Chapter Nine.
Following on from the videos we did, I have done from memory three magazine photo shoots. For Tatler, Esquire and Vogue Russia, I think Tatler magazine was the first one, they had done the shoot with someone else, and they could not get the look of the balloon they were after. It all happened very quickly from contact to the actual shoot, possibly in 48 hours, off to see if I can find any more info from Balloon Chat. Yes, it was in 2005, this is the link to see the picture, Tatler Magazine.
The gig went well and did not take too long as everything was edited onto the balloon after… so unfortunately it did nothing for me. They put a selection of watches onto the spiral looped Pink 260 balloon. There was a thread at the top holding it up for the picture that was also cropped out at the shoot, they made sure everything was a OK before I left. It did make me wonder why they could not have got the shape of the balloon from editing as well, still we should not wonder as it was a paid gig. Unfortunately, I’m not sure where the shoot happened, it was way before we started to take pictures and documenting everything onto Balloon Chat.
Now Vogue Russia was a different kettle of fish, this was filmed and displayed as you saw it, with all the jewellery on the balloons as seen. How to phrase this correctly, we arrived in a down to earth road in London, and at the door on the pavement were two big burly security guards, at this time I had no idea what was going on but introduced myself and they searched my balloon bag as I went in. At the top of the rickety run-down stairs leading to a large room above the shop they had set up some small photo booths and made the room into a photo studio for the day. No expense had bene spared and they had another 10 security guards sitting around in the upstairs room. It was a busy room with lighting guy, photographer and a few other people. The jewellery as I’m sure you’ve worked out was very expensive with one of the rings costing over a million pounds, so goodness knows what it all cost and there was so much of it, more than can be seen in the final pictures. They certainly had a good selection to choose from. The plan was to make some basic balloon designs and have jewellery displayed on the balloons. We even put the million-pound ring inside the tummy of one of the balloon dogs, this did not get used as trying to get a nice placement for the ring sitting inside was a little tricky to achieve. The only balloon that had a little help was the Parrot, this was held up with some fish wire and they just shot the picture with three quarters of the swing section showing, it was very artistic and looked fab in the rushes.
This was definitely my favourite magazine shoot for the final outcome of the pictures. They can be seen here and included the Rocking Horse, Poodle, Parrot on a Swing, Dog and a Swan, Vogue Russia.
All simple designs but they put them onto a mirror and wow the pictures did pop (he he, pun intended) This was back in 2006/7.
We then move onto Esquire magazine, which was in the October edition magazine in 2009, yes I got the info from Balloon Chat. It was a special edition and had the gold cover in case anyone wanted to look it up. I needed some help with this shoot as they wanted to do so many in just one day so got Thelma involved. Thelma had been helping me for a few years at the balloon days and balloon conventions when I had a dealer stand etc was a mind of amazing balloon facts and ideas. I still think Thelma is one of the top balloon artists in the country with a very creative mind… and totally wacky as well, in a good way he he. They were looking for body parts, well that was our brief as they wanted to show an Autumn clothing range. Some of the designs were simplistic but worked really well, the legs for the shoe range for example and the face designs that Thelma made. They really did look good, to the more elaborate skeleton hands, feet and pelvis. Esquire Magazine.
They could not have done anything more for us, we were both really looked after and made to feel so welcome, it certainly was a very top of the range shoot. We had a buffet laid out all day to help ourselves and also lunch was a take out that they ordered in especially for us. We were well looked after and although a busy day at times, also very enjoyable. There was no way I could have sorted this out by myself in just the one day and it was a very long day at that as well even with the two of us. The pictures ended up being used over an 8 page spread with a little video made for their website as well, which was great and the pictures… I loved them all except for one, they wanted skeleton hands which looked good opened but wanted one of the hands to hold a bag, to me it looked messy but they loved it so they are the client and paying but I would not have used it. As we always say we are our own worst critics.
Things don’t always go to plan…
Now a disaster shoot, I’m not even sure what magazine this was for as all I can remember is that I’d made the cardinal sin and forgot to take my camera with me… shock horror, can you imagine, I know!!!
So Thelma and I had come up with an idea to put objects into the larger 18” stuffing balloons. Usually, you needed a £600 machine to do this and somehow Thelma and I had worked this method out with just using a tube, we even brought out a DVD called “Quicker by Tube” which was a fun title but really it was quicker with the expensive machine. But if you only needed to make one up now and again our way worked fine. Thelma was busy already on the day of the shoot, so I had to go on my own. What I can remember was the pressure we were under as they wanted flowers inside the stuffing balloons and unfortunately with the dampness of the flowers, the balloons misted over quickly and then took a while to clear to get good pictures. The photographer wanted 30 of these made up which I was not told until we arrived in the morning….
So that was a surprise.
Well, our technique was not the way to go for this, they really needed to purchase or rent the machine for the shoot. The day did not work out too good with the photographer being under a lot of pressure and I could not make them quickly enough… so there was a bit of tension in the room… which might have been an understatement. I was promised pictures from the day but they never came and I have no clue if they managed to get into a publication or not. I was not happy with how the day turned out so did not chase things up after.
To finish this on a brighter note, a couple of funny things, when we were making the said DVD. Lord G used to edit them for me and said the amount of laughing we did on the filming was a distraction as he was having to listen back and forth as he was cutting things about. If you know Thelma, then you can imagine what the two of us together would be like.
Then the other thing which was funny as Lord G had already mentioned the excessive laughing, well a lady who purchased the DVD, I think we sold them for £20 wanted her money back because we were laughing too much on the DVD. 😱😂
I asked if the technique was new to her and had she learnt something, she agreed she had. As the lady owned a proper shop the machine was the way to go as seeing the design made in front of you is all part of the purchasing experience. But it still makes me smile wanting a refund as we laughed too much while explaining things on the DVD. Anyway I’m still smiling and laughing all these years later xx
Lastly and possibly the funniest thing, the intro we came up with for the opening for the DVD, still makes me laugh now thinking about it. That will leave you all wondering… but don’t worry, as usual…
TO BE CONTINUED…
