Cover shot for the University of Cambridge RAG Naked Calendar 2021. The swimming team photographed in the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Behind the Scenes – Cambridge Blues Naked Calendar

Back in February 2020 when the world was (relatively) normal, I started a big University project.  Honoured to be chosen to shoot the 2021 Cambridge University Blues RAG Naked Calendar, the project presented some big challenges, Covid19 being the real biggie. In this post I go over some of those challenges and how I overcame them.

1. Before The First Lockdown…

With the team from Cambridge RAG, we completed the first few calendar shoots without social distancing in February and March.  They were all about group camaraderie and sports teams standing naked together having a jolly good time for charity!  Here’s some chaos from the calendar’s cover shoot with models from the swimming team at the Fitzwilliam Museum:

Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the swimming team in the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the swimming team in the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the swimming team in the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Stylish advertising image on the front cover of the University of Cambridge blues naked calendar 2021. Shot in the Fitzwilliam museum.

Two more shoots were ticked off the list, the water polo team at the Union debating chamber and the men’s volleyball team at the University classics department cast gallery:

Stylish advertising image shot for the University of Cambridge blues naked calendar 2021 in the university debating chamber.
Stylish advertising image shot for the University of Cambridge blues naked calendar 2021 in the cast gallery at the classic's department.

Then came lockdown… The project was put on hold as students were sent home and the University shut down.  My work stopped more generally meaning I had plenty of time to work on my edit processes for the calendar!  I had already chosen to light people individually, planning to create composite final images.  All models were lit, shot and edited individually and placed back into the original scene.  This technique created the commercial advertising look I was after, but it became an essential element for the shoots that followed.

2. Post Lockdown…

In a mad rush at the start of the University term in October 2020 and with a feeling new Covid restrictions were imminent, we pushed ahead to get the calendar wrapped.  University locations were limited and we ended up shooting in some unexpected, hidden gems.  We were also restricted initially to shooting outdoors, then to groups of four.  In the end, we shot anywhere we could find (there’s a long story about the Granchester shoot involving Jeffrey Archer’s house, a huge misunderstanding and some lucky paddle boarders… but I digress).  All remaining calendar shoots were completed under Covid restrictions and social distancing using the composite technique.

Stylish advertising image shot for the University of Cambridge blues naked calendar 2021 in a restaurant basement.
Stylish advertising image shot for the University of Cambridge blues naked calendar 2021 in Granchester meadows.
Stylish advertising image shot for the University of Cambridge blues naked calendar 2021 in an old university lecture theatre.
Stylish advertising image shot for the University of Cambridge blues naked calendar 2021 in the Cambridge botanical gardens.

3. How It Was Done…

The following image is a favourite featuring the women’s athletics team.  It was shot early one morning at the University Athletics track.  The weather provided the mood and the girls braved the cold!  Dan, the shoot organiser from Cambridge RAG (and my assistant), masked up to help with light and reflector placement.  I remained behind the camera directing.  I used two studio strobes to achieve the look.  One was for fill, firing from behind the camera, the other was inside a soft-lighter/softbox to light the models against background.  Dan’s reflector helped send a bit more light back into my subject’s faces.  Each girl was photographed separately and at a good social distance.  The final composite combined multiple images shot on location with my camera fixed to a tripod.  It was put together as a digital composite, image by image:

This moody architectural landscape was my base image:

Architectural exteriors photo of the university of Cambridge athletics ground.

Models were photographed individually.  I later placed their images into the scene one by one:

Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the women's athletics team.
Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the women's athletics team.
Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the women's athletics team.
Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the women's athletics team.
Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the women's athletics team.

And this was the setup from where I was standing:

Behind the scenes image from the University of Cambridge naked calendar shoot 2021 with the women's athletics team.