DestinAsian Magazine Shoot

So a little over a wk ago I did my first cover shoot for this magazine called DestinAsian Magazine. Apparently, it's available all over Asia and you can sometimes even find it in North America which is cool.

The location of the shoot was at The Jin Mao Tower and more specifically in the Grand Hyatt Hotel Presidential Suite (costs approx. 42 000 rmb/night = approx. $6200 USD) and Cloud 9 (the highest bar in the world - 87 floor). I've actually shot in both of these locations before for a very cool shoot I did in the Summer. Until 2007 Jin Mao was the tallest building in the PRC (People's Republic of China) but since 2007 the Shanghai World Financial Center which is next to Jin Mao has claimed that honour.

The Grand Hyatt is actually a pretty cool hotel in that it's circular and from the atrium when you look up it's actually kind of trippy....looking down from one of the top floors makes me dizzy though.



Anyway, back to the shoot. This was overall a really easy shoot. The model Emily is suppose to be a real up and coming model in Asia so let's hope so b/c it really helps the mag (and my work ;) ) get more recognition. She had great skin and really knew her posing so shooting was a breeze in comparison to a lot of shoots in Shanghai. A lot of times the girls will not have good skin (both asian and foreign) and a lot of the foreigner models are brand new and therefore don't know the first thing about posing while a lot of the Asian models just don't get it and lack something in the eyes.

The dress for the shoot was this really pretty purple floral piece by Vivienne Tam. I decided to incorporate the purple palette of the dress into my eye and lip makeup and went w/ a loose, undone side updo as I wanted to capture the romantic and flowy feel of the dress I didn't want anything too structured or tight. I really hope the pictures from this one turn out well! As I mentioned before it's my first cover!

I think the pics from the Presidential Suite were definitely the stronger of the locations so I'm really hoping the mag chooses one of those for their cover. It's so crazy b/c the living room in the suite is probably the size of my apt. lol. The bathroom has it's own sauna which is nice and I think I've seen NYC apts. smaller than the walk in closet lol.

After the shoot we got to have lunch in one of the hotel's restaurants (The Italian Cucina I think) for free - drinks, main, dessert - everything! Definitely a step up from the usual pizza or greasy chinese normally offered on set. Now anyone that's been reading this knows I'm not rolling in the dough so when you offer me a great lunch in a great restaurant you better believe I take full advantage of it lol! The only thing that sucked was Todd was in a hurry b/c he was leaving for Singapore the next day and had a bunch of errands to do after the lunch so we didn't really get a chance to sit and enjoy ourselves all that much. Even in the rushed meal I still managed to fit in the the 3 course lunch they offered and a glass of wine. I had a mushroom soup to start, then a grilled snapper I believe and a chocolate torte for dessert...all very good!

So now I'll leave you w/ some behind the scenes pics from the shoot:

Todd shooting (again on the ground lol)

Touch up Time
Cloud 9 Bar
Presidential Suite
I really liked the feel of these pics on the couch hope one of these is chosen!
These had a cool feel to them too but better suited to an editorial not a cover shot.