Recently had an enquiry from Jade who is currently in her final year of dance training at Bird College in London. Jade wanted some images that she could use for upcoming auditions with a few fun ones thrown in for herself. The shoot took place at Banana Studio in Newcastle with Alex Pretswell on hand to do hair and make up. I really enjoyed working with her, although she was a little nervous at the start she quickly settled into the pace of the shoot and produced some really elegant, powerful poses that showed her athleticism and grace. Shooting these images has inspired me to do some more dance related stuff and that has been put on my to do list for 2012.
Rae of Sunshine
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.
Taylor Made
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.
ps Watch this space as a couple of these images will be appearing in the first printed edition of Elite magazine next month 🙂
Elite Magazine Photoshoot With Nikki Little
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.
Tripping The Light Fantastic
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.
Kellyann Magill
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.
4 Go Mad in Newcastle
Well Sunday saw the latest get together of erstwhile photographers Marc Melling, Stu Glen, Grahame Jenkins and little old me. Banana Studio in Newcastle was the venue and we were very lucky to have a strong line up of models, some of who travelled from as far afield as Sheffield to be with us on the day. Patrycja Firmanty and Karolina Hejnar were also there and did a fantastic job with the girl’s make up throughout the shoot. Following conversations with some of the models I had a reasonable idea of what I wanted to shoot on the day, though as always things didn’t go exactly to plan and I found myself running out of time towards the end (sorry Georgia we had such a short time to shoot, promise I will put that right). There was a great atmosphere throughout the day, with the usual cameraderie and banter between the togs and everyone just mucked in and got the most from the day. Massive thanks to all the girls: Danielle, Georgia, Jordan, Lizzie and Misha who were all a pleasure to work with, to Karolina and Patrycja for their expertise, to Eric at Banana Studio and last but not least to Grahame, Stu and Marc for their support and good humour. Watch this space for more images. Fancy another next month?? lol
Invaders From The North!!
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.
Charlene
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.
These are a few of the early edits, please check back as more are added.
Images updated 27/11/10
Eve – The Comeback Kid
Eve 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.