From Russia with Love

It's day two of our excursion to Moscow and the call time is early to say the least—4:30 AM in a suite of the Ritz Carlton. Full of anticipation and excitement for longest shoot day scheduled on our trip, we embark into what is still night to start the day.  We arrive at our location and are set to photograph Miss Irina Travkina, former Miss Russia pageant contestant, in the gorgeous Tourandot restaurant which is the first location out of six for the day.  

The setting brings us back to the 18th century with ornate gold fixtures, chandeliers, and beautiful hand painted murals covering the walls from the floor to the ceiling. We dressed Irina in modest yet sexy corsets to get her into character and she posed and photographed perfectly (gentle, soft, and endearing). The yellow alcove shots below are from a really a special place, as its in the same room that is preferred by the former President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. As you can see from the photos it was one of ours as well.

We then packed up and moved on to our second shoot of the day, and went to the famous GUM department store in Kitai-good of Moscow, a model of exquisite Russian architecture. Located in Red Square it has a presence that's breathtaking and can’t be ignored. We had Irina done up in a grandiose, and beautiful, black corset dress that she frolicked through the store in, and it was here that I shot some of my favorite images from the entire trip.  And remember, check back next Thursday for more beautiful women from this beautiful country.

Missed out on our other dispatches from Russia? See them here:

Part 1 of our 2 Part Special
In Orbit over Moscow
Red Square Dancing
A Taste of Russia
Fresh from Russia

Maxim would like to send a very special thank you to our friends in Russia!  We had the most outstanding crew and this production wouldn’t have been possible without each and everyone listed below.   

Locations survey and Production – Igor Malakhov

Director of Communications, Russian Standard – Preston Mendenhall

Chief Marketing Officer, Russian Standard Vodka USA – Drew Beaver

Project Manager, Russian  Standard – Valentina Naumova

Chief Stylist – Elena Usanova

Stylists – Roman Travin & Philipp Ndzana

Hair – Konstantin Kochegov

Make-Up – Savva

Production Assistant – Stanislav Urzhumtsev
Beauty Team Assistant – Maria Pototskaya
Imperial Holiday – Leo Murzenko

My love to the Maxim crew as well:

Lighting Specialist – Brady Fontenot

Videographer – Greg Rusling

Co-Producer/ Project Manager – Jena Liberman

Styling credits:

Corset – Nuance
Pants – Chistova & Endourova

Dress –  IGLA

Photo Shoot Location:

Turandot Restaurant, Tverskoy Boulevard 26/5, Moscow.
GUM, The Department store on the Red Square

Photographed for Maxim Digital by Kelly Stuart | Copyright 2008 Alpha Media Group.  All Rights Reserved