I really enjoyed shooting with Ray Fritz again on my recent trip down under as part of Zoefest in Noosa – we had a really creative time and one of the highlights for me was definitely the wall art you see in these first pictures – gathered, natural tumbleweed/driftwood, just hung on the wall. With the sofa in front of it (not the easiest ledge to balance on, I tell you!) I loved the possibility for shapes on this geometric stage. The last of this set is my favourite, I think.
fine art nude
Spirit of Ecstasy
Hope everyone had wonderful Easters! I’m busier than ever, though reminding myself to rein it in where I can; aside from modelling when I can (which would be enough to keep one person busy), I’m darting about running my handmade business, writing my novel and am soon to be working with literacy projects in my local homeless centre. Then there’s choir, dance classes, running, doing courses, seeing friends and holding their new babies… I definitely overschedule myself, but what’s new?
There is no rhyme or reason to my blog posts anymore; I post images here quite at random (and with a backlog of image to share which is easily in the 1000s) but with the same gratitude as ever to the photographers/artists who allow me to share their work.
…My email newsletters are just as random/infrequent, but with added thoughts, chat and updates on upcoming events/travel.
The following images were taken at Big Shot Studio, one of my favourite studios, by Ken Benoit (instagram):
Captain Cook & Cockatoo feathers: Botany Bay
A recent tag on instagram reminded me of this wonderful shoot I had with Geoffrey Cutts when I was in Australia (again!) at the end of last year.
This was such an enjoyable shoot for me – definitely one of my favourites of the trip – in part because it involved quite a bit of sightseeing along the way as well as great company in the sunshine. I’d worked with Geoff on a previous trip and knew how relaxed and friendly he was, and particularly remember really enjoying the leisurely pace and opportunity to explore the area around Botany Bay National Park… and marvel at stray cockatoo feathers.
Yellow Flowers in Iceland
… & lupins and Christmas trees!
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve hopefully already seen two blog posts from my wonderful adventure to Iceland with Alex Nason, Bragi Kort and fellow model Lucy Magdalene.
I posted:
– ‘Black Rocks, Snow & Rushing Water‘
– ‘A Herring Factory, a Piano & a Window‘
And now here’s a little post with images taken of me posing in some of Iceland’s vegetation – flowers & trees. These are all by Bragi Kort.
Botticelli dreams + 3D rock textures
I love these shots by Stephen Wong (creator of the free digital magazine celebrating the artistry of nudes, ION magazine), taken when I was in Sydney recently. It’s at a location I’ve been to many times (I think I’ve now been to Australia about 6 times and almost every time had at least one shoot in this spectacular spot!), but each time has been different, and Stephen definitely made the most of the incredible rock structures. I love the textures and incredible dips, grooves and colours as well as the warm glow that shines through the final edits. It was a really windy day and I was DEEPLY jetlagged after just flying in from England (I have been told my phonecalls home were making very little sense), but it was such a good shoot and I threw myself into what felt like channelling some kind of Botticelli/Venus situation.
Stephen had such a cool set up to create some 3D images, of which I’ll include a few (at the end of the post), but also sent me plenty of the single images too. He sent me off with a few pairs of 3D glasses so I could see his results once he sent them through to me – one of those ‘my job is so cool’ moments, and hey, it’s a bonus that the glasses look so fetching… 🙂
The Grapes of Wrap (dress)
To warm us all up (I am particularly addressing my fellow northern-hemisphereans, here, and if tomorrow’s snow forecast is anything to go by we need all the help we can get), here are some images taken in the balmier, English countryside with Stuart Johnson, who was a pleasure to model for in these beautiful locations. Some of these images have already seeped into my instagram account, but it’s lovely to show a fuller collection. I felt like I was in the south of France for some of this shoot – so good to look back on now!
By the way, many of the images in this post are unedited – in fact I believe most are straight from camera. I actually think this sort of suits the carefree vibes we ended up doing.
Roses & Tea
I had a really nice, laid back shoot in Gloucestershire with Mike Bradbury last year, dropping in on my way home from a couple of shoots at a studio nearby. I love these simple, relaxed shots we took in his home studio (in between chats). The eagle-eyed among you will notice I didn’t point my toes in the casual sitting shots – I really like this about them. I have to admit I often find the propensity for art models (and I do include myself) to point their toes to be a little too unnatural and (ironically) awkward looking sometimes – it can be such a beautiful finish to a line, which is why we so often do it (and some of us have dance/ballet backgrounds from which this trait is perhaps borrowed), but sometimes it becomes a bit too much, in my opinion, and I see it slightly overdone at the loss of the natural feeling of an image (and I get that not all images are meant to look natural!). I think there is a lot to be said for a more authentic, less ‘stylised’/gymnastic way of being in photos, now and then. (Cue everyone looking at my toes now… eek!)
