DINO DIARIES

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A trip to the South of France

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to the South of France to take some poolside shots of our swimwear collection.

After a long nail-biting wait for all of the kit to turn up at Nice airport, we made our way along the coast to Villefranche where we met up with the latest honorary member of our team, Redbull photographer Oliver Godbold.

An overseas shoot like this would normally cost a small fortune but luckily the incredible villa was kindly provided by one of our investors, who also helped round up a small team of mini adventurers from the local international school.

This included five little legends: Daisy, Orla and Taro (all age 4), John (age 6) and Miyabi (age 7).

The shoot began with a pirate expedition to Floatopia, captained by Little John.

Orla and Daisy scouted ahead and found an incredible rainforest where they collected flowers for scientific analysis.

Captain John spotted parrots in the trees and luckily first mate Taro was on hand to capture them on film.

Here’s a few snaps that Taro took of the local wildlife.

When they finally made it to Floatopia, Miyabi celebrated by getting everyone mocktails and rocket lollies!

They challenged the locals to a penalty shootout and a game of Giant Jenga.

They ended the day with a pirate picnic before returning home with their treasures.

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Behind the lens

Shoots like this with little ones under 5 years old are always a bit tricky so you have to get creative! It’s very hard to direct anything if they’re not in the mood, so it’s a case of using props to make up storylines and simply allowing their imaginations to run wild!

Like everything we do, it’s all about empowering the kids and instilling confidence. In this particular shoot it was Little John who brought the energy and his confidence rubbed off on the others. We made him the main character in the story (The Captain) and once he was on board, the others were too.

Meanwhile, we just watched it all unfold and captured the little legends in action!

 

The shoot took place in Villefranche-Sur-Mer which is in between Nice and Monaco, overlooking the stunning Cap Ferrat. We highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the area. You can either take a short taxi from Nice airport or the train line goes all along the coast, as you can see in the photo below, and must be one of the most scenic rides in the world!

Photo by Ivan Ragozin on Unsplash

Before flying home the next day, the team walked around the Cap on the left in the photo above. Oli took the photo below of Founder Will jumping off the rocks into the crystal clear waters.

One for the memory bank!

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