Double Trouble

May 02, 2018 in Photoshoot

Photoshoot time again and back to Brighton. A windy and cold Brighton but none the less it was a day out for me to see Violet Blaze and to meet Maria for the first time!

I had hired the Velvet Goldmine Studio in Brighton so we could have somewhere other than the beach as in previous shoots. I wanted a dark area to shoot in as I had bought with me several fairy lights to drape around Violet and Maria. The booking was for two hours and I arrived in Brighton for an hour and a half early. So I strolled down to the beach, stopping off at a shop to buy a packet of balloons to throw at Maria later. Individual balloons, of course, I didn't mean I would be throwing the packet at her. We had only just met and the idea of throwing cheap party decorations at a new friend was not the first thing on my mind.

I don't seem to be able to visit Brighton without taking a shot of the burnt down west pier. There is now a new attraction just opposite called the British Airways i360. I wasn't impressed at ground level, to be honest, so I may visit again later in the year with the wide-angle lens.

I arrived at the studio and met Philippe the owner. We chatted about my work and what the days shoot comprised of and he helped set up for a dark setting. Lights and a tripod were available (didn't have to carry mine!) and there was a small sofa to store my gear on.

Violet and Maria arrived and we set about getting the first few shots. I had sent a shot list to Violet a few days before and we stayed true to it for the most part. I had no idea if the lights would work the way I wanted. They were small led lights on copper wire powered by three AA batteries.

Turns out they worked perfectly! I used the flip-screen on the Canon 6d Mk II (a recent purchase) as I was using the Canon 50mm at an aperture of f1.8 and wanted to use the face detection to ensure a sharp shot.

Maria wanted in at this point so I wound the lights around both of them to produce more shots and a possible mild electric shock for both of them.

After that, we turned the main lights back on and got set up for Maria's shoot. The balloons made an appearance this time along with an array of unicorns. Violet was ready to throw the balloons at Maria but we found out that polychloroprene bags inflated with air are not very aerodynamic at all... no matter how brightly coloured they are. So the shot below is a composite of about five frames.

I have no idea what was going on here...

Things got silly after the balloon throwing with piggy backs, hugs, kisses and basic insanity.

The unicorns went on to form a boy band...

Sorry I just don't know how this happened...

The two hours flew by and it was time to tidy up. The balloons were, unfortunately, put down. Once they had landed their usefulness was over so they had to go. Lights were packed away, bits of the balloon were picked up and we left the studio as we found it.

This was a fun shoot and we will have to do this again!

Wilton's Music Hall - The Study

March 08, 2018 in Photoshoot

Since starting this website I have been to one of London's highest points and more recently, one of its lowest. Today took me to one of its oldest, Wilton's Music Hall. Built in 1859 behind a pub and three houses (thanks Wiki).

I had arranged to meet with Marquissa Darq for a shoot in The Study, this was once two rooms and had a phantom staircase which ends in the ceiling. Well, most staircases end at a ceiling but they mostly continue to the next floor. I had visited the Hall a few weeks prior and made a mental note to make use of the stairs.

I arrived and signed in, was shown to the room and I unpacked and made sure I had everything with me. Marquissa arrived soon after me and we discussed the first shot. I had previously written out a short list of 10 photos that we would try rather than winging it. I had also sent Marquissa some badly drawn stick figures on top of the photos I had taken on my previous visit.

From here we set up the next shot, I had to move into one of the room and shoot through the timbers to get the low angle I needed here. I also brought with me 12 led candles to form a pattern at the bottom of the stairs. To be honest they were not that good as the light was pretty weak. I envisioned that smoke would be rising from the central candle so this was digitally added in post.

Continuing with the Gothic theme I wanted a sort of 'dark bride' image, with a sort of 'risen from the grave' look. Wearing a black bodice and small top hat Marquissa was holding a small headband with a red flower as I forgot to buy a bunch of dead stalks with me. I had remembered everything else! This shot was de-saturated apart from the red and purple colour.

Coming from a Cabaret background I wanted to do a few shot for Maquissa based on the film 1966 film Cabaret! We were not in Germany, we didn't have the right stool and we hat a Top Hat, not a Bowler Hat, but we had a go anyway.

The first shot I had deliberately angled 90 degrees as I have seen many couch shots like this but not one that has been tilted like this. The second shot was taken against the window with the light streaming in, I have blurred out the bench in post-production. The third shot used the now more diffused light as the Sun had moved on and the light was fading a little. These three photos make up the lyrics to the opening song from Cabaret! 'Willkommen! And Bienvenue! Welcome!'

