Bowie at the Rocks

So it was late friday arvo when I got a call from the editor of Cielo Magazine “saying I need you in Sydney tomorrow to shoot the cover and editorial for the next addition of the mag, we have Bowie’s gowns straight of the catwalk, hair, make-up and an amazing model from New York, also you need to bring lighting with you”. I arrived at Bowies showroom around midday on Saturday with my 5 cases of excess luggage and met Monique the hair and make-up artist and the amazing Bowie.

The first thing he said to me was “so how are you going to shoot this?” I answered  “um I have no idea, can someone show me what the model looks like and can I see your collection”. The model Meaghan Wallen had a very classical look and the gowns had such a timeless silhouette and so much detail, all I could think of is Paparazzi  meets old world hollywood, at night, down at the Rocks but try to make it feel like Europe,  on camera flash and black and white. Bowie and the stylist loved my idea but all the editor of Cielo could say is yes love it but your not shooting the cover with on camera flash. I said ok then I will set up some lights for the cover shot to keep him happy. Its now 10 pm hair and make-up done, the model is wearing this amazing priceless gold incrusted black silk kimono and we head off to under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

When we get their the editor said “were  are the lights?” I said just let me do a couple of shots and if you don’t like them I will go get the lights. He was not very happy with my answer till I showed him the first 4 captures on the back of my camera. I was so lucky because we had a video crew there who captured his response and I’m going to hold him to it. He said quote ” if you can get photos like that you can use an iPhone to shoot a cover “. We shot till about 3am just using ambient street light and on camera flash. And yes I took the 5 unopened cases back home with me on a 6am flight sunday morning. If you would like to see how I shoot on camera flash at night here is a link to a video from another shoot