If you're somehow living under a rock and have not heard of Gagliardi: the menswear brand from malta - then do yourself (and you or your partner's wardrobe) and check out their website. I really like their designs, and they have a fantastic product, and ooh sale

*few minutes and a full shopping cart later*

So back to the topic at hand, at the end of 2017, a merry group went up to Taormina to shoot the Fashion campaign for the Spring Summer 2018 collection in a lovely Sicilian setting. The brief was built on the cult movie "The Talented Mr Ripley".

Since we were not in the peak of summer, the sun was less harsh and overhead - so in most of the shots we used a natural light with reflectors for some fill. The lights stayed inside the van almost the entire time. For the evening shots, we used a YongNuo YN-608 LED Ring which is my go-to portable light for situations where you don't have a lot of ambient light to fight. One of the reasons I opt for this particular format is that the large surface area of the ring makes for a softer light than the smaller square panels.

The Team:

• Male Models: Gary Greenwood & Karl Andrew Borg (Supernova Model Management)
• Female Model: Felicia Cigorescu (Prysma production)
• Gagliardi Team: Leo, Nadia, Petra, Sarah, Sam & Keith

This shoot was one of the most fun ones I've done in a while - and apart from the great team spirit, there were a lot of things done right that made the whole experience a breeze.

Firstly, everything was planned down to a tee - we had a great visual cue, and each setting (together with the scene) was pre-planned. That made logistics as well as the actual shoot much much easier and ordered. Secondly, we had a great team of models - and in my mind, the model is key to a great shoot, not only from a visual aspect - but also from an energy and attitude point of view. We spend days literally shooting from morning to evening - the right energy and attitude is a essential for this to work out.

Going back to the Gagliardi team - they put immaculate attention to detail and made sure that each outfit was styled correctly and fit well. This made my life much easier both when shooting, and especially during post production.