Inspired in Valletta - Ritienne Zammit

Last week as part of my wife's general craziness, we spent a few days living in Valletta. We stayed at the lovely Cumberland Boutique Hotel, used the Ferry to get to work, and ate pretty much EVERYTHING. You can check out the article by The Wife(tm) about living in Valletta on her blog. 

Apart from the sights, smells (food, oh so much different interesting food) and sounds (you can literally walk around Valletta at night and bounce from one live music act to another without hearing any silence - it's lovely) - there is a huge sense of drama to the place that just makes my creative side wake up.

So we had to do a fashion shoot - and since the light in Valletta is perfect very early in the morning, I passed on the amazing breakfast (food :() and convinced everyone to wake up early (I got coffee and fresh croissants to make up... yes more food)

So without further ado here's a shoot inspired by Ritienne Zammit's Past & Present collections

• Model: Rebecca @ Supernova Model Managment
• Photography: Kurt Paris
• Make-up: Jean Zammit using Inglot
• Styling: Caroline Paris
• Designer: Ritienne Zammit
• Hair Styling: Christian Galea @ Michael & Guy

Malta Fashion Week - Marco Parascandalo

The third in the series of Malta fashion week editorial fashion shoots was the one we did with Parascandalo for their 2018 collection: Star.

In this shoot we decided to use an urban setting, specifically a car-park which had a monotonous, grungy look & feel (kudos to Marco for this great idea for a location). This almost boring setting is a mix of empty space and clutter, a place where there is actually a lot of stuff lying around but it's the kind of stuff that our sub conscious has gotten used to tuning out. In this setting the outfits felt at home, but their vibrant colours & designs shone brightly

Without further ado:

Photographer's Talk

Since we were in an urban setting, one of the ways to make the subject stand out (and bring out all the detail in the clothes & make-up) is to overpower the sun as we did in the shoot for Ritienne Zammit's _Atronymic collection. Only this time, since we had more depth behind the model, it allows us darken the whole scene and increase the lighting on the model. One 500w Bowens studio light provided the lighting for the scene, coupled with the Bowens beauty dish. As you might have noticed by now, this is really my favourite lighting setup since it provides a good mix of soft and hard light.

The team behind the shoot:

• Model: Julia from Models M
• Makeup: Jennifer Dimech
• Designer & Stylist: Marco Parascandalo
• Photography: Kurt Paris

Malta Fashion Week - Ritienne Zammit

The second in the series of post-show Malta fashion week shoots was the one we did with Ritienne Zammit. Ritienne is one of my favourite designers and every year I look forward to her new collections. The fact that she is also a fun, humble and generally awesome human being simply adds to the fun :)

This shoot caused a bit of a stir since we did it right in front of the new parliment building in Valletta. We set up, started shooting and promptly a crowd gathered behind us - and started shooting us, the models, Ritienne, everything. Fun times.

Without further ado:

I'm not a big fan of shooting under our scorching Maltese sun. In general the makeup is lost and the harsh shadows destroy or distort the lines of the clothes as well as their texture. Since the clothes are quite bright and distinctive, i wanted a simple plain background to let the outfit speak for itself. Thank you Mr Piano for the great outdoor studio you provided us :). The only caveat is the aforementioned sun... and this was fixed by overpowering the sun using a Bowens 500w strobe. If you've never used this technique before check out this really easy video from fstoppers.

The team behind the shoot:

• Model: Beatrice from Models M and Francesca from Supernova Model Management
• Makeup: Elaine Galea
• Designer: Ritienne Zammit
• Hair-styling: Chris Galea @ Michael & Guy
• Photography: Kurt Paris