Ceri Williams: Druantia

Here is a nice short one for you. What a treat.

I take you to August 6th 2016 when I was gardening in the beautiful sunlight.

One of my gardening tasks was to heavily cut back a honeysuckle that was taking over the garden at an alarming rate.

As I looked at the long, thin and bendy branches, I remembered a sculpture making class I did through school during the holidays one year. Year 7, I think so aged 11. We were provided with cut willow branches and we weaved them into sculptures, afterwards covering them with coloured tissue paper. I made a giant blue whale and was hella proud of it.

Anyway, once I was done cutting the honeysuckle back, I started to weave the branches together, just playing really... then I had a a bit of photography inspiration. I thought it might make for a cool druidic headdress or something. After a short while, I decided that I was going to make an 'egg' with an opening and get someone's face in there. Ceri's face, obviously. My 'go-to' face.

So -  4:24pm on August 7th I text Ceri and tell her to "swing by" on her way back from her parents... with no further warning.

So she thinks she's due a nice cup of tea... and BAM! I stick my creation over her head and she is trapped in a blissful, unending, dreaming sleep.

And then, just in my back garden, I took this photo against the low sun.

Dat sexy lens flare. She would have been so cross if she had known at the time.

On editing, I lowered the saturation right down as I wanted to give it a colder, more muted tone.

I chose the image with Ceri's eyes closed, to keep it serene and peaceful. I chose to leave the image with the plant matter still over her face, to keep it natural-looking and less posed. I like to think that this plant grew around her that way rather than was deliberately weaved.

So, there you have it, folks. My 'druid' (who I called Druantia after the tree goddess) was simply just a tired Ceri, in my back garden, dressed in fancy twigs in the late Sunday afternoon sun. 

Like this in fact...

XD

Kiera Gould: Lighting Experiment 01

Straight in -

For a while, I've been wanting to play around with some different lighting and lighting effects a bit more to get me out of my comfort zone.

Last year as my photography 'New Years' Resolution' I decided that I was going to do more 'uncomfortable' stuff, such as more difficult location and more interesting lighting and then I broke my hand and got very involved in some of my other work projects (photography, for those who do not know, is not my full-time job). Whilst I still did a bit last year, I didn't do enough and what I did do, I was mostly unhappy with it due to it always being rushed or ridiculously late in the evening...

So to start of this year, I've decided to give this a more committed go. And not break anymore bones.

Also, at the time of writing, I have 6 published posts on my blog for 2013 despite having mostly written another 4 that have been left as drafts. I will endeavour to get those completed also. Because I know everyone in the world is dying to read my unpublished works... *raised eyebrow*

Commence not blathering -

Thursday 23rd January

I posted this link on my Facebook Photography Page

Friday 24th January

My boss brought in his 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and said that I could use it over the weekend in return for masses and masses of chocolate-y cakes

Saturday 25th January

I arrived at Kiera Gould's house with my everything.

On this day, I arrived in the late afternoon and we had tea and then I had a go at setting up some sweet lighting.

I started off with my Elinchrom fitted with barn doors and a red filter and set this so that it was constant and did not trigger when I took the picture. I then stuck my flashgun on and set this so that it was not constant and only triggered once when I took the image:

I then set my shutter speed to about a 1 second exposure and then I took some pictures of Kiera slowly moving out of pose after the initial picture.

That came out something like this:

... which just both looked really over-photoshopped I initially thought, though they're growing on me because I really like the suggestion of movement, not to mention that Kiera looks beautiful  in them as per.

The other thing I tried was setting up the other Elinchrom behind me with a little softbox and fired that off instead of the flashgun.

The soft-box was brighter and so the images look a bit more crisp and white in places and the red looks a bit more fiery as opposed to pink. The clarity of the bottom two images was what I was looking for and with the movement of the first couple.

Despite my thoughts that the first two look as though I've just gone a bit effect-happy on Photoshop, they appear to have been well received on my Facebook page and so I suppose that there is a possibility that I'm just over-thinking it. I'd say I don't do that sort of thing but I over-think everything. Everything. I even over-thought that last sentence. And that one...

I think I know what bits I would change if I could have another go at this shoot and have learned from it - so that's good. Still not 100% about the final images themselves but luckily, Kiera is lovely to look at and so people are hopefully distracted enough by that until I get a bit better at achieving the effect I was after!

Just to make sure they last until then - here are some more pictures of Kiera for your enjoyment!:

My Favourite Photographers 01: Lara Jade

So I have a few favourite photographers, naturally, and so have decided that I am going to share these with you in the hope that you take from it perhaps what sort of standard of images and ideas I hope to one day achieve rather than disowning me after seeing how epic I could never become for any want of trying...

