The team of 9 set off for a two day shoot just out of Livingstone, Zambia where we produced the 2012 Playboy Playmate of the Year pictorial for the March edition of Playboy South Africa. It was a standard brief but just in an extra special location. 95% of the shoot was done with one silver reflector and natural light.
Above is the Playboy South Africa magazine cover. The below 6 double-page spreads make up the layout of the pictorial inside the printed magazine.
Below is the 4min promo behind-the-scenes video from the shoot in Zambia.
As with all the shoots I did for Playboy South Africa we shot a series of “PR” non-nudes as well as the nude images which get published in the magazine itself. Quite a few of the PR shots you’ll see here incorporate the Playmate of the Year (PMOY) logo for marketing purposes.
The balance of the images here are extra shots that were produced for the pictorial and may or may not ever have been used any where other than here. Its so nice to have them see the light of day after one works on them for so long.
The below and above three shots were image options for the PMOY cover.
Ive always loved working with the force-of-nature bombshell that is Jade Fairbrother. She is the perfect ‘girl next door’ (Playboys original prerequisite for Playmate casting) but at the same time this girl has a determination, a serious zest for life, a sharp wit, a fab sense of humour and a huge heart that make her so special. These qualities made her such a fantastic first South African PMOY.
I shot her original Playboy South Africa Playmate pictorial the year before this as well: she ran as “Miss September” in 2011 which we shot in the Cape Town Stadium with Jade themed as a sort of ‘mascot’ for the Bokke.
On location in Zambia we shot both in the lodge suites, the pool, the gardens and paths, the lounge areas, the sundowner-cruise boat and an old dug-out boat (pictured above)…with one staff member at the back rowing us up river, Jacque my wonderful assistant balancing behind me with a gigantic reflector rigged to a metal frame, the boat rocked a bit too wildly for all our liking but Jade still pulled of ‘nonchalant’ like there was no tomorrow.
We shot Jades pictorial both on the Zambezi river itself and in The Royal Chundu hotel which is a five star establishment about an hours drive up river of Victoria Falls. Every angle of the property exterior and interior was beautiful to shoot in.
The below image was the second image option for the March 2012 PMOY magazine cover.
Below are a few behind the scenes shots taken during the shooting of the cover shot and hair and makeup prep with the talented Colleen Van Resnburg.
Our shoot location was beyond decadent which is why I couldn’t resist adding this photo Colleen took of me in the bath at our suite.
Below is the team that worked on the shoot in Zambia.
