I’ve had the pleasure of a few shoots recently with the wonderful Stuart Thomson in my local, Oxfordshire studio recently. I can’t recommend Stuart enough – he is such a laid back, easy going, friendly person and has been an enormous help to me in providing the product photos for my skincare range, Leafology, which launched in July. I suppose I pride myself on being a one-woman band as far as that goes, creating the recipes myself and making them personally, by hand, in small batches in my home studio, designing the labels myself – everything (it’s quite a bit to juggle along with everything else I do, but enormous fun!)… but when it came to the clean, white product photos I wanted on the main gallery pages of the range, it didn’t take long before I realised my shadowy, awful attempts weren’t going to cut it. Cue Stuart, who easily arranged a light set up so intricate I felt quite envious of the products – not sure I ever really have that many lights on me. Anyway, this is all a big pre-amble, but when I’m in the studio for that, Stuart and I have tiny mini-shoots now and then, and I’m delighted with some of the results. Here are my favourites:
Infra Ghost
Phew, this post marks the end of a multiple-hour email blitz – I am getting on top of some new plans and now have modelling trips lined up for Venice, Holland, Germany, Barcelona, and potentially a few more… After my little break from modelling around the EU quite so extensively, stretching my ‘admin muscle’ is quite a workout. 🙂 Just in case you haven’t seen this yet, this sign-up form is my new system for contacting people when visiting different parts of the country/world. Do it now before you forget! 🙂
I had a lovely shoot in Far North Queensland recently (as part of Zoefest) with Aspiring Imagery. I’ve worked with Brian a few times before, and this time he was working on a project which required me to pose as little as possible, just existing in the moment. I suppose I went a step further and (as with many of my recent shoots) wore almost no make up. It was fun – nice to have the space and go into a bit of a relaxed state/zone. For me, the ‘stand out’ shots are the infra red images and in the second here, I really look like some kind of weird, ethereal, ghostly alien, which is always pleasing…
Thank you, Brian! 🙂
Winter’s Wildflower
In January last year, I modelled (again) for my friend and talented artist, Bella Kotak, on a shoot she’d conceived using a very special cloak. This cloak had evolved over the years, and been worn by models before me, and if you read her blog post all about it, it seems as though it became a symbol for her own growing confidence in her art. For our shoot it was adorned by hand with flowers left over from previous projects, one by one.
We agreed to meet one frosty morning in the ancient woodland I am lucky enough to have just 5 minutes by car from my home. There was only one small problem; my car door was frozen shut and I couldn’t get in my car!!! Much panicking and chin stroking later, it finally blessed me with its opening and my trusty carriage had me on my way, if a little (fashionably?) late.
(Full credits with links are at the end of this post.)
Leaf patterns & Chopping boards
Hello and happy Friday-before-Christmas! I’m briefly re-enlivening this blog for a few posts.
It feels a bit funny writing on here again after SO very long. Many of you know by now that after 8 years or so, I’m spending most of my time away from the camera these days (due to other burgeoning interests and the current galactic system that dictates that the daily apportionment of time is finite). That said, in my sort-of-absence over the last year or more, I’ve done a lot of modelling for a sculptor and, most recently, I was working on a British film which will feature Hugh Grant (though holding Thor’s hammer remains my most exciting actor-ly claim).
Two’s Company
It was a total pleasure to work twice in quick succession with James a while ago – during the first shoot we had at a beautiful location near my house (15th century ruins, a river… and the mist was rolling in during the early morning so atmospherically!), I mentioned that a model friend of mine, Jessamyne will be staying with me for a while the next week as she was visiting from LA. He snapped up the opportunity to photograph us both together (we hadn’t officially advertised it) and went for dreamy, pre-Raphaelite-esque styles, towards which Jessamyne & I naturally gravitate in taste/style anyway. It was lovely! For that second shoot, the three of us went to my local ancient woodland and basically played around in the trees with flowers in our hair… bliss! During her stay, we did lots of sightseeing around my hometown, Oxford, and I saw it in a fresh new light (I already was in love with it, but now I’m even more so) – we did the open top bus among other things, which I really recommend. Honestly, you can’t walk a single centimetre here without incredible history, literary figures, politicians, world events, science and arts and all sorts of eminent leaders jostling along with you.
(The rest of the time we basically did face masks, watched period dramas and ate vegan chocolate with figs… :-))
I’m looking forward to seeing Jessamyne again later this year in wonderful Australia! It’s going to be amazing!
With thanks to James for letting me share these photos. 🙂
The sea sees me
These photos were taken in Fuerteventura in Dec by J H (who wins awards for not being bored of me after so many shoots and wanting to photograph me so much in so many places; it’s a joy!). It was a quick whirlwind of a trip for me, a few days in the heat and dunes – I was actually horribly ill during this trip and struggling to breathe/function, but I don’t think you can tell. I really do consider myself to have had great luck with my modelling in terms of what I’ve experienced. SO grateful for these opportunities! I’m finding it quite a balancing act at the moment while going in multiple directions, but I will always want to come back to this sort of thing and say yes to as many things as I can.
And it’s a great, visceral pleasure for me to pose in and around water – flowing, peaceful and wild.
I never practise; I only play.
… Has always been a favourite line of mine, apparently uttered by someone really jaunty and clever, and on my bedroom wall for a while (possibly still there), though when I google it I can’t find any credit, so who knows? Anyway, I like it, and it always bring to mind my favourite musical beast, the piano. (Various vids of me messing around with Debussy etc. over on my facebook profile).
So when I was asked by the lovely model Nicole Rayner if I would go and model for her (because she’s also a lovely photographer as well as a lovely model) at Pipewell Hall, I couldn’t resist. I’d shot there a couple of times with the Yerburys and remembered how beautiful it was as a shoot location (I like to pretend I’m mansion-shopping when passing through). Anyway, I’d had a play on the very old grand piano they’ve got there as soon as I arrived, while I was waiting for Nicole & Richard Egan to be ready to photograph me/us, and played the music that was on the stand, Moonlight Sonata, while people bustled in and out. I dream of having a grand piano. No offence to my own upright, which I inherited from my great aunt, but they are just so utterly beautiful.
Pianos are also quite good for leaning across, I suppose. It was slightly naughty of us, I think, but I have so much respect for pianos, even when nude, that I hope they would be able to trust that I treated it very well. With many thanks to Nicole who basically did these as a favour to me at the very end of our shoot, at my insistence, as I fell in love (she had to balance very precariously in order to get far away enough to take these, due to the position of it, so extra points to her for not falling on top of me):
We also did this in the garden shed (AKA stables?)…
Thanks Nicole!
And if anyone is wondering what else I’ve been up to recently, take a look at this: www.leafology.co.uk!
Ella Rose - Photo actress, Muse & Dancer 