English Rose

Swathes of Lavender

ERWhittington 5 Comments

Remember this post (‘Fertile Lands’), SEVEN months ago? Well it turns out that shortly afterwards, the wonderful Imagesse had sent me a whole other batch of images by email which I did not receive properly! If you are a friend of mine on facebook you will be aware of my recent horror at discovering that my smartphone has been displacing the occasional email at whim and deleting it from my inbox. I happened to come across a folder accessible only on my computer (and invisible on my phone) called ‘POP’, where hotmail keeps emails that have been deleted on ‘a device’ and which it wants me to check shouldn’t be kept. Clever hotmail. No fewer than 1174 emails over the last few months ago were found there lurking, unopened. Luckily, most of them were ones I had meant to delete from my phone, or else not important, but more than a very generous handful were very important, or sweet, or offering me highly-exciting work, and a few included images I had (seemingly rudely, I imagine) never seen or acknowledged! And there was me wondering why people hadn’t got back to me on one or two things!! Urgh. That was a stressful evening. Unfortunately I still need to be able to delete emails on my phone as I often make the most of spare minutes when out and about in order to keep the stream as clear as possible, but at least now I know to check my ‘POP’ folder (a bit like a ‘junk’ folder, but for non-junk that your computer doubts you meant to delete) for hidden jewels.

I’m on top of the problem now that I know about my phone’s mischievery, but hey – if someone doesn’t reply to your email, consider this post encouragement that a gentle nudge is sometimes necessary!! Technology, eh? Who’d have it?!

Without further to do, here are some beautiful (I think) images taken in a lavender field in Gloucestershire during summer last year. I think the colour is so eye catching and I haven’t seen (m)any images in this type of location before, so extra points to Perry for finding somewhere special! The flowers were so vibrant and fragrant. Modelling in places like these is so incredibly pleasurable – I’m not sure I would ever have visited a lavender field otherwise – I certainly hadn’t seen one before. Mmmm, lavender honey…. And I’m now remembering for the millionth time that I need to buy myself a new calming lavender rollerball fragrance bottle to take when travelling, since they are so relaxing (and mine ran out/leaked everywhere a few trips ago). Why is lavender so calming? I was having a similar thought recently when driving through countryside… Why do humans tend to find blue and green colours so relaxing (as opposed to, say, red or orange)? Why did God choose those colours to paint the majority of the world in? Did he want us to feel relaxed/peaceful/stop killing each other, etc..? Or do we feel relaxed because the natural world is blue-y green and we find nature relaxing? And then I thought I’m thinking an absolute load of nonsense, as really an object’s colour is only a secondary (not primary/essential) quality (as said philosopher John Locke), not independently objective… i.e. the colours of a lump of matter depends on the perceiver and context, like weight (where mass is fundamentally part of an object’s character) …but then maybe if we were designed to see something a certain way then the fact that we do is all that matters… Hhmmm. I’m awesome on car journeys… If I were the sort of person to write ‘dot com’ after words to emphasise my feelings, I would probably write ‘I miss studying at university dot com’.

Technicoloured Earth

ERWhittington 4 Comments

I’ve been battling over the last few days with a strong desire to dye the tips/ends of my hair a pale, pastel ‘baby’ pink. I had the idea that it would suit my look in a sweet, ‘fairy’ kind of way rather than looking ‘punky’. Obviously my natural curls do soften any colour put into it, so the overall look would be quite gentle… Well, I indulged myself yesterday and went ahead and did it in my bathroom. The pack said to leave it in for 15-30 mins, so I conscientiously erred on the side of caution, wanting it not to come up too bright for photoshoots, and left it in for around 20mins (was aiming for 15 but then got distracted…). The result is barely noticeable; it blends so well that it doesn’t particularly appear to have made much difference. The lengths of my hair are quite light anyway, and now it looks to me like there is just a bit of a rosy, fiery haze around the ends. I love it! (But I don’t expect anyone else to notice much difference; will test it on my dinner companion this evening…). Maybe sometime after my 12-day trip to Holland and Germany this week I will try again for the full 30 mins and see how it looks!

Anyway, I know I’ve slightly flooded the area recently with images from Billy Sheahan and our fun foray into Mexican beach life, but he’s just sent me a whole new batch of colour edits which i think are eye-poppingly gorgeous. Billy originally imagined the shots in black and white, but we both think these are so vibrant. I love the mossy feathery green hues of the last four shots too; so warm and inviting.

Righty-ho, I’m off to make a ‘zuccini bake’, which involves whipping out my old ‘microwave cooking for kids’ book from my childhood. Remember when microwave cooking (‘put in, cover, leave for 3 mins, uncover, cook for 2.5 more mins…’) was all the rage? Haha.

