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Triumph International had just launched an ad campaign in London for their new Boudoir lingerie range. Huge posters featuring a model wearing the underwear covered the backs of dozens of buses in the city, and Triumph wanted a shot for release to the newspapers to help promote the campaign. Olivia, the model featured in the ads, was brought in from Paris for the day and four London buses featuring the posters had been hired and parked in an open space by Regents Park. A photocall had been set for 11am so I was there at 9.30am to set up the shot. I used a long lens so that Olivia would be sharp and the buses in the background slightly defocused, directing attention to the model. The long lens also makes the background of the image larger than it would appear to the eye, reinforcing the connection with the ads on the buses. I wanted to use backlighting because it adds glamour, which was what the campaign was all about. It looked like the sun was going to come out, so the most important part of the shoot was positioning the buses and the model. We worked out where the sun would be at 11am and then parked the buses to fill the background using an assistant as a stand-in for Olivia. I used a 6' by 4' gold reflector to light Olivia and a tiny burst of flash, and the combination of light sources showed off Olivia (and the underwear) remarkably well (it was bright but rather chilly, and Olivia arrived for the shoot in a dark suit: to say it was quite a surprise when she suddenly removed the jacket and skirt would definitely be an understatement). "We were delighted with the shoot, and when the sun came out Olivia looked incredibly glamorous" says Sue Loder of Triumph International. "The look of the shots fitted perfectly with the brand and even though Olivia's English wasn't great we could show her the digital images then & there which really encouraged her to work more closely with Ian. We went to a nearby hotel, and over a cup of coffee we edited the shots on Ian's laptop, choosing two to be sent to the press. We added the caption information and Ian connected his computer to a phone line and emailed the images to his list of picture desks; he had taken the pictures at 11am and they'd been edited, approved, captioned and delivered electronically by 2pm - fantastic! The next day the pictures were used in the Sun, the Star and the Mirror, and in the Independent at the weekend, so the coverage was even greater than we'd hoped".