IVAE STUDIOS
Editorial.
ISSUE NO 3 · VOL II · 2026
Editorial Photography · Mexico
Brand campaigns, magazine commissions, hotel rebrands, and lookbooks. Shot across Cancun, the Riviera Maya, and Los Cabos.
Manifesto.
The studio shoots for the editorial register. That register has three commitments, and the work is judged by them. Story is first. The studio asks what the brief is about before it asks what the brief looks like. A shoot is not a list of frames; it is a sequence of decisions made before the call sheet, defended against the call sheet, and recovered when the call sheet breaks. The studio refuses briefs it cannot honor. It accepts the briefs it can.
Light is the second commitment. The studio plans to the hour, scouts the building, and walks the property a day early. The studio knows which terrace turns honey at six eighteen in March and which suite holds north light through one in the afternoon. The shot list is built around the light, not the schedule. Bilingüe en cada conversación. The conversation that produces the light plan happens in English and in Spanish, in the same room, with the same studio.
Restraint is the third. The studio works small. One photographer. One assistant. One producer. A stylist when the brief requires it, a DP when motion is added. The crew does not exceed the work. The studio does not arrive with a fashion-week posse for a sun-care lookbook. The studio arrives with the unit the brief earned, and not one body more.
A Feature.
BrandCasa Ranfla
IssueSpring Edit 2026
LocationTulum, Quintana Roo
Casa Ranfla commissioned the studio for a two-day spring edit on the Tulum coast. The brief was four-fold. One linen lookbook, shot on three models, on the property's east terrace at first light. One interiors set, shot in the shaded courtyard between eleven and one. One golden-hour campaign-key, with the property's Mezcal bar set as the backdrop. One short motion clip, fifteen seconds, for the brand's launch loop on Instagram and on the brand's homepage. The brief was the studio's brief. The studio agreed to it as written.
Day one began at five fifty-two. The lookbook was on its first frame at six oh four. The east terrace turns honey at six eighteen in late April; the studio scheduled the wide-angle close-ups for that window, and the tighter detail crops for the soft-shoulder light at six forty. The model's linen caftan caught the breeze on frame nineteen. That frame became the campaign key.
The interior set was shot in a single one-hour pass between eleven thirty and twelve thirty. The studio used one camera, one prime, no flash, and a single bounce panel held by the assistant against the courtyard's south wall. The brand's creative director was on set for the interior pass and approved the take in real time. The day broke for two hours at one and resumed at three forty for the bar set.
The motion clip was shot last, at six forty-five, on a single dolly run, in one take, with a focus pull halfway. The studio delivered selects on day six. Full delivery on day twelve. Casa Ranfla shipped the campaign on day fifteen.
As Seen In
Investment.
Editorial commissions are quoted to the brief, not to a price list. The studio publishes three brackets so a brand manager can place the studio inside a budget within sixty seconds. Every commission begins with the same conversation, the same crew composition, and the same delivery standard. What changes is the length of the production and the licensing.
A one-day shoot, kept tight.
Investment from
From $4,500 USD
Small DTC lookbook. Restaurant launch. Single-day suite shoot. Magazine assignment.
Begin BriefA two-day production, the full crew.
Investment from
From $9,500 USD
Brand campaign. Hotel seasonal refresh. Multi-room property shoot.
Begin BriefThree or more days, photo and motion.
Investment from
From $18,000 USD
Annual hotel rebrand. Magazine cover feature. Fashion campaign with motion deliverable.
Begin BriefEvery commission is quoted to the brief. Travel beyond Mexico is quoted separately.
The Method.
The studio works the same way for every commission, regardless of scale. The first email is read the same business day, in English or in Spanish. A discovery call follows within forty-eight hours. The studio walks the property a day early. The shoot itself is paced to the light, not the schedule.
01 · Concept
3 to 5 days
The studio reads the brief, reads it again, and writes back with two paragraphs and four references. One reference will be from the brand's own back catalogue. One will not. The conversation is forty-five minutes on a video call. By the end, the brief has either tightened or it has changed.
02 · Casting
1 to 2 weeks
The studio works with two casting directors, one in Mexico City and one in Tulum, and a roster of forty-plus local talent. Locations are scouted in person. Permits are handled in-house. The brand reviews three options for each role and approves before the call sheet ships.
03 · Shoot
1 to 3 days
The studio arrives a day early. The crew is bilingual. The call sheet is bilingual. The day is paced to the light. The brand's creative director is welcome on set; if remote, a live frame-share runs from camera one to a private link. Lunch is hot, not catered cold. The shoot stays small.
04 · Edit
5 to 10 days for selects
Selects are color-graded by hand in the IVAE register. The brand reviews on a private Frame.io link. One round of revision is included; two rounds in The Campaign; three in The Multi-Day Production. Final files are delivered as a structured archive: by camera, by set, by frame.
The Reel.
Marina Castellanos · Brand Manager, Casa RanflaWe commissioned the studio for a two-day spring edit in Tulum. They scouted the property a day before we arrived. They shot in two languages. They returned the campaign-key on day six. We have shipped three campaigns since, and we have not asked another studio to bid.
The studio scouted the property a day before our team arrived. The campaign-key was delivered on day six. We have not commissioned a wedding photographer who pretended to be editorial since.
Pending placeholder · Brand Manager, [Brand]
Three days. Six suites. Two restaurants. The full property package, on time, with bilingual permits handled in-house. The studio is the first call when the brand refresh comes around.
