Outdoor Location

Wings & Rocks in the Land of Pirates!

ERWhittington 5 Comments

Yet another blog entry today, and already a few more ready and waiting in the pipeline… don’t say I don’t spoil you..! 🙂

Today’s offering comes from a weekend trip to the stunningly beautiful West Cornwall I made at the end of June, working with Perry (of Imagesse photography). I am thrilled with some of these images. When Perry mentioned before the shoot that he would quite like some kind of ‘wing’ theme, but wasn’t sure how possible that would be, I immediately thought of Isis wings, which I’ve modelled in and danced with before (they’re an oriental dance prop), and ordered some of my own in time for the shoot. I chose some large silver translucent ones, which I thought would shimmer in the light and look delicate enough to let it through in certain conditions – I personally prefer them to other colours I’ve seen and used before, but you can get them in all different shades to suit your skin tone; traditionally you would match them to the colour of your costume. I love the permanent pleat structure on them, too, which can look a bit like the veins on a leaf (or, er, a wing). As a prop they can be difficult to work with in windy conditions, as they literally feel like they will take flight at times, so balancing in delicate poses isn’t as easy as it would otherwise be. They also reflect a lot of light (which I think is a good thing). I am so pleased with how these came out and think Perry caught some absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful scenes, some vivid colours and along with the reflections in the water, it was definitely worth the 5.5 hour train journey each way!

When I got off the train in Penzance, I was immediately greeted by pirates. Someone had joked to me previously ‘watch out for the pirates’ but, bizarrely enough, there was well and truly an official ‘pirate day’ celebration, or something going on that weekend. (That’s as much as I could get out of the cute little girl who befriended me as soon as I arrived in the hostel with Perry; she even followed me in to the bathroom, showing me her eye patch and pirate dress, which she was concerned wasn’t a real pirate dress, but which we agreed looked pretty all the same… so I had to give her a task to do, asking her to take my bottle of water to my bag in the reception area, to distract her so I could pee in private. SO cute!). The entire area of Cornwall seemed hungover from the night before, and there was mess everywhere as though a bomb had dropped, and people gallavanting around in costume. Quite a contrast from the serene, natural scenes Perry and I were shooting at!!

Anyway… With thanks to Perry, here are some of the results from a drive around different parts of West Cornwall, from beaches, to rock formations, to stone circles:

P.S. I nearly forgot to thank my ‘support group’, without which I would perhaps not have made it down to the beach in those first shots at all!!!!! In order to get down there, we had to climb/scramble down a very steep rock face. This was nothing for Perry, who does mountain climbing in his spare time (but who admitted the route was more precarious than he’d remembered from visiting the area when he was younger), but for me (in my Diesel flip-flops, as brilliant as they are), it was a little panic-inducing. There were some people climbing up and down the narrow bit who took it upon themselves to pass my bag down to Perry then direct my feet into specific places so I could get down. I said to Perry afterwards that I should just have waited a minute or two longer and they probably would have passed me down between them like a sack of helpless spuds… Hahaha. (I am adding the ‘Damsel in Distress’ tag to this post, I think.) Nothing like a bit of early morning fear to get a good set of photographs. Since then (bearing in mind my backpacking trip later this year), I have purchased some more suitable footwear… All good practise, eh? 🙂

I have, since this shoot, worked with Perry again in another stunning location (to be blogged soon I’m sure!), and hopefully there’ll be a third shoot together sometime in the future!

‘How I became a madman’

ERWhittington 5 Comments
…and other quotes/poems I’ve enjoyed recently… (Did I mention my obsession with appearance versus reality? Yes? Good.)
Kahlil Gibran:
‘You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen — the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven lives, — I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, “Thieves, thieves, the curséd thieves.”
Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me.
And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, “He is a madman.” I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, “Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks.”
Thus I became a madman.
And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.
But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief.’
Oprah Winfrey (yes, this blog post is pretty varied):
‘I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.’

Oscar Wilde:
‘Most people are other people; their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation…. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.’
(Photograph by Imagesse; proper blog post with many landscape nudes to follow soon!)

Faerie Queen

ERWhittington 4 Comments

My new website is finally online!

Ta da!!!!
www.ellarosemuse.co.uk

It’s by no means finished and I already have a LOT of brand new photos to add to it, bits and pieces to edit and sort out and general perfectionism-type tweaking and tampering to do (I also really need to work out how to make the contact form work!), but I decided it was silly to wait until some magical moment when it became ‘perfect’ before uploading it, as a) people keep asking me where my website is, and b) there will never come such a moment. I also intend to update it fairly regularly, so it will always be a work in progress in a sense.

The beautiful image on my homepage was created by Pat Brennan of http://www.moonmomma.co.uk. I was absolutely blown away when I saw her interpreation of a photograph of me taken by Keith Cooper. I had waffled to her vaguely about the possibility of something twinkly and unique, having admired her enchanted style for a long time, and she knew exactly what to do. I couldn’t be more thrilled and grateful! Go and visit her website if you haven’t already!

 I have twelve individual, themed galleries on my new website. Please go and check it out!

The following shots, taken by Rebecca Parker (Moonmomma’s daughter!) at Ravenshaw, near Birmingam, will go into the ‘Faerie’ gallery. Becky came along to a shoot I did with Tim Pile and also did the make up for me here (and the headdressing).