As the light was fading fast we had to work quickly through the last set of shots. The shot below had Marquissa standing away from the wall and holding up a black lace scarf to her eyes. This provided not only a contrast to the headpiece but also the lighter wall.

The last two shots were done in the last 25 minutes we had of our time in the Study. The headpiece worn by Marquissa reminded me of old bathing caps worn many years ago, the green and blue make me think of the sea, let alone the gloves looking like coral. So for this shot, I had introduced a blue/green under the sea type tint.

The last shot of the day had Marquissa sat at the table in the second room of the Study. As soon as I saw the area I knew the shot I wanted. In the room is a table which I imagined was a poker table, Marquissa put her hair up and put a couple of feathers at the back. To me this made her resemble a girl working the tables on a classic American Riverboat Casino. You can just make out the pile of poker chips on the table behind the winning hand... I'm sure that is a legitimate winning hand in poker...

We finished on time with 10 minutes allocated to clearing up. I made sure the furniture was back in place as was found and the inner door was held back with the doorstop. We walked back down to sign out and there was a selfie involved before Marquissa headed off home.

Considering the time we had in the Study versus the diversity of shots created I think we did pretty well. Other events were going on in the spaces around, we heard the occasional footsteps from above us but on the whole, the room and surrounding area were very quiet.

I hope to return to Wilton's Music Hall sometime soon!

Scarlett O'Hora

January 29, 2018 in Photoshoot

There are times during a shoot that I talk to my camera when something goes wrong and on the last one, I attempted to accuse the Sun of producing far too many photons when I was trying to get a bleak-looking shot. This was witnessed by my model for the day, Scarlett O'Hora! She did not look scared or worried that I was ranting at the Sun at all.

We had met earlier in the day to get several shots done and decided to shoot in and around Wimbledon Common. Scarlett had previously sent me examples of outfits to choose from. Our first outfit was a black dress fur coat and glasses. I immediately thought of Scarlett hanging off a bus stop pole and surprisingly she thought the same! Great minds etc!!

Being the professional I had worked out a plan so our time at Wimbledon Common was maximized. This was thrown out almost immediately when we got off the wrong bus stop. Yay me.. but this gave us time to walk up to the next stop while getting to know each other.

Arriving at the correct location we talked about how we wanted the shot to look. I wanted to blur out the background for this in case the traffic got in the way and I wanted the numbers to be unreadable. However with a 70-200mm Sigma lens I had to walk quite far away to get a shot that included the majority of the bus stop and Scarlett together. Having to direct Scarlett from a distance meant a lot of hand waving and I am surprised we didn't flag down the odd taxi and bus service.

Our next shot was planned for further in, this would have been a choice between the red suit or the black sorceress type dress. Crashing through the complaining foliage we stumbled across the large horse track which was very muddy. We gingerly worked our way around this and arrived at the main clearing. For once there was no one about so Scarlett got changed behind a large tree and I was on the lookout for passers-by. Quite typically as soon as Scarlett stepped out in a very revealing dress there were families and dog walkers all over the place.

When I was shown this dress I immediately wanted a bleak-looking shot with crows flying around, sort of a homage to the Morrigu of Celtic mythology. This is when the Sun started to annoy me. G-type main-sequence stars must like families and dog walkers more than photographers.

Our final shot meant we trudged further into the woods in search of a pathway that had a sort of tunnel effect by the trees. All we found was more dog walkers. None of them wanted to join in. The final shot had Scarlett in a fantastic suit. Even among such great trees I still wanted to blur them out so I was using the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 again. So off I went deeper into the woods to get a long shot. The tracking and fast lock-on of the Sigma meant I could ask Scarlett to spin around and try to get a few shots where her hair would be flying around her face. Some of the shots had her face obscured but we got some shots on others.

You spin me right round baby right round etc...

It was time to pack up and leave.. once again my professionalism shone though by having us walk further than we needed to get back to the pub for a drink, chat and a look through the photos.

Wave to the dog walkers... so many of them..

This was a fun shoot, even though some of my planning went a bit wrong it flowed easily from one area to another... must do this again!

Angels and Demons

September 30, 2017 in Photoshoot

Collaboration time again, this time with a burlesque/dancer/videographer Ana Morphic. Ana had shown me a studio in London that has a massive seamless white cove wall. This would allow for pure white backgrounds that I could utilise in post-production.

