Continuing my coverage of Anya Caliendo’s millinery collection, we gathered at a fine St. Regis Hotel in New York, NY. The session went past midnight and involved a beautiful model Irina. Due to the continued confidentiality till December, I can’t show any samples yet, other than of truly yours… (EH: see update below)
With a slight delay, we gained access to the suite and began to prepare. Mrs. Caliendo hired two glamourous make-up artists; I brought my assistant and stylist. We had two rooms to work in, a collection of eight hats, and only six hours, including lighting setup and make-up application. Each hat depicted a story with a theme, tastefully and thoughtfully supported by changing fashionable wardrobes from Roberto Cavalli, Valentino, Gaultier, Giambattista Valli, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, and Givenchy.
I brought a slew of photo and video equipment but didn’t get to use everything due to time constraints. Nonetheless, my trusted Hensel studio lighting set completed with 5-foot softboxes and various light modifiers served well and to the fullest extent. I also used Canon Speedlite at some point, when shooting in the tight corridor. On occasion, I used ambient light on a bumped ISO setting.
It became apparent soon that we can’t finish everything in five hours, so our model agreed to stay past 10 PM and we gained few more hours. And even that was not enough for me… Am I ever satisfied? Can’t recall such a feeling. Yet, I love what I see in the preliminary results and feel extremely excited about also being commissioned to create the slideshow for the collection’s debut in December.
10/20/08 Update: An image giving a glimpse of this wonderful session was approved for public pre-debut display. Enjoy.
The Crew:
Photography and Lighting: Ed Hafizov
Photographer’s Assistant: Olga Mironova
Styling: Anya Caliendo, Olga Mironova
Wardrobe: Anya Caliendo
Make-up Artists: Anne, Charles (Rouge Makeup Studio)
Models: Iryna, Anastasia
1 Comment
Dear Ed,
It was my pleasure to work with you and Olga,
xoxoxo, Iryna