(I lay in corners sobbing to myself regularly after checking up on what these guys have been working on lately).

I've chosen three favourites to show you for now, each already pretty well-known in their own right. In these posts you will find some of my favourite images from each and, as always, a fair few words.

I'm starting with a very talented young(er than me and it kills me) lady by the name of Lara Jade.

Lara Jade
Lara Jade is particularly influential. I'll tell you why in a moment...

The image that 'introduced' me to Lara Jade, was this one:

Many people have since tried to 'rip it off' but I remember this one as 'the girl in a birdcage' as it is known, I believe. Also a favourite of fellow photographer, Matthew Stainer.

Lara Jade was interested in photography as of the age of about 15 and started her photography company in West Midlands, England when she was just 17 working to provide images of portraits and for book publishers, etc. but moved to London to expand her knowledge. experience and opportunities I know, I know, it makes it sound so easy, it makes me sick. XD

(One of my absolutely favourite images ever and if you like this, you will love the next photographer...)

She too has a blog which, though incredibly sparse, is infinitely better than this one. I mean really. Why are you still here? Honestly. I mean, I'm so grateful but, you just need to stop wasting your time. Nothing to see here folks, show's over...

This is where you should be:

Lara Jade's Blog

If you don't read it... despite having clearly carried on reading my blog... you'll read from about the beginning of 2010 where Lara Jade decides she's starting a fresh and working on her personal work a little more, plus arranging a few trips to New York to work on some exciting projects. At this point she doesn't realise how much of a journey it will take her on I think as she clearly falls in love with it enough to move out there in 2011!

(Another massive favourite. I ADORE this use of lighting).

She talks of the importance of social media to an artist and makes some valued points on quite how networking is one of the best mediums to get people eye-balling your work. Which is completely and utterly true.

And she is also known from the project in which she went 'head-to-head' with another young and rising photography name, Canadian 'Joey L' in a Photographer 'Shoot-Off' which, frankly, went a bit viral and resulted in an educational DVD!

Lara Jade vs Joey L

The two of them go through the different ways in which they both operate and put together their images under the pretence of travelling the world with several challenges to one-up each other on.

Since then, she has pretty much become world famous as a fashion and beauty photographer and now lives over in New York as of 2011 travelling all over the world working for clients such as Elle, Goldsmiths and Harper Collins and teaching photography workshops for the undeserving lesser humans, such as myself...

N.B. Would accept very expensive Lara Jade photography workshop as future birthday gift. Just sayin'.

Basically, she fah-king amazing.

AND, to boot, she looks like this:

Some people just don't even give the rest of us a chance, do they?

www.larajade.co.uk

Rachel Nicholson: Backseat Hollywood

Rachel, the ever-wonderful make-up artist is modelling for me again. Hooray.

I mentioned to Rach about 3-4 months ago that I had a couple of ideas/shots I really wanted to try, if she would be so kind as to be my subject on a couple of evenings for some of them. All of these ideas are still yet to be executed as I haven’t had the time. I've got so many things in here *points to where brain should be* and I can't put them onto photo!

But as mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been incredibly photo-hungry of late. One idea I had was shooting beauty or fashion within in a car, but of course, for that to work, you need access to a nice car!!!

With that in mind, Rachel and her significant other, Simon, motor photographer (www.simonamphlett.co.uk) were due over for dinner on Friday 11^th May. So thinking of Simon and Rachel it suddenly hit me- Simon has a Jaguar s-type. Red leather and mahogany interior… it was too brilliant.

(this is his car in the dark)

(More of his photography can be found here: www.flickr.com/amphlett)

I texted Simon: “Simon, would you mind if I did a photoshoot with Rach in the back of your car?”… and then waited…

… for about 3 minutes and then as he didn’t respond (probably working), I texted Rach: “Rach, I want you in the back of Si’s car”…. She knew what I meant. Luckily, otherwise that friendship could have gotten mighty awkward.

So my impatience had caught the attention of one of them. Now to get the pictures taken tonight.

Rachel asks when.

I say "Tonight! Just kidding." (I wasn't kidding)

and then I say, "Well unless you CAN do it tonight?"

So she does. I love Rachel so much.

Comedy moment however is Simon texting back a bazillion hours later to say 'sure' and when was I thinking... Oops.

:D

So they got to us about 8pm. Martin was cooking dinner and Si pulled up to the kerb outside the house. Rach was dolled up with her stunning make-up done to perfection, in a lovely black evening dress... and her Converse pumps.

Hello, I didn't realise we were expecting Kristen Stewart for dinner?

Anyway, we got right on it while the boys talked about boy stuff.