I was looking forward to this so I jumped on the tube to Ealing Broadway on the District Line and as normal turn up 30 minutes early… OK, so I sent a message to Ana asking if she would like a large tea from the shop across the road. She did, so while carrying two large cups of tea I walked across the park with my hands slowly burning. I was hoping that my camera bag would not slip off my shoulder and pull my arm around splashing hot tea over someones unsuspecting face.

Luckily I did not scald any passers-by and I met Ana just outside the studio. On entering, I noticed the cove wall was bigger than I thought and the main light had been set up already. Yay!

Ana introduced me to the owner and we then set about arranging which costumes Ana would be modelling. While discussing the options Ana mentioned the tattoo she had on her back. Once I saw it I made a mental note to shoot that and do something with it later. While Ana was getting changed I set up my Canon 70d on a tripod with the 24-105mm f4.0L attached. I didn't think I would need the wide-angle this time and set up a chair as a reference point.

THE CHAIR OF DOOM... it's just a place to sit really...

We had discussed a few weeks before trying some levitation shots and my mind immediately thought of the famous painting 'The Creation of Adam' by Michelangelo. I wanted to try something like that. Not in exact detail but something in a similar vein.

Ana came out dressed in black with a headdress sporting a pair of horns.. the demon in our composite. The other costume was a lighter colour representing the angel.. we didn't have any wings but you get the idea. I dragged over a white box for Ana to balance on as the chair was only designed to be sat on and not to be used as an acrobatics platform. Neither was the box really but it didn't complain.

This is the resulting composite with a few extra tweaks here and there.. can you spot them? The rune brushes were provided by http://www.obsidiandawn.com/

The Sistine Chapel meets Michael Bay [A little bit explody] Explody is now a word! Live with it!

Just after the demon shot was taken I asked Ana to sit with her back to me and reveal the tattoo on her back. I had in mind how I wanted this image to look so asked her to cover her chest and turned back to look at me as I noticed the lightness of the hair would be a good contrast to the dark of the headdress.

Ana also had an Alice in Wonderland costume. This was a bonus after we were discussing doing a levitation shoot! We could try a falling down the rabbit hole shot too.

For each of the costumes, I asked Ana to sit on the box and look up at the light. I didn't really know where I was going with this, just wanted something to work on later.

The good, the bad and the not so innocent!

The two hours we had together just flown by and I really enjoyed it. The light settings did not change from shot to shot, unlike a live show where lighting changes are in abundance, so we had time to try other shots and angles. I left Ana in the studio as she was working on some videos.

I declined to get another scalding hot cup of tea and caught the tube home. I only culled a couple of frames from the shoot, just the ones from the start where I was working out the lighting.

Really want to do that again!

You can see more of Ana as Miss Morphic on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/missmorphic and her Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/missmorphic.

A hand full of baubles.

September 03, 2017 in Photoshoot

I was contacted early morning by Joe Morose asking if I was available for a very quick photoshoot in central London the same day. I said I was and arranged to meet at the Cafe de Paris in Leicester Square.

Joe wanted some shots with a subtle Christmas theme. Nothing major like dancing reindeer and copious amounts of snow everywhere, Joe settled on a collection of baubles which he would hold in various places.

I arrived early (as I usually do) and was shown to the back changing rooms to wait for Joe. There I met Rubens R Kaye and had a quick chat as Joe arrived. He changed and we went out to the stage. Joe wanted full body shots and mid to headshots.

We had the stage for around 30 minutes, some of the shots needed to have the Cafe de Paris signage included. I had my Canon 24-105 f4.0 and the Sigma 10-20 f3.5. I decided on the Sigma so I would get not only Joe in the picture but the rest of the surrounding area.

The Sigma can focus at close range so I used it for the headshots too. You can see there is little distortion at this distance, the baubles are still circular and not stretched.

The distortion of the lens was evident when Joe was sitting on the bannister. In the original shot, his legs were pointed towards the camera and were visibly stretched out. So I asked Joe to move his legs over the bannister so the eye would be drawn up towards where Jo was sitting.

After the stairs we moved back to the stage, Joe had the idea of lying down on the front of the stage clutching the baubles. Again with the Sigma, I was able to capture Jo and the signage at the top.

I was able to use the lights around the edge of the stage to illuminate Joe but it wasn't enough. I used my recently purchased LED light, balanced on its own battery pack which allowed me to illuminate Joe's face.

We finished up and I left the Cafe, total time since entering was just over an hour, back in time for tea.

