Kayleigh Pearson – Sunset Shoot

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Matt Christie Photo

Here’s a glamour shoot from a while ago with Kayleigh Pearson out in Gran Canaria. Sunset is a magical time to shoot, but the window of opportunity to get the very best light is pretty small, so you have to work fast. The sun seems to set with alarming speed over there, & some days a little bit of cloud in the wrong place can leave you with no good light at all.

Also, there are a lot of environmental factors getting in the way. For a start, it’s really not at all warm, especially if, like here, you’re naked & wet throughout the shoot. Sand gets everywhere (this type of shoot is not kind to your camera!), hair & make-up get messed up, the current can be really strong which makes it hard to hold a pose, & occasional bigger waves can soak your model (or knock her over).

It’s also not the easiest thing to balance the right amount of flash with the rapidly-changing ambient light, so there’s quite a bit of fiddling involved.

All that said, it’s totally worth it & I love the photos we get. It’s great going for something to eat afterwards (we finished around 9.30) knowing you’ve done a good day’s work, then off to bed as you have to be up at 4am to get make-up done before the sunrise…

Shoot – Jakki Degg

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Matt Christie Photo

I’ve shot Jakki a number of times over the last few years, & she’s always great to work with. She has the best wardrobe of any model I know & always brings great styling ideas along with her. So I’ve started by ignoring the large suitcase she brought & shooting her naked apart from my own hat

She does actually have a fabulous pair of shoes on, as you’ll see in the next shot.

Another simple window shot with natural light, note the amazing shoes! It really would’ve been a crime not to get those in shot somewhere, & it’s a measure of just how fabulous they are that my eyes go straight to the shoes despite Jakki having forgotten to put any other clothes on!

Photography101: When shooting reflective surfaces, make sure you’re not in the reflected part of the shot! My failing to spot myself would have ruined this as a commercial shot, but makes for a lovely Facebook cover shot.

We’d aimed to use this in black & white, as we felt the gold sequins of the jacket, & the silver ones of the cushion would clash, but I really like it in colour.

Clearly a circus theme going on here, I didn’t like the original much, but with a lot of processing I thought it came out looking interesting. With the flashes going off in my face I now understand how it feels for models on a daily basis! We had a completely different shot in mind, which didn’t work out as well as hoped, I’m very glad we tried this instead.

I love the way this shot has a Mediterranean feel about it, as if it was shot on the steps of an Italian piazza, rather than Shadwell

To be fair, it’s a pretty spectacular building, a church built in 1741, so we really should be able to get some half-decent shots around it!

Shoot – Rachel Cole

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Matt Christie Photo

One of the photos from this shoot was my first ever published photo, so I guess it’ll always stay in my mind because of that. Rachel came out as part of an intense fortnight of shooting for publication; 12 girls in 2 weeks, out at sunrise & shooting till sunset, so long long days.

There’s nothing complicated about the lighting in these shots, where possible I’ll use shade & natural light, out on the beach I used a ring flash attachment that fits over the speedlite & gives a more even glow to the model. Most importantly, I used a polarising filter over the lens, which makes a huge difference in achieving a blue sky. Without it everything tends to bleach out (as you might find from your holiday snaps), but using a combination of the filter & a strong flash means you can let as little background light as possible into the camera, enabling the colours to stay saturated.

Behind the Scenes – Six Bikinis on a Boat

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Matt Christie Photo

This was a pilot for a TV show, I forget what, they just wanted someone to take a few behind the scenes shots. It was a shame not to pose anybody in such a great setting, but you get some great natural shots this way.

It’s quite tricky shooting on a boat as the light’s really harsh, I used flash to allow the backgrounds not to bleach out.

The girls & crew were all great fun to work with, & we had a mojito-fuelled night out at the end of the shoot. They were only about 3 euros in the hotel, it’d have been rude not to! And I got to drive a helicopter! (not after the mojitos though

Shot in Gran Canaria around Anfi del Mar with Claire Leatherbarrow, Porchia Watson, Hannah Shetler, Melissa Ambrosini, Saoirse Cassidy & Rachel Ritfeld.

