Dita Von Teese, one of the worlds well known model and a fabulous brand. We were happy to work with her on Location in Ibiza. Dita was out of her comfort zone of a studio and it was down to TeamNader to make her feel at ease
Having never worked with Dita Von Teese before, it was a great chance to shoot some fab shots of her, not only that we would be shooting her on location in Ibiza. Not only was shooting in Ibiza unusual for us but as Melissa her brand manager and agent had hinted, this was totally out of her normal remit for photography. Dita normally shoots in a studio and understands how it all happens but on location there are too many distractions and opportunities for the shots not to work within her and damage her own brand.
To secure the safety of Dita Von Teese the owner of the horse had given it some type of potion to mak eit drowsy and easier to work with being close to the side of a cliff with about a 40M drop inot the sea. It was very difficult to get the alertness of the horse and I need the horses head to be held up with perky ears and a good expression in the face. This was important as owners of horses do know about a horses body language.
Dita on the day was very polite and professional and in a way it was my opportunity to work with a worldwide brand. Although we work with some top models (More recently Petra Nemcova) Dita is an Icon to the Burlesque and retro fashion shoots. Over the years I have followed her image and seen how she shoots. We have even worked with a Dita Look a Like on certain shoots for lighting companies but this time working on location with her was not just the opportunity but also the incredible challenge that was.
Windy days and location hair are not Dita’s thing so we had to very careful in how the poses mapped out, mix that in with a white stallion and you set yourself up for even more stress. I was able to give good direction to Dita to get the clients look for their marketing material and during the 2 hours we had to shoot we managed the 3 looks that were needed. I however was not finished and wanted a little more time to shoot a few of my own looks for the portfolio.
Dita was happy for me to shoot some shots, the problem being as we were only shooting 3 looks the outfits were not changeable and no other garments were around to change the look. I decided to just run with some images from the £80,000 crystal dress. I managed to get another 30 or so shots and then it was time for Dita to leave. I was happy to get the shots as they fit in really nicely. It not only shows the new images but to clients that you were able to engage with a subject at the top of her game and get on with her and produce the goods.
Always a good idea to shoot outside of the clients wishes either for yourself or as backup, on this occasion my shot of Dita above was from my own small shoot with her by the side of the rocks, It turned out that we were on shot down and the image above was used as one of the final images in the Calendar. All of the trees and landscapes I had to remove and add an ice scene from Hintertux!