Joe Morose - Fan of gin, vice, sin, glitter and obtuse observations on the human condition. Cabaret Compere and all-round raconteur. 80% Vol. You can find his Twitter here

A man has to pose I suppose...

August 22, 2017 in Photoshoot

It is a bit of a minefield when you use Google Images for 'man poses'. Once filtered I had several poses ready for a shoot with Jack Stark. I recently shot for Jack for The Why Not Institute and he was returning the favour.

We arranged to meet at Cutty Sark station as I wanted to try a shot in the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, but as we approached I thought we would take a few shots near the waters edge first. Just a simple leaning against the railing shot. I then noticed the massive fairground attraction looming behind us. I asked Jack to stand in front of it and then I thought we could try a 'man pose'. A simple one foot behind the other and Jack improvised, as he called it, the 'I'm having a heart attack' stance of one arm gripping the elbow of the other.

I wanted a contrasting shot next so Jack donned a jacket and stood against the brick wall of the entrance to the foot tunnel. Another of the 'man poses' was utilised. This one is called 'Waiting for a bus'. Most up against a wall shots have the wall straight, however, I prefer the added curvature in this shot to add a break from the norm.

We walked around the Naval College wondering if it was ok for Jack to straddle a cannon on display. I thought better of it as I didn't think the Royal Navy would appreciate a British subject cavorting on a selection of heavy weaponry. We opted for something less deadly... a park bench and tried out another 'man pose'.

Thumbs.... good for holding your head up.

This was a simple portrait type shot. Nothing special, no fancy effects just practice taking a solid portrait. The park bench was less heroic-looking than a massive cannon but it served the purpose as a place for one to sit. This is where my camera had a problem with Jacks face. It just would not seem to focus properly. It did however like to focus without problem on the floor, so along with the portrait of Jack, I also present a portrait of a stone.

We moved through to Greenwich Park stopping and taking pictures where the surroundings looked good. I set up a panoramic shot with jack right in the middle which worked well.

Contemplating the use of the park bench.

With time running out we returned to the foot tunnel to find it occupied by what looked like several musicians. So we returned to the side of the Cutty Sark exhibition to try out a mirrored shot you see above. Trying to find a clean part of the glass without finger and nose prints took a little while. Here we see Jack performing the 'keys in the back pocket man pose'.

Our last 'man pose' made us look around for a set of stairs. Luckily there is one next to the Cutty Sark, which goes down to a car park. This was the last of our 'man poses' I'm not sure what this one was, either 'I'm running for that bus from earlier' or 'Help me I falling'.

We concluded the session with a dual 'man pose'... having a drink in the local pub for review of the pictures.

Cheers Jack!

Clowning about...

July 12, 2017 in Photoshoot

I was contacted by Jack Stark and was asked to come down and take some shots for The Why Not Institute. These were to be added to the website and used in promotional material.

I travelled to the location, a church hall in Clapham, South London and shocked two old ladies as I walked into the church by mistake. I was quickly ushered out before I burst into flames and found the hall. Met up with Jack and Angela and had a quick chat about the setups, we were to be joined by Ness Gracious later on. This would be the first time I would be working with people on a green screen, so I had to make sure there were very little green reflections and spill over onto clothing.

We started with some simple headshots to establish characters, finger-pointing (to point at objects on the website) and finished off with holding a large piece of paper which would be filled in at post-production.

We then went outside to shoot. We tried to do a series of shots where Jack and Angela were travelling with instruments. One of which was bulky and heavy so we took turns with the large instrument being carried on each other’s back. As you can see Jack seemed to be either enjoying himself or was experiencing immense back pain.

Getting into the spirit of clowning I asked if I could throw in a few ideas. I had my 10-20mm f3.5 lens with me which close up can really distort facial features but I was thinking more along the lines of enlarging other features. Jack and Angela sat on the pavement surrounded by the instruments and I crouched down to their level. Instantly the legs and feet expanded due to the wide-angle nature of the lens but as the heads were further back they were not distorted. This was also true when Jack pushed his hat towards the lens, it made it look massive!

Ness Gracious arrived soon after so they all changed into clothes more suited to musicians and we played around with trombones. One of them had the mouthpiece missing so in the shot below I asked Jack to shout into it. From then on things got a little insane…

The sun was still shining so we went back outside to shoot more shots with Ness, again they all sat down and I used the 10-20mm and this time asked Angela to point at me. This lens does have a good close focus range and at f3.5 I managed to make the finger sharp and the faces behind burred out. While working with them for the day I noticed how each character interacted with each other. It seemed that Ness' character was more interested in applying her make up than help move the instruments so for the shot below I asked for Angela and Jack to look back at Ness while she looks into her compact.

