Thursday 29 March 2012

Spring Is Sprung!

Spring is sprung,
the grass is riz,
I wonder where the birdies is.
They say the bird is on the wing.
But that's absurd.
The wing is on the bird.


This week I have taken advantage of the unusually warm weather to do my first location shoot of the year. The day was bright and sunny, the sky a clear and cloudless blue and at the early start time it was still quite chilly but it was warming up quite rapidly.

I collected my model for the day, S_Olivia, from her home and travelled to the first location via a well-known fast food outlet with golden arches that was en-route so that lunch could be purchased. The first location was a 13th century monastic Tithe Barn that is an impressive structure, where a few images were taken. The light was quite harsh giving very bright highlights and very deep shadows, not the best lighting for people photography.


We then moved to a beech wood that is situated on the site of an Iron Age hill fort where the open tree canopy softened the light enough to reduce the contrast which enabled me to get images that were more to my liking.

 
The one disadvantage of these locations was that they were not particularly secluded so you had to keep a good lookout for people walking past your location, normally walking dogs and taking an age to pass through as they are curious about what you are doing, I suppose the fact I was carrying a large lump of a camera and was in the company of a young, clothed, female model probably had their minds doing smutty thoughts overtime!

We finally did a few more shots back at my garden, where S_Olivia used some baby oil and water to enhance her skin textures.


You can see more of my work on my web site or on my Purple Port page.


Monday 19 March 2012

Dull Day

Yes I had a dull day last week, not dull in the lack of excitement sense, but a really dull day on the weather front. Heavy cloud had obliterated any sunlight there was and the light was not what I would call suitable for working with a model, but I had arranged a shoot and had to make the most of the situation.

I had set-up a shoot with S_Olivia with a theme of necklaces and cleavage and she arrived well equipped for an afternoon’s photography. We did three sets with the necklaces and three different shirts, followed by a shot wearing nothing more than a scarf and a necklace and a final outdoor set of her walking along my garden path just wearing a skirt.


We followed the outdoor sets with a few shots that used S_Olivia's acting skills and finished off with an unusual one of her sat in the old fireplace of the bedroom that is now an alcove for a small statue.


You can see more of my work on my web site or at Purple Port

Monday 12 March 2012

A New Studio!


Simon Walden has moved Film Photo Studio into a new location in Cheltenham and I had an opportunity to use the new facilities with IvoryFlame, who I had not worked with for some time.

Getting to the new location was straight forward, although I was beginning to think there was a conspiracy to stop me arriving on time as every traffic light in Cheltenham was at red as I drove to the studio.

The new facilities are vast, with two infinity coves and many ‘sets’ to choose from, but on this occasion I decided to keep it simple and shoot against one of the white infinity coves with a fairly simple lighting set-up with one or two soft boxes.


 Ivory Flame was, as usual, highly proficient and did some fantastic poses with some sheer fabrics, as well as some of her latest wardrobe items.


A great shoot with a fantastic model in some great facilities.

You can see more of my work at Purple Port or on my web site.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

A Quirky Shoot

S_Olivia popped round for a quick and quirky shoot on a Friday afternoon in February. I had a couple of ideas I wanted to try out, and a bit of plagiarism of an image I had seen on a social network site.


The shoot started with a series of tightly cropped portraits, which I particularly liked, followed by an attempt at some humour with a shot of how to cheat when using bathroom scales!


This was followed by some shots sat on the bed in various outfits, ending with some topless shots with experimental lighting.


The final shot utilised some well-known confectionary, and I was unaware of the advertising tag line of the product, which drew some rather ribald comments when I posted the shot on another web site!


You can see more of my work at Purple Port or on my web site