Hello friends! It’s been a while, I’m super excited to share with you a very special shoot that I created at the end of last year with lovely Yinsey and Annette. As many of you know it had been a tough summer, I’d broken my ankle right in the very beginning of it, literally 10 weeks prior to this ! After weeks of bed rest, I was CRAVING to create and I think that feeling was certainly reflected in the opulence of this shoot!
The inspiration for this shoot came about organically. Yinsey and I both feel passionate about representation and know just how much it matters. We came across Aesop’s tale of the peacock and the crane and felt like it was the perfect story that we could use to create art that combined the beauty of our two cultures.
This shoot felt particularly special for us as often diversity in the fairytale genre is not always apparent and even from a fashion viewpoint it felt so wonderful to bring together the styles of our cultures into this fantastical setting. We may have taken some creative liberties but oh what fun it was to just get together and play! I’d really missed that feeling!
In the original story, the peacock lauded its own beauty in front of a crane. In the eyes of the peacock, it has no equal. However, the crane’s response was ‘You may have beauty, but I have the wings that allow me to fly wherever I choose!’
The moral is ‘Fine feathers don’t make fine birds.’
What if we could change things up? What if they appreciated each other for their individuality? We wanted to celebrate differences through this tale by giving these two characters a chance at growth and reconciliation and, most of all, friendship…
And… there is now a new YouTube video up where you can see the behind the scenes of how it all came together, and how we captured it ;) Click to watch and if you like it please subscribe as this year I have lots of videos in the works to share with you all!
As we were still in Covid times, the team for this shoot was kept as small as possible. I did our makeup, now of course I’m no makeup artist but whenever it’s a smaller team like this it’s fun to experiment and grow a skillset without any pressure.
Netty, an absolute wizard at hair art, did our hair, and Sammy also known online as Mr Mortimer’s Wife created the headpiece that Yinsey wears.
Yinsey brought over a hanfu from her collection that had cranes on it and I chose to wear a lengha that I had worn to my wedding vidhi for its nod to peacock hues.
C R E D I T S
Models: Bella Kotak & Yinsey Wang
Hair: Annette Gray @nettgray
Yinsey Headpiece: @mrmortimerswife
Bella Headpiece: @carbickovacrowns
Bella Lengha: Variety Silk House London
Bella Jewellery: Kyle’s Collection
Retouching with: Pratik Naik @solsticeretouch
Assistance: Annette Gray & Annie Kotak
For this shoot I used the Phase One XF 100MP camera with a IQ3 Trichromatic back and the lens I used is a 55mm f2.8.
For the lighting I set up the Elinchrom One light with a deep white umbrella.
Yinsey and I set up the scene and as for the photographer, well, I decided to shoot this as I would a self portrait.
I tethered the camera to my laptop where I used Capture One to see the framing of the shot as well as make further camera adjustments.
Setting up the framing was a little tricky as I would often need to get up to move things about but once that part was over, I was able to settle into the shoot and rely on Netty and my mum to press the capture button.
This shoot was a real team effort with everyone pitching in to lend a hand and I’m so proud of what we managed to create together! It’s pretty amazing what can be accomplished with a small team and a big vision!
Image courtesy of Yinsey Wang
Image courtesy of Yinsey Wang
After the shoot we had the opportunity to collaborate with the team at Enchanted Living Magazine where they featured an article about Enchanted Asian Day, an initiative started by Yinsey, Lillian Liu, and me, and I’m so happy to share that this set was on the front cover with a feature article inside!
I can’t even begin to share how thrilled it makes me to see the beauty of our cultures come together in this way and to share this with you.
Thank you so much for reading about how this piece came about. I’d love to hear your thoughts or questions about this shoot in the comments :)
Take care!
Bella
