I scored my first commercial commission from high end kids fashion label Fred Bare. They design and produce high end kidswear clothes for up market buiyers, their previous photography direction is quite sophisticated for a kidswear brand, see last years campaign: http://www.fredbare.com
They wanted a fresh look for their winter 2005/06 collection. I
i had a timeframe of 2 weeks total and i was thrown in the deepend with the responsibility to work out and handle concept development, art direction, photography, post production etc, the shoot went over 3 days shot on the weekends when i had the time.
Although i got the golden hand from the client as they helped with scouting for the best pro kid models, which makes a major difference, i was pretty lucky even when thrown into the deepend
Anyway kids are kids so whatever concept you have preconceived you can chuck that out the window they do what they want to do pro or no pro, so i had to be flexible in my initial concept and art direction.
here are the results
1st concept shoot at Lady macquaries chair, had an idea to duplicate the model inthe scene a with static camera position, 3 composite images. not easy to co-ordinate with kids so ended up trashing concept#1

concept 2, dreamy surreal sequence with a hint of playfullness, ilike the sound of music flowing pose img#4. I used a combination of a high powered strobe light and sb800 but at this stage still experimenting
on that day Chi (Onyx) helped out with lighting setup - thanx bud!
then it started to rain so location shoot moved to clients house, so this mucked up the outdoor location shoot concept and art direction as i would have to shoot in a studio with a backdrop, again got to be flexible, studio shots continued on to the 2nd day shoot, tried to get the kids natural and playful instead of just doing standard contrived poses
In the studio used 1 srtrobes 1 snoot and a cheapo white backdrop did the trick real well lighting looks harsh and contrasty just the way i wanted it.
kids here amber and kia were 6 years old and did extremely well
tried to represent the fashion the best way i could by getting the kids to look like they are enjoying wearing the clothes


dark model 'Samarwit' Samarwit was a bit older but very dancy and full of personality, makes for magic in front of the camera, she was sensational.

at this point i was trying to figure out howi coudl merge the outdoor shots with the studio shots and trying to make the whole campaign look wintery.
pressing on with more outfits Samarwit shined when she did her own thing, the client selected the top 3 instantly for the shortlist for brochure

took heaps more but can't post all, so jsut a selection. In the
next thread you will see the final result from the shortlist and treatment for the brochure.