I really enjoyed working on the collaboration and it was good throwing some ideas into the mix. Of course, I can’t let this go without doing my own twist with things. I used some of the green screenshots to do some simple portrait work.

The Why Not Institute is the UK’s only organisation totally dedicated to contemporary clowning. They are a community, offering resources, developing performance, and nourishing support networks for clowns and others interested in the approach of its founder, Angela de Castro (as well as that of a growing band of collaborators and associates). The Institute is dynamic, shaping and responding to the resurgence in modern clowning, with a special focus on clowning within theatre traditions.

Multifaceted Gem

June 15, 2017 in Photoshoot

Many things can be considered 'hot', people, clothes and of course the large yellow thing in the sky called the Sun. The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star according to Wikipedia. I don't go around name-calling solar bodies but today I had other names for the spherical celestial plasma spewer. It was HOT!!

I met up with Ruby Deshabille, a burlesque performer, whom I had shot a couple of times at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern for Cabaret Roulette. I wanted to shoot some contrasting shots and Ruby had the very thing, a bright metallic type dress that really stood out against everything.

We moved around the area we had selected to shoot in, a small dock area in Haggerston in East London. A few people were walking along the banks enjoying the sun, I often wonder what people think when they see me waving a large lens around. When I'm using the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 I can be a considerable distance from the model.

As you can most probably tell I have been working on these shots with bright light in mind. In each, I have left some element of light or introduced an even greater element to enhance the photos.

You may also notice that Ruby seemed to have more than one version of the dress she was wearing. This was just down to post-processing in Photoshop, targeting the blue dress and changing the hue until I found something I liked.

I especially like the shot below titled 'Stunning in Scarlet'. I read somewhere that a photo can be more interesting if you throw in a splash of red. OK so it is less of a suggestion and more like a slap in the face to all blue dresses in the world but there was enough blue in the shot, to begin with.

Ruby Deshabille is a London-based burlesque performer, actress and pin-up model, you can visit her website at www.rubydeshabille.com

A Shade of Rouge

April 21, 2017 in Photoshoot

I had some time to go and see Briar Rouge recently to do a quick photoshoot. We choose a small local park five minutes from Hitchen station. Hitchen is only thirty minutes from Kings Cross so I was able to view new things from the window like rolling fields and sheep. These sheep were either circus performers or they just liked getting on top of each other for some reason...

Pulled into Hitchen and consulted Google Maps and headed towards the park. The wrong way... oh great start. Arriving at the park I noticed something that Google Maps didn't show me. The cluster of trees I thought were dense turned out to have a fence stopping any further progress. This was fortunate as this would have taken me up to the train lines and a large number of volts to the legs would not be nice.

I received a text from Briar confirming she was on her way so I did a quick look around for viable places. The first thing was a willow tree with a path behind it. This was a good place to start as we would then walk around the edge of the park looking for an area to shoot in.

Briar arrived and we had a quick discussion about the clothes and accessories she had bought with her. Briar was already dressed in a pink chiffon dress and a red hat so we started with that. I like red as its a contrast to most things especially when you are in a large field of green things. I stepped down a few nettles around the tree, one thing you don't want is a model annoyed at you for stepping on a perennial Urtica Dioica. (thanks Wiki). Always look after your model, you want them to smile at you! The sun came out just at the right time for a shot that illuminated the dress.

We moved from location to location, dodging a few dog walkers and managed a few costume changes. I had a three of my lenses with me, the Canon 24-105mm f4, Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 and the Canon 50mm f1.8. All three were used with the 50mm f1.8 used for close up shots of Briar's face, the f4 for medium to close shots and the f2.8 for long-range shots or when I wanted to really blow out the background.

On occasion I do like to take a few candid shots while the model is getting ready, it can show a different side of the shoot.

I allow two hours for a shoot, this allows time for a costume change and enough time to explore the area and utilize as many versions of a shot as you can. Ideas can run out quickly if the area is small too. We wrapped in an hour and a half and parted ways. Throughout the shoot, Briar showed a lot of experience and suggested areas to shoot in and improvised looks and poses while the shutter was clicking away. Cheers Briar hope to work with you again!