Boundaries

ERWhittington 4 Comments

My personal integrity is more important to me than money. I am confident in my values and aware that maintaining my boundaries is what will enable my modelling to be sustainable and as enjoyable as it is.

Sometimes imposing limits (on creativity, your time, or on your output) is the most liberating thing you can do. It amazes me that some people don’t protect themselves from other people’s demands, and from their own addictions to achieving what they think (and often this thinking is unexamined) is ‘successful’. I have felt (since I started modelling 3 years ago) that I have never reached my ‘potential’, that I don’t shoot as much as I could, I could travel far more (though I am travelling across Europe and across continents a fair bit these days, with global plans emerging for October onwards) that I should either shoot more or less (but can never decide which it is), that I should accept more bookings even if I don’t like a photographer’s portfolio or trust in their abilities, that I should give people a version of myself that they want…

…But then I think, actually, I’m doing it fine. I have to protect how much I love this ‘vocation’ by listening to my inner voice and blocking out what other people might be impressed by.

Some of my (quite mundane, actually) self imposed rules include:
– Don’t work on Sundays. I generally don’t now, unless on a trip, as I have been brought up to see Sundays as special, and involving walks in the countryside, family time and rest.
– Don’t shoot more than 3/4 times a week; my writing discipline would suffer, as would (probably) my enjoyment of modelling, which can be emotionally as well as physically demanding. Again this rule disappears when on trips, and in practise working every day can be energising and intensely creative, just not if it’s longterm. I usually take a few days off every month and value that time to catch up on other things and rejuvenate.
– Don’t shoot work which is overly sexy or provocative, whether nude or clothed. This is kind of frustrating for myself in some ways as (throwing all modesty out of the window, in both senses), I know that I would be bloody good at it. It’s also a lot of fun. However, that sicky ‘hhhm, what am I doing?’ feeling I would probably get shortly afterwards would not be enjoyable and is just not worth it for me, and doesn’t sit well with my beliefs or values.
– Don’t accept agency booking for shoots that advertise things I don’t particularly want to put my face to, however wonderfully paid they might be and however pleasing I would be to the agency if I were to accept all castings/bookings like a good little model. NO to the BP/Shell ads. In fact, ‘no’ to the general effing business of telling people they need things which they clearly don’t. Art is much more honest; I’m prouder of being naked on the internet for art than I would be for some other quite ‘normal’ things.

Here is me gazing wistfully into space while double-checking my boundaries (taken in Mexico by the lovely Gerald Oar):

And by Neil Huxtable:

Finery Drapery

ERWhittington 3 Comments

I’m back from a very successful and enjoyable trip to Paris (more on that later, I promise!) and have some new shots to show from photographer ‘Penfoldpc‘, taken in Worcestershire last month. We had lots of fun shooting in various styles, but the following are my favourites. Paul wanted to create a very classical scene based around the natural nude. I like these a lot!

There is something about the colour red that always works so well. Just a slither of it is so beautiful!

Costume changes!

ERWhittington 3 Comments

I love these shots by Mike Croshaw, taken recently at a studio day (its first!) at Cheltenham FilmPhoto Studios. Considering we only had a two hour slot together, and quite a bit of the beginning was taken up with me having to be laced into my wedding dress (I doubt any bride ever had to dress herself…), I think it’s impressive how much we got done. Here are a few from our session together. Very much looking forward to working with Mike again sometime. And for anyone interested in trying out the studio, I’d recommend it and can get you a good deal!

I’ve not really done ‘pin-up’ before, but Mike wanted to give the theme a try with me and I really enjoyed playing the part of a 50s cheeky-grinned starlet. I’d love to give pin up a real go, actually – I think it could possibly suit me quite well. Thanks Mike for choosing something fun and new to shoot with me!

This next shot has featured here before, but in the interests of comprehensiveness (of themes covered)… Gorgeous lighting and soft pastel hues:

I happened to have brought my brand new Asian bridal saree along with me to the shoot, in hopes of shoe-horning it into a session… I think it’s so stunning – I really really love ‘World’ costumery and I love India in particular so much. I spent some time there a few years ago (mainly in the north) and have been aching to go back ever since. Every year I tell myself it will be THIS year. I think it’s such a beautiful country, and I love how brightly coloured the women’s clothing is, as well; fanciful decoration and ornate, intricate beading is everywhere, and there is no such thing as too much adornment. It’s impossible to take a bad street shot there! Mike and I think a plainer background would probably have worked better for this shot (or I would love to shoot with it in a grand house, with the full works!), but for the garment’s first airing I do love this.

