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Rae of Sunshine

July 23, 2011 by John 4 Comments

Well this was a shoot that was almost cancelled because of the weather, the forecast was pretty poor and it looked like we were not going to get any good light. On the morning of the shoot I got up early to chek out the webcam that overlooks the location and it didn’t look too bad so we decided to give it a go. I made the short trip up the A1 /A19 and through the Tyne Tunnel to Tynemouth to meet Charlene who you will probably recognise from previous shoots on the blog. Tynemouth is a popular area well known to the people of the north east because of the beach but also draws its fair share of surfers and scuba divers. The plan was to shoot a couple of outfit changes in and around the beach area, including an old outdoor swimming pool which had been thoughtfully re painted before the shoot :), before the weather closed in. As it turned out the weather was lovely, sunny and perfectly still which made for great shooting condition, this gave me the option of using my new silver lined 59″ parabolic umbrella ella ella from Hobo Lighting. The quality of the umbrella is good and it is built a little more strongly than a standard brolly making think it would be a better option for location work. Using a 500w Bowens Gemini strobe running off a Travelpak it gave out a good amount of light which was quite focused and contrasty. I have read that they are considering making a front diffuser panel for this which will be interesting to see the effect it has on softness. It needed careful setting up but when you get in the right place I really liked the effect it gave, certainly something I will be looking to use a lot more in the future. As usual Charlene looked stunning and we worked through the different sets quickly before she had to rush off home and feed her new Dalmatian pup Spot!! A thoroughly enjoyable shoot with a great model, hope you enjoy the images.

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Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Beach, Charlene Rae, Darlington, fashion model, Imago Imagery, Location, model portfolio, photoshoot, Portfolio Shoot, portrait, Portraits

Taylor Made

July 17, 2011 by John 2 Comments

During the course of the summer I’m looking to do a few different fashion based shoots on location to freshen up my portfolio. Once I started to look for models who would suit the type of look I wanted Bex Taylor was someone who I felt had the look and style needed. I had seen some images of her on Facebook but also through some really good shots taken by local photographer John Picton which really convinced me she was right. Fortunately she was keen to be involved so we set about planning a day which would be part studio and part location based. Bex travelled down to Darlington from Sunderland and we just seemed to get on right from the start. During the morning we worked on a few different looks, including some natural light images which I was really pleased with. After a rather rushed lunch (there just never seems to be enough time!!) we drove out to the coast to do some shots on a local beach, weather was great although the light was really contrasty so a good deal of fill light was needed using the Bowens Travelpak and a 400W flash head. This was also a first try for a brolly box I had recently bought from Ebay which worked out pretty well though I’m now considering buying a suitable octobox to replace this in the near future. We had another location picked out to finish off with but unfortunately ran out of time, though that is a great excuse to work with this talented model again!! For some of the images I was trying out a new processing technique (for me) which involved the use of localised curve adjustment layers, gradient maps and some shadow / highlight work. Not sure I’m 100% there yet with this but it definitely has potential to create the look I’m trying to achieve. Great day, lovely model, hope you enjoy the images.

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ps Watch this space as a couple of these images will be appearing in the first printed edition of Elite magazine next month 🙂

Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Beach, Bex Taylor, Darlington, Imago Imagery, Location, model portfolio, photoshoot, Portfolio Shoot, portrait, Portraits

