The Joy of Making Something Together
Client: Findlay, Australia
Service: Social Media, Content Library, Photos and Reels
Findlay The Label is an Australian brand focused on producing a wide range of stylish organisational accessories, including quilted pouches, cosmetic bags, and specialised swimwear storage bags. Known for its “sleepwear or anywhere” concept, the brand features vibrant patterns and eco-friendly materials, designed to make packing and travel more organised and fashionable.
Recently, Findlay The Label launched a series of mini bag charm kits — cute, colourful and customisable beads that you can put together and clip onto your favourite everyday essentials.
For the launch, we created two separate content libraries.
One was a shoot with a group of ladies.
The other was a kids' event.
And while both shoots were about the same product, the way we approached them couldn't have been more different.
Starting with the product
For the first shoot, Findlay The Label brought together a group of classy ladies to model — although, technically, they were mostly there to be hand models.
The idea was to highlight the little details and craftsmanship of each charm while also showing how easy and fun the kits were to put together.
When I'm working with colourful products, I usually have one thing in mind:
Make it vibrant, but keep it clean.
I want the colours to grab your attention, but I don't want the visuals to distract you from the product itself.
No crazy filters.
No unnecessary effects.
No trying to make the product look like something it isn't.
Just let the product speak for itself.
Because what you see should be what you get.
We also paid a lot of attention to movement.
Rather than creating a bunch of perfectly staged photos, we focused on the little things happening around the product — the hands moving, the charms being put together, the gestures, the mixing and matching, and eventually, the finished piece.
It was less about getting the “perfect” shot and more about showing the experience.
And that's important for a product like this.
It's supposed to be fun.
You can experiment.
You can make something weird.
You can change your mind halfway through.
There's really no right or wrong way to do it.
And that's what we wanted the content to communicate.
Then came the kids. Muahahaha (Evil Laughter)
Now, photographing adults playing with charms is one thing.
Photographing a bunch of kids doing the same thing?
Completely different story.
So how do you capture kids in action while also doing your job as the photographer and videographer — all while making sure the charms and the event itself are being properly documented?
Honestly?
You let them be kids.
Kids are unpredictable.
Give them a little space and, sooner or later, something funny, chaotic or unexpectedly heartwarming will happen.
And those are usually the moments I want to capture.
I don't need to manufacture those moments.
I just need to be ready when they happen.
Once the candid moments started unfolding, I'd shift my attention back towards what they were actually creating.
Almost like doing a product shoot...
Except the “product designer” is a child who may or may not have a very questionable sense of colour coordination.
And honestly, that's part of the fun.
The chaos of shooting both photo and video
Of course, there's another challenge when you're doing both photography and videography at the same time.
Kids move fast.
Really fast.
You can be taking a photo one second, and suddenly something interesting is happening somewhere else.
So you're constantly switching between photo and video, changing angles, looking for details and trying not to miss anything.
It can get overwhelming very quickly.
But I've found something that makes it much easier for me:
I focus on one child at a time.
I'll start by photographing one child in action.
Then I'll switch to video and film that same child from a few different angles.
I'll also grab some close-ups of the charms and whatever they're creating.
Once I feel like I've got enough coverage, I'll move on to the next child.
Then I repeat the process.
It sounds simple, but it makes a huge difference.
Instead of trying to capture everything happening around me at once, I can focus on getting a complete little story around one person before moving on.
It also helps me balance the three things I need to capture:
The event.
The product.
The people.
And then we're done.
By the end of the shoot, the kids had fun, plenty of tiny masterpieces had been created, and a few of them were...
Let's just say interesting.
Some looked amazing.
Some looked slightly questionable.
But they were all made by the kids, and that's what made them special.
We got the photos.
We got the videos.
The products were captured.
The clients were happy.
And just like that, another shoot was done.
Chaotic?
Absolutely.
But honestly, those are usually the shoots I enjoy the most.
Because sometimes the best content doesn't come from trying to control everything.
Sometimes, you just need to let things happen and be ready to capture them.
At the end of the day, the kids had fun, lots of tiny masterpieces were created — some admittedly looked a little weird, but in a funny and charming way. The products were captured nicely, clients were happy, and that wraps up another day on the job.