Cam Attree has got to be one of the most amazing photographers I’ve worked with and I’ve been lucky enough to have done so multiple times over the years – he points to a bit of driftwood, says he reckons it could look good and five seconds later he’s made magic. Typical. It’s partly down to waiting for the light to be perfect, of course.
These are from a very quick session at a beautiful beach in Byron, Australia, taken at the end of last year.
I love these shots by Stephen Wong (creator of the free digital magazine celebrating the artistry of nudes, ION magazine), taken when I was in Sydney recently. It’s at a location I’ve been to many times (I think I’ve now been to Australia about 6 times and almost every time had at least one shoot in this spectacular spot!), but each time has been different, and Stephen definitely made the most of the incredible rock structures. I love the textures and incredible dips, grooves and colours as well as the warm glow that shines through the final edits. It was a really windy day and I was DEEPLY jetlagged after just flying in from England (I have been told my phonecalls home were making very little sense), but it was such a good shoot and I threw myself into what felt like channelling some kind of Botticelli/Venus situation.
Stephen had such a cool set up to create some 3D images, of which I’ll include a few (at the end of the post), but also sent me plenty of the single images too. He sent me off with a few pairs of 3D glasses so I could see his results once he sent them through to me – one of those ‘my job is so cool’ moments, and hey, it’s a bonus that the glasses look so fetching… 🙂
To warm us all up (I am particularly addressing my fellow northern-hemisphereans, here, and if tomorrow’s snow forecast is anything to go by we need all the help we can get), here are some images taken in the balmier, English countryside with Stuart Johnson, who was a pleasure to model for in these beautiful locations. Some of these images have already seeped into my instagram account, but it’s lovely to show a fuller collection. I felt like I was in the south of France for some of this shoot – so good to look back on now!
By the way, many of the images in this post are unedited – in fact I believe most are straight from camera. I actually think this sort of suits the carefree vibes we ended up doing.
I had SUCH a nice shoot (as always) with Imagesse in September last year. We drove from different ends of the country to meet in Wiltshire at a beautiful estate, and it was such a pleasure to explore and see what images we could come up with there and in some nearby locations. I even got to sit in Poseidon’s lap (well, I was absolutely convinced it was Poseidon, silly me making assumptions based on the beautiful lake we were next to, but we later researched and discovered it was the god of the Tiber river!). Looking forward to working with Imagesse again (along with another favourite photographer and a beautiful model friend) in Cornwall in May. 🙂
I had a really nice, laid back shoot in Gloucestershire with Mike Bradbury last year, dropping in on my way home from a couple of shoots at a studio nearby. I love these simple, relaxed shots we took in his home studio (in between chats). The eagle-eyed among you will notice I didn’t point my toes in the casual sitting shots – I really like this about them. I have to admit I often find the propensity for art models (and I do include myself) to point their toes to be a little too unnatural and (ironically) awkward looking sometimes – it can be such a beautiful finish to a line, which is why we so often do it (and some of us have dance/ballet backgrounds from which this trait is perhaps borrowed), but sometimes it becomes a bit too much, in my opinion, and I see it slightly overdone at the loss of the natural feeling of an image (and I get that not all images are meant to look natural!). I think there is a lot to be said for a more authentic, less ‘stylised’/gymnastic way of being in photos, now and then. (Cue everyone looking at my toes now… eek!)
Today I’m sharing a collection of images I’ve been sent by Colin (Capture77) taken at Big Shot Studio in Leighton Buzzard, when I’ve dropped by for a few studio days over the last few months. I really love his style and we are definitely on the same page in terms of taste. All styling is mine, though it was Colin who suggested I bring dungarees (nice to do something different!). Hope you like these as much as I do…
The sunflowers one was the last set we did after one of the days (I think it may even have been the last frame), and it was a case of me grabbing them when I spotted them in the studio and demanding we shoot with them(!). Sunflowers, for me, are a symbol of self-belief and confidence. If you are into this kind of thing, they represent the solar plexis chakra and I was once told to visualise them in order to boost feelings of self-esteem and personal power. The portrait that resulted, below, definitely channels this, and I love it for that reason.
I’m not doing a 2018 version of my usual ‘highlights from each shoot’ bumper post this year – simply because I have the work of precisely 70 photographers I’ve modelled for this year that I’m yet to share! (What can I say – it’s been a busy one even by my standards!!!) So I’m keeping calm and carrying on, and doubling up this blog post to show the work of TWO photographers I worked with this year, with the theme of ‘portraits’.
First, I am delighted to show three of my favourite images here which were taken by Joe B all the way back in January(!). He was going (as you can probably tell) for a sort of ‘Hollywood’ feel to these, and it was really cool to see what he was able to achieve, especially as the studio technology was playing up a bit and it all became a bit of a challenge, skilfully worked around in the end with some striking results:
