Jo Mercer

Salt Lake Dreaming

I was on my balcony enjoying the afternoon sun when I received a call from Elle Bugge, Digital Marketing Manager from Jo Mercer Shoes in Melbourne. Elle asked if I would consider shooting their next campaign which just happened to be taking place on a remote salt lake in South Australia. Further to this that we would need to charter a private plane to get to this fascinating destination. No stranger to salt lakes and clean horizons I was immediately interested and once off the phone I called Helen my agent at The Incredible Picture Machine in Sydney.


Jo Mercer had specified that they would be especially interested in some drone footage and also film coverage of the campaign to run alongside the stills. Helen went ahead and arranged Sydney Paul Van Kan. I promptly called Dad to man the drone. We had only just purchased our new toy from DJI which carried a 20MP sensor and 4k film and buzzed around like a loud mosquito at 70km per hour or so. It is, of course, a beautiful thing. The stills and motion we have been able to capture are quite stunning.

Our model Chantelle Monaghan had flown in from the USA the night before we boarded the plane to SA. Janice Wu one of my personal favourite makeup artists joined us along with Sete, Elle & Dianna from Jo Mercer. We spent two days shooting on the lake. I love these images and also the combined campaign film that Paul & Rob shot which was brilliantly edited by Paul.