Pushed the front seats right forwards (as far as they would go), set up one light in the window, naked, no softbox or honeycomb, and one up from the floor. Both with their modelling lights on full rather than using the flash as otherwise it was too bright. I did consider the softboxes but they're a lot of hassle for a quick shoot. We only had until dinner was ready! Eep!

I got all snap happy and Rachel chilled out in the backseat, looking all lovely.

I had a go with my amazing new portrait lens (Canon 50mm f/1.4 for those who missed it last time and might care... ) which got me my favourite shot, here:

And also the Tamron to get a bit more in.

Love this one!

I did also have some on which I did use the flash but I think you'll agree that the warmer colour (above) is better for these shots...

Get a load of those sapphire-blues though!

I still quite like these ones... Rachel being in them helps, 'cause she just looks this fantastic all the time. *jealous*



It's quite a common thing actually, that you get gorgeous make-up artists working with you that you think should be the model...


... but I think I've found the prettiest. :D \o/


Can't wait to do some more.

Pure Curvation Shoot II: Yvonne Gumbere

On the 1st April, I went back for the 2nd Pure Curvation shoot of the year.


Today I was shooting Yvonne Gumbere, a reasonably new recruit at Pure Curvation. I picked Yvonne and Charmaine Charuma up from their homes and made my way to Pete Baldrey's for the shoot.


Now Yvonne is quite something. She was obviously a talented model from the first time that Pete worked with her a short while back and she didn't fall short on our shoot either.


Just a portfolio update but I have to say, the girl is fantastic.

Beautiful eyes, stunning figure and legs up to here...

She's just got it.

We just did the two outfits, the above, which you've seen, and then, Yvonne had this gorgeous dress.

 Towards the end of our reasonably short session, Yvonne also broke out the moves!

This left one being my favourite.

The photoshopping effect on the skin (left image) is pretty neat, I've found. It is done using a black and white adjustment layer and then a duplicate of the original layer on the top using the overlay blending technique. I find personally that it's a great effect on black skin (as it gives it a shiny, semi-metallic feel... on white skin, it just looks crap XD ) and on men (mainly when they have stubble) as it gives a kind of dirty, rough feel to their images.

So they were my picks from the shoot.

I would most definitely recommend Yvonne as a model. We had a very short time together and there were loads of fantastic choices from this shoot. She's very open, excitable, determined and also very talented (which helps). If you're looking for someone to liven up your image, Yvonne is your girl.

Yvonne can be booked at Pure Curvation. Just email bookings@purecurvation.com to enquire!

Stephanie Lindley: Train Station Girl

The long-awaited post.

I am fairly sure most of you will already know the story of how I came to meet Stephanie, or Steph as she is more commonly addressed...

I was on platform 4 of Basingstoke train station last October, trying to get to work in Brookwood. Previously, on the 2-3 occasions that I had travelled into work, I had left on the train at 8:25am and got there fine, however, this time, I was going in a bit later. I waited on platform 4 only to find that the train I needed left from platform 1 after 9am. So in short, I missed it. Damn. Not to worry though, I checked with an attendant and made my way to platform 1 to wait there for another 20 mins for the next train to Brookwood.


In the additional 20 minutes, Steph arrived on the platform with a short purple pixie-cut and long legs. I cursed myself immediately for not having a card on me. I thought it was a shame I was going to miss this one.


As I sat there, feeling very annoyed at myself, another train came for Southampton (?) I think. Steph started gathering her stuff and stood up waiting for the train to pull up and come to a halt.


I scrawled my email address and name on a post-it and went over to her to deliver, what was possibly, the most awkward sentence ever. I think it started something like: "This may sound weird, but hear me out..." and didn't get much better.


Well she took it and was very polite (though did check that it wasn't nude photography so I must give off a fairly substantial air of WEIRDO ALERT, as I suspected) but I was pretty sure as she got on the train that I was not going to hear from her again as I was aware that I potentially came across as a very keen lesbian.


I checked my emails fairly constantly that day. Nothing. Great, I thought, I blew it then.


I cracked on and put it to the back of my mind thinking perhaps she just hasn't got 'round to looking me up or isn't interested or something.


Then - I got an email (I think the next morning):


"In reply to your suggestions of modelling when we spoke at the train station yesterday, I am fairly new to this but would be happy if you could send me an email back of details and your expectations.


Stephanie Lindley"


Wicked. It was on!


We met up in Wetherspoons in Basingstoke to discuss ideas.
2nd time's a charm, eh Steph...?)


... And then 5 months later and here we are. I'd borrowed some Steampunk accessories from various folk. A beautiful All Saints dress from one, Lucile Kavanagh, an epic mono-goggle from Gavin Smith, a handgun made by Aldershot's Games Shop owner Rhys Knight, and half of LARP friend, Kate Evans' wardrobe. This was one of the looks we were going to try to create today.