Pending placeholder · Marketing Director, [Resort]
I bookmarked the studio after the first shoot. The frames came back the way I would have edited them in my own queue. Tulum is on my desk twice a year now, and IVAE shoots both.
Pending placeholder · Senior Photo Editor, [Title]
We came in with a forty-eight-hour window and a stylist on a different time zone. The studio absorbed both and shipped the lookbook on day twelve. Restraint shows up as speed.
Pending placeholder · Creative Director, [DTC Brand]
The studio delivered structured galleries. Camera. Set. Frame. Our marketing ops team shipped the campaign in the existing CMS without re-renaming a single file.
Pending placeholder · Head of Production, [Company]
The brief asked for two stills and one motion clip on the same setup. The studio delivered both in one take, in one hour, in one pass. The brand's CD approved on set.
Pending placeholder · Account Director, [Agency]
Considered Questions.
Each bracket includes a defined licensing scope. The Editorial Day includes print and web licensing, no archive use. The Campaign includes print, web, social, and twelve months of archive use. The Multi-Day Production includes the above plus extended archive licensing for the full life of the brand campaign. Out-of-home, broadcast, and stock-license-style usage are quoted separately. The studio has never charged a re-licensing fee on a project the studio shot. The licensing language follows standard editorial-photography conventions; a draft contract is shared after the first call.
Selects arrive in a structured archive: by camera, by set, by frame. RAW files are retained by the studio; high-resolution TIFF or JPEG masters are delivered per the licensing scope. Web-resolution exports are delivered alongside masters in a parallel folder. Motion clips are delivered as ProRes 422 HQ masters plus H.264 streaming exports. A Frame.io link covers the review cycle. Final delivery is via WeTransfer Pro or a private Dropbox link, the brand's choice. Filenames follow the camera-set-frame convention; renaming is on the studio.
Yes. The studio works with two casting directors and a roster of forty-plus talent across Mexico City, Cancun, Tulum, and Los Cabos. The brand reviews three options for each role and approves before the call sheet ships. Day rates are quoted at industry standard (modeling, on-camera talent, voiceover) and pass through to the brand at cost. The studio does not mark up talent. The studio does not sub-contract through a fixer. The casting fee is included in The Campaign and The Multi-Day Production.
The studio handles permits in-house. Public-space permits in Cancun, the Riviera Maya, and Los Cabos are filed by the studio's producer with seven to ten business days of lead time. Private-property permits are negotiated directly with the property's events or marketing department. Beach and reserve permits in Quintana Roo follow SEMARNAT protocol where applicable. The studio carries general liability insurance at one million USD coverage and equipment insurance at three hundred thousand USD. Permit fees and any insurance riders pass through at cost.
The Editorial Day runs with one photographer, one assistant, and one on-set producer. The Campaign adds a second producer and stylist coordination. The Multi-Day Production adds a DP for motion, a grip, and a digital tech. All crew are bilingual. Vianey Diaz directs every commission; the studio does not hand off direction to an associate. A full crew sheet with names, day rates, and roles is shared with the call sheet seventy-two hours before the shoot.
Standard color and skin retouching are included in every bracket. Standard means natural color grading in the IVAE register, dust and sensor cleanup, basic skin smoothing without erasing pore structure, and removal of incidental crew or background distractions. Heavy compositing, beauty retouching at editorial-cover level, and CGI retouching are quoted separately at one hundred fifty USD per hour. The studio refuses to deliver retouching that erases natural skin texture. Brands that require that register are politely declined.
The studio observes a thirty-day cooling period between commissions in directly competing categories. A hotel rebrand for one Riviera Maya property is followed by a thirty-day window before the studio commits to a second hotel rebrand on the same coastline. The studio does not sign category-exclusivity agreements beyond ninety days; long-term exclusivity is a different commercial structure and is quoted on retainer. Brands that want a one-shoot exclusivity should request the cooling clause when the brief is written.
The studio's standing turnaround is eight to twelve weeks from brief sign-off to final delivery for The Campaign and The Multi-Day Production. The Editorial Day can move in two to four weeks if the date is open. Casting and location permits are the longest single dependency; with seven business days of lead time on permits, the shoot itself ships in five to ten business days for selects, fifteen to twenty for full delivery. Rush briefs (under two weeks total) are quoted at a twenty-five percent rush fee.
English and Spanish, equally. Every email, every call sheet, every contract draft, every Frame.io review note, and every final delivery memo is offered in both languages. The studio's producers are bilingual. Vianey Diaz is fluent in both. On set, the working language is the brand's preferred language, and the studio adjusts the call sheet accordingly. International shoots in third-language regions (Italy, France, Portugal) are quoted with a local fixer line item.
Yes. The studio signs mutual NDAs as a standard practice on commissions where the brand is in a launch window or in an unannounced rebrand. Standard scope: the studio agrees not to publish, exhibit, or share imagery for a defined embargo period (typically three to twelve months). The studio retains the right to publish the work after the embargo lifts unless the contract specifies a longer or permanent hold. Permanent-hold work is quoted at a thirty percent premium because portfolio rights are part of the studio's commercial value.
Commission.
Share the brand, the brief, the dates, and a sentence about the campaign you imagine. The studio will respond the same business day, in English or in Spanish, with two questions, a draft call sheet, and a calendar link. The first reply is from Vianey. Briefs that arrive on Friday afternoon are read Monday morning. The studio takes a finite number of editorial commissions per quarter to keep the work calm.
