Flowers

Christmas Blooms

ERWhittington

Manchester yesterday, Brighton tomorrow… I seem to be both speeding up and winding down for Christmas… I’m sure many of you can relate! Here’s a quick update of some slightly Christmassy portraits from Paul Lock, who I had the pleasure of modelling for again recently.

Wishing you all a wonderful time full of love and joy, and only minimal crass and over-electric flashing neon. I’m off to a Christmas carol service with my family tonight in a tiny, tiny village church which was bedecked beautifully this time last year for my older brother’s wonderland wedding. 🙂 Can’t believe how time zooms!

Merry Christmas and I am looking forward to seeing many of you next year, all over the world!

 

 



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Lavender Blue

ERWhittington

I had a really stressful dream last night in which one of my friends secretly borrowed one of my bellydance costumes (the mermaidy one) to wear to a club night. I was too polite to mention the graveness of the situation; delicate embellishment getting knocked around and ripped off in neon-lit tree houses, etc. I don’t know what she was thinking. I forgave her when I woke up. (Also, I fell in love with a man in a lift.)

Anyway, since we’re (well, I’m, anyway) in the mood for whimsy, here are some images taken by the lovely and talented Elle Hicks in one of my favourite locations of all time, the humble (but glorious) lavender fields here in England. Such a pleasure to be in their midst, even if we did have a bit of trouble at the start of the shoot that threatened to put a stop to the whole thing (I think the less said about that, the better!) 🙂

Make up by me as usual; clever prettiness by Elle:



Additionally, here’s Sir Fluffalot, much famed over on my instagram accounts (here and here), having been disturbed while reading. He’s a bit cross about that, clearly.


Les Coquelicots dans La Pluie

ERWhittington

New images made in France, where I stayed at Don and Trisha McCrae’s photography school/B&B. Much recommended. I modelled for a couple of days while Don taught/assisted, and on the final day, before I left for the airport, we went on a very determined hunt for some poppies. It rained, but there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity, and Don kindly obliged. Lens Babied for dreamy effect…

I’m off to Wales tomorrow, and after saying at the beginning of the year (to myself) that I would be travelling less and focussing more on other things, in reality I’m modelling as much as ever. It’s hard to turn down jobs and great opportunities. I don’t think it’s in my nature to just do ‘one thing’ though, as I was discussing with someone the other day, so I’m carrying on with my usual style of aiming in several directions at once (and gathering more plans as I go). I think it’s OK if that also involves jetting around and frolicking in front of creative-ly wielded lenses/paintbrushes, though; upcoming plans (beween now and October) include Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Cornwall, Scotland, Vienna and more, alongside ongoing/new projects in my ‘local’ area of the south/midlands of England.

Unrelated (and you may have seen this on my facebook page recently):

For a possible new project, I’d be interested in hearing any (sensible, non-pervy) questions you have for art (/nude) models that you’d quite like the answer to; anything you’ve wondered about, however specific or vague, practical or philosophical. Please email any questions to ellarosemuse@live.co.uk (I don’t mind if it’s anonymous) and I’ll respond to acknowledge receipt. Thank you!

Fruit, Fog & Romantic Pleasure…

ERWhittington

Until quite recently I’d never posed alongside a male model except for during fully-clothed commercial/wedding work. The idea of doing nudes had vaguely interested me on and off, but I was intrigued by the possibility of doing so without creating a body of work which is overly sexual or, well, porny. Having looked around for inspiration in the world of photography I found surprisingly little that inspired me – there’s a lot of modern erotica, some of which is beautifully done, but very little which is more classical, like the kind of thing you’d see in the work of certain painters or sculptors (obviously there is also plenty of explicit erotica in any medium, old or new, but I was looking for something else). I began to see it as a challenge…

I wanted to see if I could create something sensual, loving and intimate without being too erotic; depicting pure love and romantic pleasure, desire and playfulness… all while still keeping a mood of innocence. And yes, the line is so fine in part because it is so vague and perhaps dissolves completely on too much consideration.

Having been in touch for a while with Joel Hicks (who currently stars in the brilliant Harpic ad on TV, amongst many other things), we decided to see if we could find a photographer who might be interested in shooting us together. I asked ManCave, who I’d shot with twice before, if he was interested; and he was, so we made a plan. I waffled looong involved theories (about love versus lust, etc. etc.) at them both, and I couldn’t be happier with the results! ManCave planned these classical sets and arranged everything beautifully, and Joel was absolutely perfect in both looks and professionalism. His facebook page is here, and is well worth a ‘like’ in my humble opinion; he’s inspiring both within and without his modelling work, and competent male models are massively under-hired in the freelance world.

Anyway, to the images….

Quick plug: We think we worked quite well together and make quite a good combination, so just in case anyone is interested in booking us as a duo this summer, possibly in a beautiful outdoor location (Joel happens to live on a 13 acre plot in the Midlands, which incorporates a fully-equipped studio as well as the lake, ponds, stables and wood), please let me know. I’ll be available to model there alone or along with Joel, for commercial/wedding images, classical or a mix. The opportunities there mean some really amazing images could be made, and as a photographer himself, Joel is also able to mentor any beginners.

Thanks for looking!

Marian

ERWhittington

Back from Norway! Can’t wait to show some results here ASAP. I think my record for ‘coldest I’ve ever been on a shoot’ has officially been broken. You can’t argue with arctic winds. But the midnight sun is so spectacular!

For now, in between booking trains, listening to Dolly Parton and planning shoots for tomorrow and beyond (I’ve got a commercial healthcare booking tomorrow; quite a change from nude mermaid-ing in Scandanavia!), here are some romantic, soft portraits taken recently by (not the) David Bailey. This was such a lovely shoot, with soooo many images. 🙂 I think they are almost a bit ‘bridal’; and we are well and truly into ‘wedding season’ after all! Some are edited a bit, some not.

White, Yellow, Red & Blue

ERWhittington

I meant to show you these a long time ago (well, almost a year ago!), and looking at my schedule (and that of mother nature) it’s clear to me that Spring is a-Springing (let’s ignore the fact that it hailed today) so I’m either really really late with these or really early.

Either way, I am very much looking forward to the possibility of my some local outdoor shoots in April/May (let me know if you want to make the most of it this year by booking something in in advance!), where all of the below were taken by the lovely Kev Bretts. Sweet and casual was the order of the day.

Romance

ERWhittington 6 Comments

I really love these shots taken by Kev at London’s Beltcraft Studio. We had a really fun shoot trying all sorts of things, and I think/hope there will be more images to show in the near future. For now, though, sometimes you just need to lie down with the roses….

And..