Model location shoot planning can be stressful or fun depending on how you look at them. At Sage Studio we can either help you through it or follow your lead. With this shoot the client wanted summer vibes but needed to say within the UK (and driving distance from London). Botany Bay was a great location for them. Take a look at the stunning images we captured.

Location

May in Botany Bay, England is cold, windy and wet but you would never know looking at the amazing images we captured. Botany Bay has stunning white cliffs and beautiful chalk stacks, with plenty of exposed sand when the tide is out to walk around and explore.  We had the opportunity to capture some truly amazing images here.

Gear

Nikon D800 camera (x2, always bring a spare!)
Nikon 24-20mm lens
Wireless strobe lights, diffusers and reflectors

For lighting, with the UK, you never know what you’re going to get. In the morning we need to use our lights, (Anja tried not to fly away when we attached our umbrella!) Also within our bags we had a light reflector and scrim panel.
With all our shoots we want the client to be able to view the images as we photograph but on a beach with high winds and sand everywhere we left the laptop inside and only loaded the images during breaks back at the tent.

While on the shoot we also like to take behind the scene videos to show other clients what its like. Check out the video below.

On the day

6:15am Pick up the photography assistant and MUA/ hairstylist, also grab coffee and breakfast for the 2 hour drive.

8:30am At the location, with more coffee, hair and make-up started right away, Anja and I went to scout the beach and rock formations to map out a plan for photographing with the sun and tide. Our main goal always when photographing on location is to use as much of the natural light as possible. A tent was set-up on the beach so the model didn’t have to go back and forth to the hotel to change and there was an area we could leave the equipment.

10 am We started photographing, we started furthest down the beach so we would have the most time before the tide came back in. The sand was wet and soft so we ended up taking off our shoes and waking around barefoot, just needed some cocktails with the little umbrellas and we could have been on holiday!
We focused on getting multiply shots from each outfit and location so the images can be used for social media, website and web banners. At the tent we had bottles of water and snacks so we could take a quick break while the model warmed up and not actually stop photographing for long.
We ended up photographing around 37 outfits during the day without taking a lunch break to make sure we made as much use of the time we had before the sun went down and the tide came back in! The sun finally came out in the afternoon and we didn’t want to lose that opportunity.

4 pm We called it a day and started to pack everything up and get off the beach. Meeting back up at the hotel we went through the images over a late lunch of fish and chips before the drive back to London.

Photographing on location is always a challenge but the pros out weigh the cons. Its a great way to show case off you items in real life and really make them stand out. You’re not only selling the clothing but the lifestyle as well!

Contact us for your next location shoot!