French children’s photographer Lisa Tichané is no stranger to kids and cute photo shoots. When online packaging company, SelfPackaging, gave Lisa full creative reign of their emailer advertising shoot, she joined forces with DC photographer Anne Scherrer, who traveled all the way to Marseille to join in on the fun. The two of them rounded up some munchkins, grabbed some boxes, and turned Lisa’s home studio into a fully functioning set, complete with babies in boxes and staged kitchen food fights. Lisa says the spent day with a fellow photographer and friend, along with two pairs of adorable sibling models, was filled with laughter and some great shots. We asked Lisa to give us all the details of the fun and creative assignment.
First, off, tell me how you got started with this project for SelfPackaging!
It all started with an Instagram post.
I shot a session for which I needed a big plain cardboard box, and I ordered it from SelfPackaging (who happens to be the company I purchase most of my packaging from). At that moment I had no special relationship with them, I was just a random customer, but one of the images from this shoot was so cute that I shared it on my IG feed and tagged them.
They reacted almost immediately saying how much they loved the image, and we scheduled a phone call to chat about how fun it would be to create a commercial photoshoot for them with kids playing with their products.
This conversation happened only days after another conversation I had with my dear friend Anne Scherrer, who is a kids photographer in Washington DC. We Skype a lot and meet each other at least once a year, and we often talk about how fun it would be to do a commercial shoot together. What if it was the opportunity to make our dream come true? I contacted Anne who immediately loved the idea, so I called the company back and offered a deal: we would make it work for a tight budget if they let Anne and I have full creative freedom on their photoshoot. It took them approximately 5 minutes to say YES.
How much creative freedom did you have for the shoot?
They respected the deal so they really let us have free reign over the creative part of the shoot!
What was involved in the planning/preproduction?
A really fun adventure began. I can’t count the number of hours Anne and I spent on Skype, or e-mailing each other, exchanging ideas and Pinterest boards to decide what we wanted to do. We had to shoot on a very tight budget so we knew we couldn’t rent a place or buy expensive props; it had to remain crazy simple. We shot everything in my own little studio (partly on seamless paper, and partly in the kitchen to get a more lifestyle feel.) Anne arrived the day before the shoot so I handled the prep work—mostly: finding the perfect models and buying a few clothes.
What did the actual shoot day look like?
Preparing the shoot on-location was crazy and hilarious. We had so many things to do in one single morning! I was preparing the boxes while Anne was wrapping the fake gifts (believe me, she’s way more talented than me with wrapping paper!) and everything was ready 5 minutes before the first models arrived. Insert sigh of relief.
The shooting itself was a DREAM. Our little models were so happy and full of life, I could have photographed them for a whole week! Technically, it was incredibly freeing. We shot this with a mix of natural light and OCF, using my Profoto B2. Anne shoots with a B2 at home too but she couldn’t bring it to France with her so we decided to try shooting with the same light. She simply brought her own remote and plugged it to her camera, and I did the same with mine. We were able to shoot together at the same time with one single light, firing it with two different cameras simultaneously. It was so fun to be able to shoot together instead of taking turns!
Any favorite parts of the project?
When the end of the day arrived, we were exhausted but fully happy. Shooting alongside of another photographer (especially when this photographer is a dear friend) is such a special experience!
And where are the images being used now?
The images will be used all year long in SelfPackaging’s e-mailing campaigns!
Check out more photography from Lisa at lisatichane.com.