Photoshoot Jo - 5th November 2011

I had my 3^rd shoot this year with Jo or Lexi to most people and as the day was cold and looking like it was going to pour down with rain at any time, we decided this time to do the shoot in the studio. This made a change for Jo, as the last 2 times we have shot together we went out on location to a derelict building.

We did not have any set plans for this shoot, so once Jo arrived and we went through what outfits she had brought along with her, we decided to use a few of the outfits, one of which was a short leopard print dress, which I know my wife would have wanted if she had seen itJ Also Jo brought along an old pair of stockings with lots of ladders in them as she knows I like. So after making a few more holes and ladders in them we decided Jo would wear them for all the images we were going to do together.

I used mainly just a single light set-up in the studio with a large octagonal softbox which has a grid on it. I like using the grid on the softbox as I find it directs the light exactly where I want it to go and doesn’t spill onto the background which, when I am using black paper I try to avoid as I prefer it to be pure black.

After the Leopard Print dress we went to a black PVC dress and did some shots with that, one of which can be seen below.

Once we had done those two outfits in a more sexy dark fashion type look, we decided to try some fetish images with Jo in just the ripped stockings and a under bust corset.  I can’t remember why we got on to the subjects of masks but we did and seems Jo is a big fan and I have a large collection of different masks so we decided to incorporate one into the fetish shoot.  Also we added a collar I have which has nipple clamps attached so Jo put this on as well and the outfit was complete. We did a few different poses with this, some with Jo in manacles and some without, before progressing to an idea I had of Jo topless with barbed wire wrapped around her and fake blood.

I have to say though it is false barbed wire that I purchased off Ebay a long time ago but it does look very realistic in the final images.  The images from this session though to be honest just did not work for me even after editing, so think I am going to have to try this idea at another time, and hopefully Jo will come up again soon to try it, as I have a few more ideas now on how to make it work better.

Photoshoot with Karenza & Simon 29th October 2011

I had another shoot with the wife, this time including our friend Simon who had come up to see us for the day so my wife could take some photographs of him. Yes my wife is a photographer as well! That is when she is not in front of the camera. She though tends to mainly photograph the male form although she also specialises in baby photography.

Once Karenza had finished doing the images she and Simon wanted, they asked me to take some photographs of them together with the idea of just having a bit of fun in the studio and not taking things to serious. Karenza had this mad idea of the two of them looking like they were fighting with mad hair and makeup. As Simon was going to lose most of the fights we also wrapped some pvc tape on his arms and legs etc.

The shoot was a lot of fun and we had a good laugh while doing it. Also it allowed me to experiment in post production to add in different backgrounds etc. which allows me to get away from my normal post production workflow which I use on my normal style of images.

I got into experimenting more with Photoshop while doing my degree in photography and a lot of those skills I learnt I now infrequently use. I don’t profess to be an expert in Digital Art but it can be a lot of fun experimenting in Photoshop although at the same time burning lots of hours.

I am going to stop rambling on now as I have a backlog of editing to catch up on as well as a few shoots planned in the next week, which I need to prepare for.

Photoshoot Karenza 27th October 2011

I had been collecting a few ideas for a shoot with my wife and we arranged to try them in the studio. One of the ideas involved digging out her wedding dress and the other involved the use of some flowers.

We went to the local florists and just bought a couple of single stems of two flowers I wanted to use and got the wedding dress out of the wardrobe and we were all set, well so I thought.

It became very clear early on that my idea needed a wedding dress with a very long zip extending low down on the back and the one we had just didn’t undo enough for the shot in mind. As they say best laid plans and all that, so after a quick rethink we took some photographs of the wife in the wedding dress, although I wasn’t getting an image I really liked so while I was having a think the wife started to just swing around and then I saw the shot and tried to capture the movement in the dress, which can be seen below.

We then went on to do the portrait shots idea I had using the flowers and these can be seen below.

It’s funny but just recently I have not been totally happy with the work I am creating and am struggling to work out why. The only thing I can think of is the fact that due to the winter coming on us, I am in the studio and not in my usual locations of derelict buildings and not getting the same inspiration in the sterile environment of the studio. Hopefully as I will be potentially be stuck in the studio until Spring I will become more inspired and improve the work I am doing in the studio.  

Talland Bay, Cornwall Weekend 15th October 2011

When I started this blog my intention was to use it to document all of my photoshoots, but I have decided to include other activities where I have my camera with me and am able to take photographs and I think the tales will interest my readers.

We have some friends living in Dorset and as they had just moved house we decided to have a long weekend with them. One night staying at their new house and then driving down to Cornwall to stay a few nights in Talland Bay.