Briar Rouge is a singer and burlesque performer, you can find her website here at http://www.briarrouge.com/

Shooting Bambi in the woods

August 29, 2016 in Photoshoot

I contacted Bambi Bang Bang, a burlesque performer who I had taken shots of at a House of Burlesque performance at the Rolling Stock bar. We had met later at Cabaret Roulette a few months later and got chatting about collaborating on a shoot. We met at a park in North London and walked towards a bank of trees. We started off simple with a few poses leaning back against one of the trees. I found that during shoots I tend to ramble on and makes jokes to hopefully make the talent relaxed and comfortable. It worked really well this time as there were many outtakes available!

Moving from the trees we wandered over to a small rise covered in leaves. They were free for the taking, so we used a couple of them for the shot below. Love the eyes in this shot and I must use props more often. Funny thing was we both remarked that they didn't feel like leaves at all.

We moved on from the 'Matrix-glitch' leaves and walked towards the center of the field. I wanted a shot of Bambi lying down looking towards the camera. The shot worked but looking at the shot from the back of the camera which I didn't figure out until post production. When you notice Bambi is not looking directly at the camera then the shot takes on a more sinister tone...ahem..

Moving into the center of the a grove of trees I wanted to try out the Brenizer effect. By zooming in to 105mm I focused on Bambi and took many shots around here to make a panoramic. Zooming in like this compressing the background and provides a short depth of field. The shot came out as I wanted and as I was looking at it an idea came to mind. There always seems to be one shot that stands out from each shoot I do that warrants a bit more attention and work. You can see the result below.

Seriously, even God thinks you're a dick..

It remains to say that this was a fun shoot, full of laughter, jokes and avoiding the odd squashed apple or two.

Thanks Bambi!

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A Ness in Wonderland

July 03, 2016 in Photoshoot

Not having done a shoot in a while I contacted Ness Gracious. I had previously worked with Ness nearly a year ago walking around her local area. This time I wanted to do a set of photos that would tell a story. After confirmation from Ness that she had a selection of summer dresses I thought of trying a 'Alice in Wonderland' style shoot.

We headed towards Stave Hill Ecological Park in Rotherhithe. My backpack was straining as it was carrying the Sigma 70-200mm f2.8. I hadn't used the lens in a while and forgot two things about it. One, the focus speed is sooo fast and Two, it is sooo heavy!

However it did help with compressing the background in the long shot of Ness in the first photo. This was near the base Boot Camp hill a few yards from the Ecological Park. The top of the hill show a fantastic panoramic view. I will be going back to take shots of that view another time.

We moved on, into the Ecological Park and started taking shots of Ness walking around the park. I had ideas of before the shoot of having Ness holding branches back and looking at flowers which worked out well and I was thinking ahead with regards to effects and techniques I could use is post production.

We stopped at a bench next to a pond where Ness took out a book as a prop. From behind us we heared noises that sounded very suspicious. Making a comparativly suspicious comment about the noises made Ness laugh out loud so I quickly snapped off a shot as a memory of the moment. Seconds later a small dog burst from the bushes, he had been playing in a nearby pond. I was still suspicious.

Finally we found a clearing with a large number of purple flowers. While Ness sat down in the grass I moved around finding shots, some directly in front and some with the grass in front to create depth.

Back home and with all the shots in Lightroom I started the culling process. For each 'scene' I had taken a number of shots so I had Lightroom show the group of photos and then remove one at a time until I had the best one left.

The best were moved to a pick folder for further editing.

I enjoyed this shoot, Ness is fun to work with and with a theme to work to meant that I had to think quickly to visualize shots to match the theme. (OK Ness helped with a few).

Thanks to Ness for being available that day!

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Andy Van der Graaf

March 16, 2016 in Photoshoot

Head Shot!

I was contacted by Andy Van der Graaf who was requesting some simple head shots to be taken. I suggested we meet at Canary Wharf station. I had walked around there a few years back and had found it to be very quiet. Multitudes of tourists in the background do not make a good head shot.

I was looking for a neutral background for our head shot and settled on a marble pillar down by the water front.

Some of them were in shadow so I asked Andy to stand in the light rather than the shade. This was a not to hot March afternoon, the sun was past its zenith but was still very strong. After a few shots the sun was was causing Andy to blink a lot! The shot seen here was taken at 1/4000th of a second!

We took a number of shots then retreated from the sun to a nearby pub where Andy (using Adobe Lightroom on my laptop) chose his favourites for processing and delivery.

Good luck with the head shots Andy!

While we were wandering around Canary Wharf we walked through a corridor connecting one street to another. I immediately saw an opportunity for a photo right there, lots of lines receding into the distance! I asked Andy to pose as near to the centre as possible as I knew which type of editing I would be going for.