Elite Magazine Photoshoot With Nikki Little

June 14, 2011 by John 2 Comments

Recently I got a message from Fraser Mutch, one of the main men over at Elite magazine, asking about the possibility of shooting some images of model Nikki Little for the June edition. Nikki is someone who I have been fortunate enough to work with a few times over the last couple of years and I was delighted to get the chance to do so again. Nikki had entered a competition with the magazine to be their Model of the Month and polled the most votes from the readers. This was no great suprise to me as she is such an accomplished model with a great look and the portfolio to match. We got our heads together and came up with a few ideas that we would like to work on and met up at Banana Studio for the photoshoot to try and bring them to life. We had three hours to get the images we needed for the publication which seems like a long time but in reality with make up and clothing changes the time just flies by. During the course of the shoot we tried several different lighting patterns to go with the outfit changes to try and give some variety to the images and showcase Nikki’s versatility. I think we pretty much achieved this goal although we did run out of time on the last idea we had which involved a really athletic pose from Nikki and a lighting set up which i couldn’t get just right, perhaps that is one for next time!! Having said that there was one real stand out image on the day for me where Nikki nailed the strong, athletic pose and I managed to capture it in just the way I wanted. It was an absolute pleasure working with Nikki again, such a friendly outgoing model but thoroughly professional with it. Thanks also to Eric and his staff at Banana and also to Nikki’s Mum who was on hand at all times to help out which was very much appreciated.

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Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Banana Studios, Darlington, fashion model, Imago Imagery, model portfolio, Newcastle, Nikki Little, photoshoot, portrait, Swimwear

Tripping The Light Fantastic

June 2, 2011 by John Leave a Comment

Sometimes in life things just seem to fall into place and just work, Tuesday this week was a prime example of this for me. Siobhan (better known as Bob or Roberto!!) had been trying to organise a shoot with me for some time but as we wanted to do something location based we really wanted the weather to be right so we had several abortive attempts to make it happen. The weather was so good this week that we just decided to go for it and despite a few spots of rain on the drive up to Tynemouth it turned out to be a gorgeous evening and the light was just fantastic. Bob is such a creative soul, she had a range of outfits prepared and a set of inspirational images to work from, so that despite the short notice we were pretty well prepared for what we wanted to achieve. We did a recce up and down the beach at Tynemouth and planned a few different areas where we wanted to shoot, after that it was pretty full on making the most of the location, light and Roberto’s extensive wardrobe!! We worked our way along the beach, climbed like mountain goats along the cliffs and used the old outdoor swimming pool that had some great backdrops. Three hours later we were finished with a real sense of satisfaction of a job well done. The only let down was being kept going “please just one more set!!” by the promise of the best fish and chips in the area which were conveniently forgotten when we had finished 😛 To be fair her boyfriend did come to the rescue with a tasty burger which really hit the spot. Lots of good images still to come from this shoot, please come back to this post as there will be further additions to the gallery.

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Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Darlington, fashion model, Imago Imagery, model portfolio, Photographer, photoshoot, Portfolio Shoot, portrait, Siobhan Walker, Swimwear, Tynemouth

Take Me To the Beach

May 16, 2011 by John Leave a Comment

Well wasn’t the weather in April fantastic!! So much so that I felt the urge to get back out and do some work on the beach, weather was glorious though the water temperature was bloody freezing so we kept well clear of that!! One of the techniques I was looking to perfect last year was the use of the Alien Bee’s Ringflash to provide fill at the times of the day when the sun was high and there were some pretty deep shadows. The flash has an output of 400W so has plenty of juice and powered by the Vagabond II battery pack it is portable enough to have the pack slung over your shoulder and still keep relatively mobile and enough power to keep the flash charged up throughout the day. My usual approach is to have the model with the sun behind her and use the flash to fill from the front. Most of the images were shot at around f8 – f11 with the flash set anywhere between 1/4 and 3/4 power depending on the shooting distance

For the latest shoot I was lucky to have Charlene as the model who was looking to add some different elements to her modelling book. The weather was lovely, if a little hazy at times, so we headed off to nearby Redcar on the north east coast of England. Charlene has such a great look and an absolute pleasure to work with. We spent about three hours just wandering up and down the beach looking for different places to shoot and things to shoot with. The piece of driftwood we found presented a few challenges and was the cause of much laughter when it kept rolling over!! We got there in the end though and despite the difficulties I thought Charlene really nailed that shot. Fingers crossed for more days like that this summer.

