Nikita is a very dear friend and a wonderfully talented designer based in Nagpur. When she asked me if I was interested in shooting her new winter / festive collection, I was more than thrilled.

A few weeks of planning and throwing ideas around, we finalised on the location, model, style,  makeup artist and studio.

Our model Alesia Raut flew from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, where we would do the shoot. Nikita and her team along with 23 designer garments arrived in Ahmedabad too. The fantastic team had everything under control, size checks and quick fixes were done on the day before the shoot.

Finally on the day of the shoot, a group of talented and professional people gathered together at the studio to create some amazing results.

It’s always best to have time schedules and to do’s emailed to everyone before hand so that everyone know what to do and when. Never forget about food and drinks. If the model wants RedBull, get tons of it, just in case.

While Priyesh and I setup the lights, hair and make up was being done by Aanal and her team from ‘Orange the salon’. Nikita’s team was busy ironing the garments and sorting them out.

Talk to everyone, make sure they know what the final look is, it’s best to have some sort of a mood board with pictures to explain the look you want. You want everyone on the same page.

Time for some music, I always ask the model what sort of music she prefers beforehand and try to arrange her choice of music to be played during the shoot.

All set,  Crank up the music and start shooting.

Having a professional model can make or break your campaign and Alesia is one of the best. A good model knows not just how to pose but when to shift poses as well and what pose would suit the type of dress she is wearing. She made this photoshoot a breeze.

Some geek stuff for those into photography:

We had 2 looks for this shoot, one the client was aware of and the other was a surprise. Here are the lighting setups, check out the BTS video for more details.

We’ve made a cool Behind the scenes video of this fashion photo shoot for those interested –

A lot of people were involved during this shoot and it was tremendous fun. This wouldn’t have been possible without them, so Thank you Nikita, Alesia, Aanal, Priyesh, Sikandar, Anjum, Aashu, Geeta, Naseer, Tulika, Saniya, Nidhi, Aditya W, Aditya D, Maryam, Rejin & Disha.

Here are some of my favourite images from the day.