Outdoor Location

Pre-Raphaelite Goodness

ERWhittington 9 Comments

The following shots were taken by Keith Cooper at a location (half an hour away from my house in Oxfordshire) which manages to combine the romantic 15th Century ruins of a manor house, a river and woodland – perfect for Keith’s interest in pre-Raphaelite and historical styles. I’ve got two more shoots already booked in with him, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with next!

More Spanishness – John Evans

ERWhittington 4 Comments

I’ve been looking forward to showing some of these… A few more from the week I spent in Spain with Gregory Brown and John Evans (and fellow model Hannah Ashlea).

But first, a cute snap I got someone walking past to take with my camera on the last day, just as were packing up the car to go back to the airport.

This first one is by Gregory Brown, then the rest are by John Evans.

I love this headdress – I bought it over a year ago and thought it would be worth taking to Spain, as I was told some amazing rocky venues had been scouted. The wind was so strong (especially as we were near the edge of a bit of a cliff) it kept nearly flying off, all of a feather.

These beautiful lilles, on the terrace of the apartment, were teasing us with their photogenic potential all week. I love the freshness of this set:

We shot the following in a derelict, crumbling house on the side of the road. It just so happened that the turqoise underbust corset I’d brought matched the graffiti perfectly. A very happy coincidence.

A tree John found…

An amazing rock formation, surprisingly close to a mountain road, up which some German/Swedish/Austrian cyclists were huffing and puffing (I’m not sure we ever established which nationality they were, though we had a very long conversation with one man, who seemed keen to take any opportunity to hang back from the group and catch his breath and so wanted to make sure he had recounted the thitherto events of this particular trip in great detail for us.) Greg and John were positioned too far away for us to hear when the camera was actually clicking!

And finally (for now), I’m always happy when I’m near water… I’m really pleased with these, taken on a beach:

Blue

ERWhittington 8 Comments

It’s that time of year again… As soon as the bluebells arrived I alerted the various photographers who were on standby and squeezed in some arrangements for early morning/evening shoots. These flowers don’t wait around long; you’ve got to be on their schedule. They’re such a pleasure to sit in; I try my hardest to squish as few as possible in the place I now call ‘my bluebell patch’ and have taken to spritzing my self with Elle Macpherson’s ‘Calming bath and body oil’, lavender scented, to discourage any bluebell-loving insects from settling on me.

I don’t care that I’ve done this type of bluebell shoot before and still have many more coming up over the next ten days – one of the things I love about these short woodland sessions is that, somehow, each photographer always seems to get completely different results, whether by using different angles, wanting different themes or just because the light is so changeable, varying itself in intensity and colour minute by minute. I love the morning mist. It turns out I’m shit at getting up early unless shooting, so I love the fact that these 6am alarm calls are kick-starting me back towards my new year’s resolution with a vengeance. It’s an amazing feeling to be back at home having done a good ‘day’s’ work when most people are just setting off for theirs. 🙂


I’ve already received some images from Mike Castle, who is primarily a traveller (not the irish kind) and secondarily a photographer. He likes things not to be overly posed, preferring a beautiful scene with a girl in it, rather than a girl posing in a scene. This was my third shoot with him (see here and here for previous stuff). I love the relaxed feel and bokeh in these (and am delighted to be able to use one of the few technical terms I know, photography-wise). Here goes:

Lean and stooped, clumped at the feet
of elephantine trunks, by scrubby roots
and washing open spaces, grow
the bluebells. Emitting 
 
periwinkle, leaving stains
on butterfly tongues, they knit together,
their dense heads close,
soaked overnight like pooled ink.
In sun they wisp, slight and arcing
as if to say there’s nothing to see;
this is what we do. As if being blue
means nothing more than reflecting
sky. On the ground, the clouds are spaces
to be grown in, hushed, amassed; barren
blanks to be sewn up,
like bubbles linking in water.
 
We then found some blossom:
 
It’s Good Friday today – Happy Easter everyone!

Unity

ERWhittington 2 Comments

Yes, more (and still probably less than half way through) shots from Spain. This time with a distinctly circular theme…

 (above by John Evans.)

 (Above featuring Hannah Ashlea.)

John and Greg’s book ‘Andalusianudes’ can also be bought in a smaller size. Click here to preview!

At the beach! … And around the house (when the house is a spanish villa!)

ERWhittington 5 Comments

Just a few more from Spain (see last post)… This time by Gregory Brown.

 (Yes, b&w/colour indecision – I have many versions of each!)

 

 

 More soon…

Greg and John (already!) have a fantastic book available featuring Hannah Ashlea, the other model on the trip, and I. Check it out if you’d like to own some copies of the photographs they took during the week: Andelusianudes, by Gregory Brown and John Evans.