When we go away I don’t tend to take all my photographic kit as I never have time to wander on my own and find locations for doing landscape photography. I enjoy Landscape photography a lot, but like to have time to just explore and find locations and the right light, before setting up the camera on a tripod. I find this most relaxing and will as winter comes upon us go out and do a few shoots in my local location. So I just took my Canon G9 which is a great very portable camera, which allows me to shoot in RAW format.

We stayed in the Talland Bay Hotel which was an amazing hotel, with amazing views out over the sea. Also the people that own the hotel are massive collectors and have their collections all around the hotel, which consists of everything from stuffed, china & paintings of cats, at the same time having this great collection of erotic art on the walls around the hotel. We had a great time just wandering the corridors of the hotel looking at all the paintings and strange ornaments dotted around. In the grounds you find brass sculptors of fairies hanging in the tree’s and even a sculptor of a tramp asleep under a tree.

I have included an image, not very good I must say of a painting and I wonder if any one has any idea of the artist’s name? As the owners where away when we stayed at the hotel and none of the staff there could tell me.

I grew up in Devon and spent a lot of time touring Cornwall on Motorbikes and it’s an area I love, so it was a joy for me to visit places with lots of childhood and teenage memories. We had a trip wandering around Looe where I spent many Sunny days as a child as my parents took us to the beach there more times than I can remember.

We also walked along the coastal route from Talland Bay to Polperro, which is a lovely fishing village, and spent a lot of time wandering around the art shops and even bought a painting by a local artist, that will soon be on display in our home, once we have found the right frame for it.

All in all it was a great weekend away with great weather for October and made me want to spend much more time in Cornwall, maybe next time with the whole idea of exploring and taking Landscape Photographs. Below is a photograph of Polperro Harbour I took as we walked down the coastal path to it.

Photoshoot with Cheryl 12th October 2011

Cheryl and I have been discussing doing a shoot together for what must be two years, but with so much distance between us it has been difficult to arrange. We finally managed it though and here are the results.

Cheryl had booked herself into a local hotel and so we decided to use the hotel room to start with and then move onto do some shots in a local wood.

This was the first time I had done a shoot in a hotel room, but I used my normal technique of under exposing the background and using one strobe as fill in light. While shooting I noticed that the wall lights and experimented with them on behind Cheryl’s head which gave of a sort of halo effect. Don’t think Cheryl is an angel thoughJ. I tried various shots using these lights with various different poses and below is a few of the resulting images.

We then went off to the woods with no plan in place for what we were going to do. I had previously noticed while looking at Cheryl’s portfolio that she had very few art nude shots. So we discussed and agreed to try some utilising the trees as a backdrop. Again underexposing the background slightly so as not to burn out the detail in the images created by the Sun coming through the branches.

I really must shoot more images like this in woods as it throws up so many possibilities.

Photoshoot with Juliet & Nick 8th October 2011

I did a shoot with Juliet & Nick April this year and can't believe it has taken us so long to arrange another shoot, but we finally managed it.

All the ideas for this shoot came from Juliet & Nick and it was down to me to capture their ideas. The whole theme was around Beauty and the Beast, with Juliet doing all the makeup on Nick and I have to say she did an amazing job.

We wanted the images to have a background of dereliction so used one of my heavily frequented locations and I am very pleased with how it all worked out.

All the images are captured with my normal set-up on location of using natural light and one strobe for fill in.

I was very pleased with the final results and was it very interesting taking someone else’s ideas and trying to capture it in a way that they would be happy with. Most of my shoots start off with an idea or theme I have and then just develop as the shoot progress's rather than having very specific images in mind before the start of the shoot and almost shooting to a menu.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the images and thanks again to Juliet & Nick for their amazing efforts on this shoot.

Photoshoot with Leanne 3rd October 2011

I had an email from a young lady who was looking to try modelling after having a couple of kids and was very body conscious due to this. Funny as request was through Purestorm where I have had very few requests from in the past.

We did the shoot in the evening so used the my home studio and I have to say for her first time Leanne did brilliant and got even better as the shoot progressed and her confidence increased. I hope the shoot helped her feel better about herself anyway.

I found myself while editing the images getting carried and playing with adding different backgrounds into one of the images so rather than spending my normal 10 minutes editing each image I spent 3 hours and even then I am not sure it completely works. So I thought I would let you all be the judge by showing the edited image without background and the one with.



Anyway I hope to work with Leanne again in the near future as I really enjoy working with models that are just starting out and helping them learn as well as gain the confidence that’s required to really make something of modelling.