Archives for October 2010

Charlene

mg_7289webI first worked with Charlene back in August at a group shoot with other photographers Stu Glen, Marc Melling and Grahame Jenkins held at Banana Studio up in Newcastle’s Ouseburn.  She has a great look but is also a lovely girl with it and we grabbed some time on the day to talk about future collaboration, as it turned out we had to wait until this week to finally get together.  We were hoping to make a day of it and combine a location shoot with a further session back at Banana, unfortunately the weather was against us so we just headed for the studio.  During the three hours we had we shot a range of styles from lifestyle, fashion through to lingerie with Charlene making the transition between each with ease.
The time went really quickly, but looking back through the images I was more than happy with the shots we got.  Thanks to Charlene for a really enjoyable and productive afternoon and to the revamped  Banana Studio for their good humour and professionalism throughout the day.

These are a few of the early edits, please check back as more are added.

Images updated 27/11/10

Beauty Shoot With Jade Turnbull, MUA Victoria Lees

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Victoria got in touch via my web site and asked if I would like to collaborate on a series of beauty images she was looking to develop for her portfolio.  After looking at her work I was more than happy to, so we went away to do a little research and see what we could come up with.  We exchanging a few images and it was good to know that we were thinking along the same lines and we were able to pick out a few looks that would naturally develop from the one before.  After the initial clean beauty shots there was a lot of blue in the the different make ups and Victoria had an idea to use some hair extensions to create a more interesting look.  After looking through the headshot gallery on here Victoria really wanted to work with Jade who had the right look and the blue eyes to match,   with Jade on board we had everything in place and with some further input from her the whole thing was good to go.  The shoot was great fun from start to finish and both Jade and Victoria were great to work with, we didn’t get to shoot all of the looks we had planned but hopefully we will be able to find the time to get back together and finish it off.  Here are a few early edits from the shoot, check back to see more as they are done.

Gallery updated 28/10/10

Eve – The Comeback Kid

Eve Model shootEve was one of the mose popular and hardworking models on the north east circuit and I was fortunate to work with her on a few occasions.  We always seemed to manage to come up with something a little different and the images we shot stayed on my profiles for ages, though I never tired of them.  So when I heard the news that she had decided to hang up her sequined undies I was more than a little disappointed.  However after a break she is back and looking better than ever.  We arranged to shoot together for a short time, looking for something “edgy fashion”,  with the objective of getting 3 usable images for her on line portfolios, how do you think we did??  Always a pleasure working with Eve, no doubt we will work together again soon.

Happy Birthday To Me!!

For my birthday this year I was lucky enough to receive a helicopter flight from my lovely girlfriend Tracey.  I was really made up as this has been a lifelong ambition.  About fifteen years ago I had had around 30 minutes in a two seater plane which was great, but flying a helicopter was what i really wanted to do and couldn’t wait for the big day.  Unfortunately this was put back a couple of times, due to the weather and my summer holiday, but as we eventually drove up to Newcastle Airport I have to admit i was really excited – and a little scared too!!  We arrived at Northumbria Helicopters in good time and after filling in the necessary paperwork  it was off for the preflight checks and induction about the controls of the Robinson R-22, call sign G-Mogy.  We were soon in the air and flying over the centre of Newcastle, en route to Tynemouth.  It was a perfect day for flying, visibility was great, you could see for miles in every direction.  During the flight I got to handle all of the controls and was surprised at just how sensitive they were and despite the fairly strong winds managed to prevent us from plummeting to the ground!!  The whole thing was over too quickly but I had a great day, when I win the lottery this will be one of the first things on my list.

Photoshop Editing Technique

fashion image from Birkhead location shoot

Given that Photoshop is such an important part in the image making process these days I’m always on the lookout for different techniques that will enhance my image processing skills.  I recently came across an article on the Chase Jarvis website where I really liked the final result.  I’m a frequent visitor of his blog which contains lots of useful information and updates about his work, a great source of inspiration.  The technique was fairly straightforward, involving a channel mixer layer and and change of blending mode to Overlay, followed by some selections to tweak the final image.  The image I used was one from a recent shoot with fashion model Lisa Marie Thompson at Birkheads Secret Garden on the outskirts of Newcastle. I think  Lisa’s pose is great here and the sky provided a great backdrop, as you can see the colours are much more punchy than in the original edit and I really like the final result, be glad to hear your opinions 🙂

Kirstie – Fashion and Beauty Shoot

Kirstie Fashion and Portrait shoot

After the Marlena shoot we had to come back for more!!  Once again I had the services of Julie Ann Pattinson as MUA and stylist and this time Kirstie as the model.  I first met Kirstie through a friend of hers who I had worked with before, she had not really done any modelling before, and had no real desire to pursue it as a career, but wanted to give it a go and see how it turned out.  As you can see she has a great look and proved to be an absolute natural.  Fortunately for me she really enjoyed the shoot and we ended up shooting several more times over the following months.  We worked through a series of ideas, one of which included her being buried in a mound of autumnal leaves which I had collected a couple of days before the shoot and dried out on the conservatory floor, unfortunately the odd spider remained which did cause one or two slightly hairy moments!!  It was a long day and we shot for around seven hours with only a short break for one of my legendary sandwiches 🙂  Had a great feeling of satisfaction following the shoot though and a real sense of achievement.  Big thank you to both Kirstie and Julie for their patience, good humour and expertise which just made the whole thing so much fun.

New Business Cards

Well i thought it was about time that I had some new business cards so I started looking around for a supplier.  A couple of people had recommended Moo.  What I really liked about them is that you can choose as many images as you want for your cards, up to a maximum of 50,  at no extra cost.  The interface is easy to use and the whole thing was very straightforward.  Delivery was within 3 days with the cards packaged in a smart presentation case.  The quick grab shot here doesn’t really do justice to the quality of the print, suffice to say I’m very happy with them and will be ordering some new ones soon to reflect different areas of my work.