Good Ness Gracious

January 10, 2016 in Photoshoot

I contacted a performer Ness Gracious, and asked if she was available for a quick shoot? She said she was so I jumped on to the East London Line up to Rotherhithe station. Ness arrived on time and we walked towards the Thames. The weather wasn't on our side so I had earlier suggested Ness brings an umbrella. Turns out we used it as a prop during the times when it was really windy.

While Ness was posing with the North bank of the Thames behind her I could see that where ever I pointed the camera there was always a crane in view! Still I had to set fire to the stunt umbrella that had taken a bit of a beating by the end of the session.

We moved on to a local park where a children's play area and a band stand were made use of. We dodged a couple of squirrels and a friendly dog too. I had spotted a small cafe close to the edge of the park and thought it was nearly time to call it a day. While kicking a few leaves around I asked Ness to gather some up and throw them in the air while I try to capture them in mid flight.

We had a few goes at it as many of the leaves had their own ideas when it came to gravity and decided to get in front of Ness's face. In the end I managed to stitch a few shots together to make one composition. After which we had a cup of tea in the cafe and called it a day.

I learned from this shoot that asking performers to model can be advantage. There are very used to being in the public view so shooting around town is not a problem and, like with Ness, needed very little directing. Roll on Summer, lets do this again!

Miss Whisky Falls

January 10, 2016 in Photoshoot

Back to Balham!

A while back I shot for Sadie Sinner with Mynxie Monroe at the Bedford pub in Balham. This time I was shooting for Yvette Jenkins and Whisky Falls for BurlesqueNylons.co.uk.

This location had me looking around the area to maximize the diversity of shot we could use. I had Whisky draped over a throne, posing against a fireplace and the pub bar as well as upside down on a couch.

We then strolled outside to the underside of a rail bridge close by. The light at this time of day was incredible, allowed me to take some fantastic sharp shots of Whisky against the brickwork of the bridge. Just around the corner from there was a path way which we also used while the sun was setting.

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Mynxie Monroe

January 10, 2016 in Photoshoot

It is not every day that I am asked ‘could you shoot something royal in pub in Balham? There will be a throne and model!’ Hell yeah OK!

I had been contacted by Sadie Sinner, whom I have met at Madam Jo Jo’s, to do a shoot as soon as possible for an event she was hosting later in July.

I asked for a few more details and realized I would need to bring my lights again. This would be my second chance to use my lights in anger as they were last used in Brighton for my shoot with Violet Blaze. They performed well then so I was excited to give them another go.

I arrived early at the Bedford in Balham with time to spare. My contact was the manager of the pub called Scott, who was not in work that day. No matter, I talked to the bar staff and as I could show I was knowledgeable about Scott and the throne I was allowed to go up and check out the area.

The pub hosts music and comedy nights and while I ascended the stairs I could hear some folk music coming from the central auditorium. I wasn’t sure of the exact room I would be shooting in so I wandered around a few rooms. Most were music oriented and some were furnished room with additional bar facilities.

I soon met up with Sadie and we scoped out the room. It was long on one side with windows giving lots of light. We moved a throne from an adjoining room and positioned it across from the windows.

The light wasn’t that great so I broke out the lights only to find there was no power. A quick call downstairs fixed that and we were ready. I had placed my lights to the left and right of the throne. This did off a couple of shadows but the theme was a Gothic/punk/royal/ anarchy shoot so I think they fitted.

Mynxie Monroe, the model arrived and we started the shoot. Sadie knew the kind of look she wanted so she was directing Mynxie instead of myself. This meant I could concentrate of shooting with my Canon 50mm f1.8. I had used this with the Violet Blaze shoot so I wanted to try it again today.

Having the aperture wide open at f.18 meant the depth of field was very narrow. I was trying to focus on Mynxie’s closest eye and as she was sitting still in the throne, the only movement that would spoil the shot would have been mine. Therefore I set the camera to multiple frames to hopefully ensure one will be sharp.

Moving on from the throne there was a great royal couch in the other room. We had Mynxie lounge all over it taking numerous shots. I dragged up one of the lights and placed it close to Mynxie and stood directly behind it. The light whited out her face so I decided to use this shot to try and create a vampire effect after.

Towards the end of the shoot I broke out the Sigma 10-20mm and locked off the camera on my tripod. I directed Mynxie to sit on one side of the couch and I took a shot, I then asked her to move to the other side and another shot was taken. Finally a shot was taken with Mynxie sitting in the leather chair next to the couch. These three shots were blended together later in Photoshop to create a final image.