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Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Alien Bees, Beach, Bikini, Charlene Rae, Imago Imagery, Location, model portfolio, photoshoot, Portfolio Shoot, Ringflash, Swimwear, Vagabond II

Georgia On My Mind

April 20, 2011 by John Leave a Comment

Georgia was one of the models at our group shoot at Banana Studio back in January. It was a cracking day but in all the rushing around we found that we only had literally 10 minutes at the end of the session to shoot. In that short time I knew she was someone I would really like to work with again and the images we got in that time confirmed that and I promised I would make the time up in the near future. So last week we finally got together for a shoot and I travelled up from Darlington to Banana Studio in Newcastle for something that would hopefully last a little longer and work through a few ideas that we had talked about in the build up to the day. Georgia wanted some really natural images for her model portfolio and when I saw the new graffiti wall at Banana Studio I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the shoot. The shot we got from that part of the session has quickly become one of my all time favourites. We were going for a bit of a Marilyn Monroe look in the last shot (well at least I was!! lol). Big thanks to Georgia for the shoot, lovely girl, very easy to work with, and I’m sure you will agree has a great look. Good luck in Miss Newcastle Georgia, sure you will do great!!

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Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Banana Studios, Darlington, fashion model, Georgia Hawksfield, Imago Imagery, model portfolio, Newcastle, Portraits

Kellyann Magill

March 12, 2011 by John Leave a Comment

Got together recently with Kellyann Magill to shoot some headshots for her portfolio. Kellyann was the original face of Boho Models and her headshot is still used today as an integral part of their branding, so I felt a little under pressure to produce something of a similar standard. Kellyann has a lovely look, great skin and is also an accomplished make up artist in her own right. We wanted to shoot a few different looks, each with their own lighting and processing to give a very different feel, these ranged from some standard beauty shots through to a Twiggy inspired sixties B&W image. The day went really well and was a really enjoyable experience, Kellyann was great to work with and I was really pleased with the outcome.

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Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Beauty Shots, Darlington, fashion model, Imago Imagery, Kellyann Magill, model portfolio, photoshoot, Portfolio Shoot, portrait, Portraits

Group Shoot at Banana Studio

January 18, 2011 by John Leave a Comment

Casting for Banana Studio Shoot, January 30th, 2011

A big thank you to all the models who recently applied for our group shoot at the end of the month. We had a fantastic response with over 40 models applying, the standard was really high and it made our task an enjoyable but difficult one. We decided to go for 6 models who none of us had worked with before, so apologies to those who were looking to do another group shoot, and came up with a list which we think has a mixture of looks and styles. The 6 models are :-

Thanks again to all who applied, I know I will be working with some of you in the very near future. Watch this space for images from the day next month.

Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Banana Studios, fashion model, Imago Imagery, Make up artist, model portfolio, Newcastle, Portfolio Shoot

Invaders From The North!!

November 7, 2010 by John Leave a Comment

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Had a great day on Saturday shooting with model Jenny Clewlow at various locations around the Darlington area. I first saw Jenny after she shot with some friends of mine Marc Melling and Stu Glen. She is very much in demand as a model and combines a full time job with grid work, promotions and modelling, travelling long distances to do so. This doesn’t seem to dampen her enthusiasm at all and when we got the chance to shoot eventually she arrived full of enthusiasm and raring to go having driven down from Inverness that morning. We had exchanged several ideas about what we would like to shoot and I picked out a few places which i thought might provide a good backdrop. As it turned out the light beat us and we didn’t get to use them all, always other shoots though I guess. Jenny brought her boyfriend Stu with her, a lovely guy who was a real bonus to have around on the shoot, he needs to be careful he will be giving chaperones a good name!! When we got back we did a couple of studio sets before tucking in to a well earned curry!! All in all it was a really fun day, here are some of the early edits, more will appear during the week.

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Filed Under: Shoots Tagged With: Darlington, fashion model, Imago Imagery, Jenny Clewlow, model portfolio, photoshoot, portrait, Portraits

Charlene

October 31, 2010 by John Leave a Comment

mg_7289web I 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.