f you don’t already follow the whitty, fun-loving and amusing duo that is Corks and Tacos; that fills you with belly laughs while giving you every reason to book a one-way flight to the island of Turks and Caicos, we highly suggest you make some changes…
Our friends, Byron and Kerry over at Corks & Tacos reached out to us when they decided to take a leap and start a luxury-eco friendly swimwear line to go alongside their already popular blog. We jumped at the opportunity to work with them and together, started to storyboard, brainstorm and dream up the perfect swimwear shoot. The problem? Due to the thing that shall not be named (covid) we were bound to our local terrain and unable to hop on a jet to the island.
Luckily, the timing coincided with Edmonton’s shortest season, summer, and we had a few tricks up our sleeves. As locals, we have a few favourite spots we like to shoot, one being the Walterdale Bridge and the other, the Alberta Legislature Grounds. Having recently shot with the Mattierin dancers for the St. Patrick’s Day shoot, we decided to turn these Edmonton landmarks into the beach-themed backdrops we needed.
With dollar store towels, Michael’s greenery and a pop up change tent in tow, we started with the first shot of the shoot by an eastern redbud at the AB legislature grounds. Kerry and Byron came along to assist and be part of the action. After we all took a peak at the first couple shots on our Canon 5dMarkIV, excitement was in the air and we were off on an adventurous shoot! Aside from the typical looks of wonderment as our local models played with beach balls, sun-tanned and ran around in the suits, the shoot went swimmingly! Pun intended.
Our second location was under the Walterdale Dale Bridge. Although it’s more clay than sand, we made the most of the oversized rocks, cement features of the bridge and the North Saskatchewan River. With clever angles, the right lens (we favoured our 24-105mm and our 70-200mm EF lenses) and lighting to boot, we turned our great Canadian city into an island backdrop, perfect to highlight the swimwear!
Not only did we shoot lifestyle images, we shot their lookbook and flat lays. The lookbook was shot under the Walterdale Bridge using a popup white backdrop, a Westcott FJ400 inside an Aputure Lantern and a tripod to ensure continuity between outfit changes. Flat lays were captured studio style with a large, overhead soft light source and shadows filled in and lifted by white bounce boards. We used props such as fresh flowers, beach hats and a handful of seashells that Kerry and Byron had brought back from Turks and Caicos.
Post-production included coastal colour corrections with a natural beach-themed aesthetic, cropping images and some clever photoshop to remove unwanted backgrounds or change them out completely.
Kerry and Byron were thrilled with the final looks and are now building their online store which will be launching soon - be sure to check out their socials and keep an eye out for the launch of their swimwear line, Corks & Tacos Apparel: Not just beachwear - It’s a State of Mind.
