Backstory
Maia Rose had just completed 3 years training at the upper school of The Royal Ballet. Her time spent living in London, being closer to family and training in Convent Garden was something she expressed a sadness about saying goodbye to. Following her graduation Maia wanted to have some photos taken with a London backdrop as a forever reminder and tribute to what was a very special and important time for her.
Location
There where the obvious choices of bridges, Big Ben and other famous London landmarks, but I wanted to shoot somewhere that Maia actually had a connection to from experience, not as a tourist but as part of her daily life outside of the dance studios and opera house. We settled on St James’s Park. This is where many after school walks were had on her way back to the boarding house in Pimlico, often when the No.24 had a disrupted service and tube stations where crammed with commuters. Maia tells me that sometimes in warmer weather she and her classmates would meet here to picnic and continued to do so once they moved to Covent Garden for their final graduate year of training.
Planning
There are actually many restrictions for shooting without a permit in London. Even in public parks this is the case so we had to be very discreet. To beat the crowds we headed out just after sunrise, from 9am streets are super crowded all year round. Although a native to London myself, I wasn’t so familiar with St James’s so we spent 15mins just walking and checking light and shadow and space (and where to dodge the security guards :)).
Gear
I travelled with just the one camera (Sony a7iv) with a 50mm prime and had to get quite far away from my subject in order to get a little more into the frame. So many times i wished I’d had a 24-70mm zoom.
Maia’s dress is from Other Stories, we didn’t realise how see thru until she put it on so when there were people about she used my blazer (H&M) to cover up.
Post Prod
Apart from having to edit out a few people, bins and rubbish on the floor, editing parts of the dress where the underwear was seen and stretching the backgrounds here and there, these pics didn’t need much attention. I think I prefer them in a BW film grain look but they are also pretty in muted toned colour. I used my presets on all pics which made the process super speedy. You can download them here: nikitaalba.gumroad.com/l/NikitaAlbaPresetsColour
