Charlie Buckitt – Wax & Bendiness

It’s always fun to shoot with young Miss Buckitt; she’s full of creative ideas & very bendy, which is always a winning combination :) Plus she lives near me in East London so is handy.

The plan for this shoot was to shoot something involving wax, play around with gels ( I keep my place neutrally coloured so as to match what the model brings, but it’s nice to change things round), & to see just how close Charlie’s legs could get to her ears.

This shot involved melting candles directly onto Charlie’s chin (ouch!) It was her idea, I don’t generally go round inflicting pain on my models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the gel shots, I lit the room with a pink gel , & used two striplight soft boxes on Charlie, with egg crates over then to control the light spill. The overall effect seems strangely flamingo-like.

 

This was probably the bendiest of all shots. She doesn’t train or anything, she’s naturally this way.

 

 

 

 

Attempting to look all sweet & innocent. Almost pulling it off, the lack of clothes probably doesn’t help.

 

 

 

 

This is a shot from further back so you can get an idea of the lighting set-up.

 

 

 

 

And finally, this is George, who helps me set up the lights, & saves the model from having to stand there while I fiddle about trying to get the right effect.

Behind The Scenes Video from Jessica Wright Shoot

Here’s a behind the scenes video from a glamour shoot I did for Alexis Smith Lingerie featuring Jessica Wright. She makes lingerie specially for augmented breasts (Alexis not Jessica). I had no idea that a video had been made, it’s amazing what you find when you google yourself! Fortunately I was too busy concentrating on shooting Jessica to notice the video camera so I couldn’t get self-conscious. I’m really not great at posing, as my poor flatmate discovered one afternoon when she tried to get a few shots of me…

YouTube Preview Image

 

 

Art Nude Shoot – Ember Retto

I had a request on Model Mayhem from Ember, who wanted to shoot using gels. As it turned out, while she was looking through my portfolio, she recognised the church opposite my flat as her boyfriend lives there & she’d actually seen me shooting in the park. I’d seen flashes going off from that apartment & wondered if there was a studio. Small world.

It was quite a technical challenge balancing the light from the lamp behind, the gelled lights, & the lighting on Ember. This is George, who I use to get the lighting roughly right before bringing the model in.

 

Once I have the lighting roughly balanced, I’ll bring the model in & fiddle about some more. As Ember has a nicely toned body, I used striplights from the sides to accentuate the muscle tone (doesn’t work so well on George).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this type of lighting ideally suits nude, as the underwear breaks up the lines of the body.

 

 

Here’s a couple of behind the scenes shots to give you a idea of what I was trying with the lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and some other lighting options, including gels on Ember

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, just for fun I brought the glitterball in to see if I could get two completely different colours, which I managed, but I’m not sure if the results actually make a photo worth looking at!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

& one of George to finish as I’m sure you’re bored of all those naked women. Well done to Ember as George can be quite a diva to pose with :)

Art Nude Shoot – Jessica Forth

Jess is one of the most creative models I’ve worked with, which always makes for a great day’s shooting. It’s hard not to pick up the energy of the people around you, so if a model understands the process and is happy to be patient while you’re fiddling about trying to get a great photo, it really helps.

Things I learned from this shoot :-

1) Paying homage to great photos, then putting your own twist on it, helps you get something different (we used a Kate Moss pic with a spiky helmet)

2) Oiling a model up & spraying water on her makes the skin look great in photos. No I don’t need anyone to do it for me :)

3) Lens flare can look cool if used right.

Shoot – Ashlea Louise O’Mara

Happy New Year! I hope that Santa was kind to you & that  your plans for 2013 are going well. I’ve been beavering away over the festive period to start the year with a bang. It’s true enough that your life always starts today, & you don’t have to wait for a new year to make changes, but I do find that the combination of being relatively quiet (in December everyone’s saving up for Christmas, in early January everyone’s fat & poor after too much turkey!) & the year ending, gives me an excellent chance to take stock & look at where I want to be in a year’s time.

