenses. I am in love with the Canon L primes; the results you can get are simply amazing. 🙂 For the lighting I used a couple of Canon 580 EX II Speedlights with some light modifiers such as umbrellas and reflectors. The speedlights were all triggered wirelessly. I tried to blend the additional lighting in with the available soft sunlight as much as possible as I was going for a more natural look in the photos instead of a stylized look where the use of strobes is obvious.
The above pictures are currently being used in various places such as in TV commercials and on billboards throughout Suriname. I’ve included a few pictures of billboards below.
Uniqa Billboard
Uniqa Billboard
Uniqa Billboard
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