I was commissioned to shoot for Tokio Marine’s “First Touch” print ad campaign. The idea was to show that delicate moment that a family is alone together for the first time. The scenario: a couple lying in the hospital bed with their fragile new born. The challenge: everything needs to be authentic, unadorned, real. No models – real parents with their newborn in the hospital. It was a tough order but with the help of my producer, Ivy… we got to pull it off.
To make it authentic, the original intent was to get a real couple that was due for child birth, and then photograph them in the hospital where they deliver – photojournalistic approach. But after a few pre-production meetings, we recognized there were too many risk factors involved: selecting a couple due within the campaign’s deadline, permission from the hospital, and of course, the delicacy of shooting with a newborn. So it was decided that we recreate a hospital room, and shoot with a couple who has just recently delivered a baby :)
Through Ivy’s prowess, we rented out an empty condo unit with huge windows, and sourced out a hospital bed and table, couch, carpet… the works. And through Facebook and contacts, we scouted for new parents and screened it down to Kimberley & Ivan with their little one, Elijah.
Prior to shoot date, we setup the room and did a few test shots with my assistant, Matthew. We originally intended to use ambient light for a more natural look as insisted by the Creative Director… but even with the huge windows and weather cooperating with us, it just wasn’t dramatic enough. So we had to pull down the blinds and rely on light strobes instead while still making it look natural. It’s funny how sometimes artificial lights look more natural than natural lights.
On shoot date, Kim and Ivan were absolute troopers.. and 1-week old Elijah surprisingly was very cooperative. He cried for maybe a few seconds, and then went back to sleep.. letting us shoot until we knew we got the shot. You can imagine the whole crew had to keep our voices down because we had a sleeping baby in the room. It was a pretty solemn shoot, no music, no shouting, just clicks and whispers. By end of day, everyone was happy with the shoot. And after a few rounds of touchups, the artwork was finally done and dusted.
A few weeks later, when I was on my way home from our usual weekend cycling jaunt around Singapore, I saw the ad on a bus stop… for the first time. I saw it a few times more on other bus stops. I was so happy, I had to stop and take a quick selfie :)
Big big thanks to Ivy, Zainal, and Matthew for helping me with the production. To Kelvin and Dawn of Havas Singapore for having me in this project. And of course to Kimberley, Ivan, and baby Elijah for letting me shoot their first ever family portrait :)
You are a very capable individual!
It¡¦s actually a nice and useful piece of information. I am glad that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
Whats Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve found It absolutely useful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to contribute & aid different users like its helped me. Great job.
I was just searching for this information for a while. After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, at last I got it in your web site. I wonder what is the lack of Google strategy that don’t rank this kind of informative sites in top of the list. Usually the top web sites are full of garbage.
Well I definitely liked studying it. This information provided by you is very effective for proper planning.
I have recently started a website, the information you provide on this web site has helped me tremendously. Thanks for all of your time & work.
This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I’ve joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your magnificent post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks!
I have not checked in here for a while as I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are great quality so I guess I¡¦ll add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend :)
There is apparently a lot to know about this. I consider you made various good points in features also.
Maintenance requires a lot of time of dedication to have your your home dust zero cost. Why if you happen to stress about cleaning anytime Atdoorstep includes expert maid service Dubai privileges? We supply you with extraordinary in someones spare time maids during Dubai to have your factory clean together with hygienic.