Below is a composite image in a classical ‘Old Masters’ style, which is a theme more traditionally suited to my strengths…

And finally we spent some time doing some movement and ‘swirly’ images. I love the golden curves of the fabric here, and its flaring wisp to my left in the composition (camera right?).


…Let me know which you like! 🙂

A celebration, some wedding princessing and some Lions (and a monkey)

ERWhittington 3 Comments

Hello!

Thank you all so much (those of you who have commented on my facebook wall and sent me messages; you know who you are!) for my birthday wishes for yesterday! I had such a nice day and it very surreal racking up so many good wishes on my facebook notifications – I felt very popular, haha! Seriously though, it’s so appreciated and really reminds me how nice it is to hear a ‘happy birthday’ from people even when you haven’t heard from them in a while and that I must always remember people’s birthdays myself!

Today’s post is going to involve a series of tenuous links.

First, I will tell you about what I did yesterday… I went to visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Science Museum in Oxford in the morning. Some really impressive shots and the staff member on the desk was so chatty, telling us all about the various controversies, and the artists who’d visited and what they’d said about other photographers’ work… I really loved one shot of a white bird lifting out of the water, with it’s emerging wings spread in blurry motion. It looked so ethereal and beautiful! LOVED the polar bear too, plus lots more. Had a delicious light lunch at a lebanese restaurant afterwards avec some borrowed (must order it myself next time..) sugary mint tea.

After that I had my traditional family tea and cake ceremony in the afternoon – fodant fancies featured heavily, as always.

Then at 4pm I was taken to London and got there for an early dinner (really tasty veggie burger of portobello mushroom, baby spinach and goat’s cheese) and courgette fries at Byron Burgers in Covent Garden, before (feeling we might explode) going to watch THE LION KING at the Lyceum Theatre!!!! I had been wanting to go and see this for years and years, and occasionally, when I remembered the lack of it in my life, had a little moan… so it was a masssive treat and something I’d really really built up in my mind, so much so that afterwards I announced ‘It’s amazing that it didn’t disappoint me at all’, which my friend said was hilarious and should probably go on their poster… Haha (oops). Seriously though, the moment I left the theatre I wanted to just go back and watch it all again!! From the first second of the show, with the characters hurtling down the aisles to the stage while the most incredible powerful music seared into my ears, I was spellbound and genuinely a little bit teary. And then the creativity and ingenuity of the set designs, the use of space and the way they showed the passage of time, the sunsets and silhouettes, balletic gazelles, giraffe men on stilts, the elephant, costumes and colour, were all so utterly jaw-droppingly mesmerising. My favourite aspect of it by far, though, was definitely the call and response singing. After I come back in my next life as a Lebanese/bellydancer/Columbian/Shakira hybrid, I think I’ll come back as a big African mama, singing magical heart-stopping soulful Savannah tunes*. Ha. Rafiki, basically; the crazy wise lady with the staff, who tells Simba to ‘look into himself’ to find his father, and teases him into going back to reclaim his Lion-y throne and sorting out the hyenas and marching slinkily and powerfully back up Pride Rock. Aaaaah. 🙂

* Joke. Pretty sure we only get one chance at things, and sadly, I’m lily white. I did once get cast as a lion though (for hair reasons) in a school performance of Pyramus and Thisbe. My friend played the wall.

Anyway, I will be adding to my ‘White’ website gallery soon with some gorgeous new wedding images. There is a bit of a medley below!

Shot by Mike Croshaw at the brand new Cheltenham Film Studio. We did so many different styles in two hours (including pin up!) which I will hopefully show soon:

These were taken by Sabel Gonazalez recently around the centre of Oxford. The male model is the lovely and handsome James Pike, hair stylist Nikki Wright and make up artist Laura Pusey.

Finally, to complete the wedding theme bonanza for now, here are some outdoor shots by David Ballard., taken last week:

I’m going this afternoon to my local animal sanctuary in hope of finding a buddy for my little Chi! Can’t wait to meet the current members of the centre. I have a feeling I’m going to want to take quite a few home though… In related news, here is a photo of me holding a howler monkey called ‘Chiquito’, a temporary resident at an animal rescue centre I visited in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, in December. The centre was founded by a couple of european vets who met and fell in love during a work placement in Costa Rica. They set up house together and when the locals knew there were animal doctors in the area, any stray/hurt/lost animals were scooped up and delivered to their doorstep until it became necessary to expand and put up purpose-built enclosures for various lost and found animals to recuperate (The place is emphatically not a zoo!) until they are ready to be released back into the wild. I hope I can go back there soon! Chiquito was soooo sweet. We had to hold his tail strongly in case he jumped away (but he didn’t; he just wanted to snuggle!).
OK, here’s a little hand-licking deer I met there too (a little too tame to be released now, apparently):
Bye for now!