Airfield Fashion Shoot

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Matt Christie Photo

This Fashion TV shoot was notable largely for providing the only video of me on youtube (I *think*!) It was fun shooting somewhere different, & the old planes were pretty spectacular, though finding a decent backdrop with blue sky & no building works proved tricky.

Model: Lara Accison
Hair & Make-Up: Natasha Daniel
Styling: La Belle Neri

Favourite Outdoor Shots – Gran Canaria

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Matt Christie Photo

Having posted my favourite beach shots recently, I discovered a whole bunch of outdoor shots from Gran Canaria that were shot in other locations, so I wanted to share a few with you. as with the Beach Shots, these are all from 2006-2008, some are among the first shots I ever took.

Abigail Aston nude against a wall

This is one of my all-time favourites. It was actually taken in my garden, with natural light, up against the wall. It’s another one of those shots that everyone wanted to copy but struggled to get into a similar position. Abigail’s very bendy. The difficult thing is not so much getting your body into that position, but managing any kind of decent expression while you’re so uncomfortable. Pretty much everyone else who tried it got the pose close enough but could only grimace while doing it (& there was one notable case of someone who’d over-oiled herself & kept sliding off the wall…)

This shot was taken in a local avocado orchard. It was also used for paintball, so occasionally paintballers would run by & get somewhat distracted. The light coming through the trees could be tricky to work with, but there’d be some beautiful shaded areas.Model:Rachel Cole

This shot of Sophia Smith was taken in the same forest. She’s sitting on what looks like a giant cotton reel, & is a similar thing used for cabling.

This is another great example of beautiful natural shade. It was taken in a tunnel under a road (in Gran Canaria, when it rains, it really rains, so these tunnels are for the rainwater to avoid flooding roads). I just moved her far enough back so that the light is fairly even across the body.

This is another shot from the same tunnel. I really love the juxtaposition of skin against concrete. Plus I’ve always wanted to use the word juxtaposition in a sentence

Model: Carrie Spencer

This image of Rachel Cole was taken on some rocks at the base of a cliff between Puerto Rico & Amadores. There’s a fairly hairy staircase to negotiate to get down there, but it’s well worth the trip.

This shot of Ruth Reynolds was taken just by the last one, but facing the cliff, rather than the sea. As with previous photos, the light is fabulously soft in the shade.

This shot of Tino Leonard was taken on the walkway to Amadores Beach. I wasn’t planning to shoot there, but the colour of the sky against the palm trees was too good to miss.

It’s always good to make use of shapes when you find them, & putting someone in this circle always worked well, providing the model could fit inside it!

Continuing with the circles theme, this is at the first viewpoint on the mountain road from Playa del Ingles. I like the way Melvina curved her arm to match the circle. I needed to use some fill-in flash to prevent the mountains behind from being too bright.

Shot taken in a similar place to the last one. We made use of a cloudy day to get this; during the day the sun’s too harsh to get a decent shot of the background, & at sunrise or sunset, when the light would be great, I was always at the beach.

There are ruined shacks pretty much everywhere in Gran Canaria, with limitless opportunities for shooting. Here I made use of the shade from the building to bathe the model in soft light, with the setting sun in the background. Shooting this just before the sun went down gave us time to get to the beach for the sunset itself.

I included this shot mostly as we shot it at Sioux City in the afternoon, when it was full of tourists. They’d mostly gone to watch the show, so I asked the nearest worker if he’d mind if Chantelle got naked, & he said we were fine as long as we finished before the show ended & all the tourists came back out. It all added a bit of excitement to the shoot!

Lovely colours in this shot on the island at Anfi Beach. Note the cunning use of leopard print by the model to give the impression she’s in the jungle.

This shot of Abigail works for me as the lines of the bars lead the eye to the model. Shooting from below made her legs longer & the sky adds an impressive background.

More outdoor shots on my website here

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