Anyway, one of my resolutions is to be more consistent with my blogging, so here’s the first of many. Ashlea was recommended to me by another model I’d shot, so I didn’t know too much about her before she arrived, so her spectacular legs were a very pleasant surprise :)  I enjoy shooting tall girls, & find myself able to do more with them photographically, but it does present a side problem of them being too tall to fit on some of my furniture! Clearly I’m going to need a bigger house.

This is also the first shoot to feature this lovely chest of drawers & wardrobe. Make the most of them, I only have them for a short while!

Shoot – Emma J

Here’s a shoot of the fabulously-tattooed Emma J. She keeps getting new ink so it’s always nice to shoot her again as there’s always something  new to discover :) She also brought some fabulous rings from The Great Frog which made me very jealous, but they’re a bit out of my price range.

Model: Miss EmmaJ
Make-up & Hair: Lisa Harris
Accessories: The Great Frog London
Shot at my studio in Shadwell, London

Project Kitty – Claire Leatherbarrow

My day to day shoots tend to involve planning & posing, so I thought it’d be cool to set up some shoots where the model could just play around with a theme & I’d take more freestyle photos. Often in a shoot the best photos can be unplanned & spontaneous, so I was trying to bring that to a whole shoot.

I used natural light for all but one of the shots as I wanted Claire to have plenty of freedom to move around (like a cat) & I find the light is good over a wider area with natural light than with studio lights.

Claire was great, she really got into character as a cat, but still managed to model as well, so I’m really happy with the results.

Venue: East London
Model: Claire Leatherbarrow

Project Glitterboobs Shots

This was my first project. I have a DJ friend Bam Bo Tang, who brought a glitterball, or mirrorball, to an earlier shoot (she wanted to smash it with a sledgehammer in a photo!) Thankfully, the glitter ball survived, & I had a play around with bouncing a light off it onto a body. Bam suggested making a project out of it, & I’ve noted that when looking through photos after a shoot, girls seem to have certain parts they like, & some they dislike about themselves. So, I thought it’d be nice to give people a chance to show off their favourite bits, & putting those two things together gave me Project Glitterboobs.

I like the idea of a project, focussing on one aspect makes me shoot it in a variety of ways, & it’s much easier to light one part of a body than all of it :) .

That said, finding time to shoot a variety of people for the project means it’s hard to make it work, so I haven’t shot as many as I’d planned to. In theory I could take a few shots during my other shoots, but we tend to use all the time & energy we have shooting whatever we’d planned.

I think ultimately just shining a light off the mirror ball is a bit limiting, I may explore the idea of different patterns across bodies as time allows, but I’m not sure how much more I can do with just one ball. Fnar :)

All shoots took place at my studio in Shadwell in Central London

Shoot – Chanelle Hayes

Some photos from a shoot with Big Brother contestant, glamour model & cake designer Chanelle Hayes. Chanelle had just dyed her hair an impressive shade of ginger (always my favourite hair colour) & wanted some new publicity shots.

It was a busier than usual shoot; she had a manager & a stylist with her, which can be a bit distracting, but everyone was great to work with so we had a fun day.

Everything here’s shot with natural light or ring flash, I’m happy with these shots & Chanelle looks great, but I have a lot more versatility when it comes to lighting these days. It’d be interesting to revisit some old shoot locations to see how I’d shoot them now, but on balance it’s probably more fun to try out new ones, so I can’t see that happening any time soon.

Shot in Ladbroke Grove, Central London. Hair & Make-Up by Natasha Daniel

Shoot – Cara Brett

A few shots from a glamour shoot with Cara Brett. We shot in an unusual studio in Central London with a suspended room above the main area. There was no lighting in the room itself, it came via soft boxes bounced through 4 large windows in the room. It made an interesting effect, but left me with less control than I’d have liked, not sure I’d be tempted to use it again.