But first, we got some beauty shots in the studio. Rachel using her brand new shiny RVB make-up kit. (Which looked amazing, by the way.)

If you are a budding make-up artist (or existing) you can enquire about getting your own RVB cosmetics into your kit by calling them on 01767 682288.

Or you can win some free stuff on their Facebook page here to get you started! You just need to 'like' and 'share' their page to enter the competition for your free kit.


Rach started out with some pinks and purples and gave Steph a really beautiful, and I think ethereal look.

The colour choice really made Steph's eyes stand out as they're a lovely sort-of amber colour. I already loved this make-up range.

And then Rachel added a bit more contrast and some eyelashes for a bit of fashion...


I then added about half a truckload of mousse in Steph's hair only to find myself happy with it as it was when we started. *sigh*


I love all of these, by the way. I'm going to just throw that out there.

Now do you see!?

This is why, sometimes, it is just worth looking like a complete psycho/nutter/creep/stalker at the train station!

OK, we were ready for Steampunk now.


We got Steph into Lucy's awesome dress and puffed it out with an underskirt, courtesy of Kate's wardrobe. We attached my old telescope and some assorted pouches and we headed out in the car. We pulled up at a lovely little area in Basingstoke that looked quite like countryside and had a suitable dirt road. Steph donned her mono-goggle and Rachel and I set up the 'set'.


Turned out, it was a wee bit COLD!


Steph's eyes were streaming, and I mean streaming with tears and so Rachel was very soon dabbing her tear ducts in between shots:

We got a few shots (about 25-30) and then we had to leave because, despite our efforts, Steph was turning into a human popsicle.


Not to mention, her make-up was running a treat.


We did get the following shot though before leaving..

So we aborted the location plans and had a quick go of this outfit back in the studio, and I have to admit, even though I had to scratch location off the plans to do it, I'm really pleased with the studio shots:

Another reason I'm chuffed with these is the lighting.

I kept the studio light on full power but only used the modelling bulb as my light source rather than triggering the flash. I then set my white balance to cloud compensation, creating a warm orange tint to the photos.

So that was my shoot with Steph.


I feel it was a huge success and personally can not WAIT to work with her again on another project. I definately enjoyed the shoot and am enjoying the results still.


... Now I just have to remember who's stuff is who's and return it all to it's rightful owners...

Maxine Avery: Evasive Beauty

Maxine Avery is a very good friend of one Rachel Nicholson
(best friends in fact. Hmph! Whatever... I don't care... *sob*).

Rachel had been talking about getting Maxine in front of the camera for a while. For some reason, I think she was pretty reluctant (Maxine, not Rachel). Must have been the horror of me potentially getting her clothes off as that seems to be what I do lately, but I'm very glad she came 'round if that's the case.

I got Rachel's house in Reading on the 20th November and she was applying Maxine's make-up. Already very uncomfortable as Maxine applies make-up for a living and so having someone else doing it was making her a tad antsy. :D


Simon and I set up the gear, and he made me a big cup of tea. Always a good start to the day. Thanks Simon... Good old Simon.

This calls for more Simon: get a load of Simon!

www.simonamphlett.co.uk

Yay Simon.

(The word 'Simon' is now starting to look funny... have I spelt it right? S-I-M-O-N... :s)

So meanwhile, Maxine is looking very 70's, man. And I think she's thinking it's looking pretty groovy actually. Austin Powers would approve. Yeah Baby.

So here's the start of our first set on white.

Awesome make-up from Rachel. Again.

We agreed that the eyes looked extremely 'Cheryl Cole'.

(Go ahead, try covering up the bottom half, I'll wait)

Lovely shot here in black and white too (oh yes it is).

And then we got some props in!

We stole (correct, stole) Simon’s ‘Lonely Hearts Club Band’ Beatles picture and took it out of it’s solid black frame… (NB: Apparently it's Rachel's picture. Sheesh! Sor-REE!)

I loved these. They were potentially my favourite from the shoot.

Especially that one! ^

I think this one feels a bit ‘Twiggy’ in black and white.

I can’t put my finger on what it is though.

And we also pinched Simon's retro gee-tarr metal canvas… thing which also looked ace, I thought. (NB: Again, apparently Rachel's. Who knew?)

The effect on these wasn’t achieved with any clever lighting. Just a red tone using the Variations feature in Adobe Photoshop. Bam. Job done.

I thought this gave them a cool vintage styling.

Next set, we had Maxine’s jumpsuit which looked wicked. Really pretty.

Loved this outfit.

:D

 

And then finally, we went outside...

I love these so much though. She's a cutie.

So that was Maxine. Whilst stunningly gorgeous and with a figure made of win... she doesn’t seem to think that she is ‘modelling material’.


What do we think folks?