(Tangent: I was so inspired by Becky’s incredible, enormous make up palettes… again… that I’ve just gone and ordered my own from ebay. There’s a Hong Kong based shop on there which does the most incredible range of professional quality make up at incredibly cheap prices. I am so excited, having just ordered 96 colourful eyeshadows in a range of shimmer/matte textures, 88 nude/brown eyeshadows, 66 lip colours and 28 blushers. Considering how slimline and light the palettes are, with their glossy lids with mirrors inside, this will, believe it or not, probably weigh less than my current more mis-fitting make up collection, and possibly even take up less space.) I absolutely love having my make up done by other people, not because I’m not skilled at it (I’m pretty good at it, having had years of experience doing it on myself), but because it’s always interesting to see what choices other people make when considering your face and colouring. I would never think to use peach eyeshadow on myself as I generally suit cooler tones better than warm ones, but Becky made it look incredible.

Tim and Becky are good friends and often shoot together nowadays; I think they make an excellent team. Their complementary approaches mean they can help each other consider fresh ideas without overlapping too much and getting the same images. Becky is interested in portraiture and beauty (amongst other things), focussing on the emotion and expression of the model, while Tim has a wonderful eye for the larger picture, spotting locations with eye-catching potential and using shapes and perspectives to create a scene in which the model can insert herself. They are both great to work with and the location, a peaceful never-ending garden with bridges, lakes, reeds was simply beautiful. Such a relaxing place to be in. 

Anyway, I very much hope to be able to show some images from Tim soon, to show what I mean, but, for now (finally, I’m getting to the evidence) here are some from Becky which show me as a bit of a faerie queen. 🙂

🙂

Out-And-About Glamour

ERWhittington 1 Comment

The word ‘glamour’ has become such a walking-on-eggshells word. My new website, which I promise is on its way (I have had some concerned emails questioning the fact that my website is down, which is hugely flattering – always nice to know it’s being looked at) will include a gallery (one of 12) called ‘Glamoureuse’ – a nod to glamour and also away from it, in the sense that everyone who sees my work will know that I don’t do ‘page 3’-style stuff – it’s just not my thing. I find it boring (I bet the ‘page three’ brigade would find my style interminably dull, so no hard feelings I’m sure) and I doubt I’d pull it off anyway without a quick fake tan, etc. Anyway, glamour is cool. I like glamour. I like the version of glamour that’s in my head. (My head involves glamour which is probably a little bit 70s; soft, pretty, sensual and elegant.)

Par exemple, here are some images I meant to blog a while ago, from the most recent Yerbury Boudoir Academy seminar I modelled for (copyright Faye Yerbury):

 
 

By Jean-Marc Gargentiel (a photographer attending the course):

Also, while I’m here, here’s some bridal stuff we did the same day:

By Faye Yerbury:

And by Trevor Yerbury:

A Vintage Bridal Series

ERWhittington 7 Comments

My 1970s Victorian-style wedding dress has had quite a few airings over the last few weeks! I often model for BIPP and SWPP’s fashion, bridal and portrait workshops, and thought I’d throw this dress into the mix one day rather than wearing one of my modern wedding dresses, just to get a different style for the photographers attending (it’s also nice and warm to wear, due to the material and sleeves, which is always a bonus!). For that particular BIPP workshop, the excellent wedding photographer Kevin Wilson was teaching. He was enamoured by the dress and asked me to model in it for a series of G F Smith ‘Inspire’ events around the country. He also asked me for another model who could do the fashion workshops (led by Mark Lawrence) simultaneously during these days, so I recommended my friend Ivory Flame for the job, knowing she would do it well and repaying some of the jobs she’s gotten me by way of recommendation in the past.

I’ve now worked with Kevin four times, in Aylesbury, Birmingham, Duxford and Maidstone, with the final event in Leeds next week (I’m shooting with Mark for that one though; Holly and I are swapping roles for a final twist!).

Here are some of the images he’s taken of me over these events. I made sure to vary my hair very slightly for each event. I think his use of tones and compositions are absolutely beautiful, helped here by some rather stunning locations (Holly and I were surprised on one particular day to find we’d be modelling in front of war-time aircraft. I’m particularly wistful in these; the narrative being that my husband is lost to war. It was easy to get in the mood; the Air Museum in Duxford has a sound system playing sirens and bombs.. a very surreal and eerie place in which to work!). Click to enlarge as always…

Birmingham:

Duxford Air Museum:

Maidstone:

I was also sent a few from some of the photographers attending. By Joe Gilbert:

And by Steve James:

Ophelia…

ERWhittington 6 Comments

…was the theme of my fourth shoot with J H. I seem to have produced some of my favourite images with him and, in general, seem to love any opportunity to agree to throw myself into water and pretend to be a mermaid and/or nymph. These were taken during a leisurely two-hour early-evening shoot in East Sussex last weekend. People say it’s ‘brave’ to get in water for shoots like this, but I think if the worst thing that happens to you in a day’s work is that you get wet/dirty/cold while floating around pretending to be part of a mythical story, and you get beautiful images to show for it, you don’t have much to complain about. J wanted to aim for something reminiscent of Waterhouse and Millais, an admirable aim in my book. The reflections in the water worked so well for a dreamy, painterly feel. For the first few, I have to admit I was imagining myself as a princess searching for a little frog to turn into a prince. When in doubt, my mind reverts to whimsy.

Thanks J – looking forward to the next one! 🙂