Some month ago I receive an email from Veronica (one of the girls organising this shootout), asking me if I was available for a Bachelorette party shootout. The girls were coming over to Malta from Italy to celebrate and enjoy each others company in preparation of Martina's wedding in June.
I suggested Mdina as location, considering that the city provides plenty of character, views and good lightning conditions (considering the shootout had to be done during the early afternoon). Once I showed them pictures of the place, Veronica and the girls were quick to agree.
The story
The fact that I can speak relatively fluent Italian (thanks to the Italian programs that I watched when I was a kid such as Bim-Bum-Bam and 'Holly and Benji') made the conversation so much easier with the girls. The first thing I usually ask my clients whenever we are going to start a shootout is the story they would like to convey with the images. It was clear that the story that they wanted to convey was one of friendship, joy and relaxation.
I hope that my images convey this story...
Photographic challenges and solutions
The main difficulty in this shootout is that it was not easy to coordinate 12 enthusiastic women! So for most of the time, we did not shoot in a posed manner but I let them enjoy the day, sing (ohh yes, asking them to sing really helped them getting distracted and joyous) while just giving generic instructions.
One other unexpected issue we encountered was that due to the location of Mdina (which is set on a high elevation) and the fact that the girls were lightly dressed, the girls where feeling a bit cold during some parts of the shootout. This was also due to the fact that I like to shoot in the shade most of the time. The only solution to this was to not ask excessively for them to pose in the shade, and let them enjoy the warm sun. After all, from a photographic point of view, it is useless to have perfect lightning if the subjects are not comfortable!