Shoreline Drone; Lilting Lullabies

ERWhittington 10 Comments

Zoe Wiseman has been a great person to know over the years – she has created the most wonderful gathering, Zoefest, which brings together a group of photographers and models in a different location each time (Mexico, California and Australia are among those I’ve attended). It’s always a week of intense creativity and the connections made between models as well as photographers has been a highlight of my modelling vocation over the last decade, so I feel really grateful to have been invited so many times.

Here are some of her images of me taken in Noosa, Australia in November.

Zoe and her musician husband, Charlie Clouser, drove us to the beach where Zoe flew a drone and captured these amazing seascapes with me being washed up and around the shoreline over and over again. It was such a surreal experience – I actually lost some hearing over the next few days (oops!) and had no real control over my posing as the water just kept taking me and flowing my limbs around. It felt a bit womb-like. Everyone should try it. Also, don’t the results look a bit like we shot on a watery moon? 🙂 So cool.

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Noosa Greens & Blooms

ERWhittington 2 Comments

It was absolutely wonderful to meet New Zealander and ex-farmer Bill Irwin (and his lovely and creative wife, Cherie) when I was in Australia most recently in November. He’d been in touch for a long time hoping to photograph me and even kindly sent me a calendar of his brilliant photography of NZ landscapes hoping to entice me over (I’ve actually already been to NZ and was in awe of the scenery there, but this trip was pre-modelling days and it certainly made me want to go back… NZ modelling trip still pending..!). I’m so glad our paths finally managed to cross. As is the magic of the internet, we finally got together at Zoefest in Noosa. I really enjoyed shooting with Bill and absolutely love so many of his results – I’ve shared a few on instagram already but it’s nice to put the collection in one place here on my blog.

We did a few shoots in the end. One just outside Bill’s accommodation, using some body jewellery Bill and Cherie had brought. I loved channelling some slight bellydancer vibes for these, and felt like an amazonian warrior of some kind, among those gorgeous fresh leaves.

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Portraiture (a face off; one player only)

ERWhittington 3 Comments

I should be replying to quite a few emails rather than updating my blog, but it’s Sunday and I’m getting SO good at work/life balance these days (lucky, since I recently spoke as an expert on a panel about the subject, invited as one of Oxford’s female bosses in relation to my natural skincare range, Leafology) – and today although I did detour to the studio to make a fresh batch of the hair serum I make out of 17 different plants(!) and pack a few orders ready to send tomorrow, I also spent a hefty amount of time this weekend relaxing, going for an afternoon drink and a walk around one of Oxford’s parks, going for dinner, reading, booking flights for my quick modelling trip to Holland which is happening at the end of this month, watching Harry Potter with my fat cat on my lap, watering plants, pottering and getting some exercise…

STILL, a blog won’t update itself, and I love squeezing these posts in to give a little window into shoots.  I’m keen to share some photos from one of my all-time favourite photograpers to work with, Jeff Wilson.

The problem(?), I’ve just realised there are at least 85 photos to show you and, basically, I’m going to inflict them all on you, right here right now. These photos are from 3 of our most recent shoots, at Upper Mills Studio in Gloucester, Pozer’s in Swindon and a BEAUTIFUL outdoor location with 15th century ruins/walls in Oxfordshire, which I’ll take you to if you ask…. Jeff has this knack of making me look very ethereal and romantic and he also, like me, loves to do a mixture of outdoor natural light and studio set ups. I’m very grateful to him for taking and sharing so many excellent photos! They are collected with great gratitidude – and of course we’re working together again soon.

Here’s an update from a few recent shoots we’ve done…

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Something I’ve always wanted to do…

ERWhittington 7 Comments

… is model with a rainbow! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well, this wasn’t exactly my first time, but being lucky enough to model with shimmering rainbows draping in the sky behind me has definitely been a rare occurrence. They’re obviously not the most predictable of phenomena (they don’t appear on demand), so it’s a case of crazed euphoria and ‘shoot shoot shoot!!!!!’ when one appears (if you’re like me and get over-excited by rainbows even as an adult – I’m a bit keen on them – the novel I’m writing even has a big theme of colours and rainbows.) And, as anyone who’s tried it will know, even when they grace us with their presence, rainbows aren’t the easiest thing to expose for! 

These photos were taken during a very quick shoot with the absolutely brilliant ex-musician Tim Bradshaw, when I last visited his part of the world, in November. I think this might have been our 3rd or 4th shoot. Tim has taken about a million photos of rainbows and often far more successfully/vividly, but I was still absolutely thrilled with these and had a big grin on my face when he sent them through to me the other day.

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Tanglewood

ERWhittington 2 Comments

I really enjoyed shooting with Ray Fritz again on my recent trip down under as part of Zoefest in Noosa – we had a really creative time and one of the highlights for me was definitely the wall art you see in these first pictures – gathered, natural tumbleweed/driftwood, just hung on the wall. With the sofa in front of it (not the easiest ledge to balance on, I tell you!) I loved the possibility for shapes on this geometric stage. The last of this set is my favourite, I think.

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Spirit of Ecstasy

ERWhittington 2 Comments

Hope everyone had wonderful Easters! I’m busier than ever, though reminding myself to rein it in where I can; aside from modelling when I can (which would be enough to keep one person busy), I’m darting about running my handmade business, writing my novel and am soon to be working with literacy projects in my local homeless centre. Then there’s choir, dance classes, running, doing courses, seeing friends and holding their new babies… I definitely overschedule myself, but what’s new?

There is no rhyme or reason to my blog posts anymore; I post images here quite at random (and with a backlog of image to share which is easily in the 1000s) but with the same gratitude as ever to the photographers/artists who allow me to share their work.
…My email newsletters are just as random/infrequent, but with added thoughts, chat and updates on upcoming events/travel.

The following images were taken at Big Shot Studio, one of my favourite studios, by Ken Benoit (instagram):

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Captain Cook & Cockatoo feathers: Botany Bay

ERWhittington 1 Comment

A recent tag on instagram reminded me of this wonderful shoot I had with Geoffrey Cutts when I was in Australia (again!) at the end of last year.

This was such an enjoyable shoot for me – definitely one of my favourites of the trip – in part because it involved quite a bit of sightseeing along the way as well as great company in the sunshine. I’d worked with Geoff on a previous trip and knew how relaxed and friendly he was, and particularly remember really enjoying the leisurely pace and opportunity to explore the area around Botany Bay National Park… and marvel at stray cockatoo feathers.

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