We packed up the equipment and spent the afternoon looking through the shots on my Nexus 7.

Although it was supposed to be Gothic settingI didn't want any distractions in the shots. There were two pieces of paper on the floor and a mark on the wall. I also removed the end of a light fitting above the throne to clean up the image. I removed a number of scratch marks on the painted walls as well which was ironic as I was soon to put some back.

In Lightroom I have some pre-sets which can make a shot look grungy and… well… horrid. The effect worked on everything including Mynxie! That was not going to work so I threw the shot into Photoshop and added a layer mask to allow Mynxie to show through the grunge.

I then added a couple of textures from the SLR Lounge Texture Pack and added them to the image. The first layer was intended to add scratches around the edge of the image and the second was to add blistered paint to the walls. Layer masks took care of the blistering walls. The other texture had a bright center and a dark outer edge, making this layer as Pass Through reversed this effect, adding scratches to the outside. With both the scratches and blister layers made I was able to use these layers on the other photos, accelerating the editing process.

All the requested shots were delivered in two days and this is the final result with the poster elements added.

Violet Blaze

January 10, 2016 in Photoshoot

Oh lord where do I begin with Violet Blaze? Nutcase... yeah that will do.

I first met Violet Blaze in the Distillers pub in Hammersmith, London. This however was the second time I have seen her perform as I had previously captured her winning performance of Big Mama at Madam Jo Jo's during the Burlesque Idol Final in 2012.

Since then we had had a number of shoots together, all at sunny Brighton in the south of England. OK one was in her bedroom... :-).

In 2015 I also had the pleasure of shooting her wedding to her husband Mike.

Ruth Young

January 10, 2016 in Photoshoot

So a lot of people like rugby then...

'Saturday is rugby day there will be lots of people there.' - Words I wouldn't say i ignored, I just thought a few people playing with odd shaped balls would not hinder me.

WRONG!!! From Clapham Junction to Twickenham I had to let four trains go as they were full of rugby enthusiasts. Had to sit on a small fold down seat once I squeezed onto the next train. My backpack is large and in a packed train it was having a lot of fun getting in people's way. Mostly around the feet and lower back areas.

The first thing I heard once arriving at Twickenham station, was a brass band playing 'Eye of the Tiger' and not one, not two, but three burger bars. I wasn't hungry and I was meeting a friend of mine called Ruth who had agreed to model for me today.

I wanted to put more practice into using my 50mm f1.8 and my Sigma 70-200 and was fed up with just taking shots of the surrounding countryside. Hence having Ruth model for me. We met by the station entrance and walked south towards the Thames. We were soon looking at a very fancy statue in a secluded park, it looked like it was on private land. I wasn't about to boost Ruth over as the one shot I didn't want was one of her impaled on the spiky fence.

We continued on and found a park close to the river. The first thing Ruth spotted was a rope swing and immediately ran to play on it. This was a good start and for the next few minutes we tested out poses and used the surrounding area for backgrounds. Even a robin got involved at one point but flew off as I think he was a bit of a diva.

I had requested the use of a red beret as I thought this would be a great contrast against Ruth's darker hair colour. In the photo above, I had the sun behind Ruth to illuminate the beret and to highlight the shine on her jacket while my pop up flash filled in the shadows from the front.

We continued on, looking to see if it was safe to get closer to the river. There was a patch of earth with a tree on it which sat a little into the river but I wasn't happy with Ruth standing on it so we moved on. It was getting colder by the minute and after a few shots near the pier to Ham I notice that Ruth and myself had started shivering. Thankfully there was a small cafe nearby so we had a cup of tea and I let Ruth view the first set of photos.

We briskly walked to Ruth's abode and tried a few shots in the front garden, As we were about to call it a day a neighbor called Peter opened up a garage he owns close to the front garden and pulled out in a fantastic old Citroen. He noticed us taking photos and suggested we could use it for a few minutes. Well, I was moving before he even finished suggesting it! Peter said he used to use the car for weddings and one year did over 100 weddings with it. Without hesitation Ruth stood by the car and we took a few shots as the light was fading.

I first met Ruth at Madam Jo Jo's while watching and sometime photographing at Cabaret Roulette. She plays a character calledLady Lylith DeHaviland, an Aviatrix Extraordinaire (ish), Host, Singer, Lush and Opiate freak.

Click here for Lady Lylith DeHaviland's Facebook page.

Click here for Cabaret Roulette's Facebook page.