Ginger La Rouge: Model Shoot

Ginger La Rouge (Victoria) is a burlesque dancer and was after something fun but a little different from the other shots in her portfolio.
Ginger is a lovely person, very bubbly and chatty. The shoot was light hearted and really good fun and this is clearly evident in the shots.

I loved the umbrella shots, they worked really well. I was a bit concerned at first because of the lights reflecting on the plastic umbrella but it didn't really cause a problem.

For a bit more variation and fun in the shots, we tried some different angles and I thought that looking down on Ginger (above) could make the images a bit more interesting and a nice variation.

I knew from our conversations before the shoot, that Ginger really liked duo toned images. So when I processed the shots, I gave her different colour options including the duo toned.

Ginger was really pleased with the shots from the shoot and I would love to work with her again.

All of the other shots and edited variations from the shoot can be seen in the gallery on my website here; GINGER LA ROUGE

Here is Ginger's feedback and testimonial from the shoot;

"Elliye is a fantastic photographer - professional, organised, and lots of fun to work with. She gave great direction and was full of ideas. I felt very at ease with her on the shoot and I couldn't be happier with the finished results! I was also extremely impressed with the quick turnaround. I would recommend working with her to anyone!"

Model: Ginger La Rouge

Make-Up: Ginger La Rouge

Photography & PP: Me

Elena: Fashion Designer Shoot

On Friday I had 2 shoots, so as you can imagine, it was a rather busy day - I didn't even get chance to break for lunch and I was exhausted by the end.

One of the shoots was with Elena Aristotle, a Fashion Designer based in Leeds.
Elena needed some shots of her designs for her portfolio and as it was something different, I thought it would be a good opportunity.

The shoot was fairly straight forward, Elena had decided to model herself and had also arranged a make-up artist.

It sounds like she is doing pretty well with her designs as she has started to receive bulk orders from various shops and is currently designing a new range.

All of the other shots and edited variations from the shoot can be seen in the gallery on my website here; ELENA

Elena's response to the photos was "Oh my god Elliye!!! I'm so impressed, you are amazing. They look so good and the dresses look fab-exactly what I wanted... Thank you again! ...I will tell everyone about how good you are!".

Model & Clothing Designer: Elena Aristotle
Make-Up Artist: Jessie Young
Photography & PP: Me

Run out of developer? Try coffee instead!

I came accross this link in a forum on Flickr to Photojojo.com
The article explains how to develop film using coffee and vitamin C as a substitute for developer.

Quite interesting and worth a read...How To Develop Film Using Coffee & Vitamin C!

There is also a group on Flickr for images that have been developed using this and other homemade substitute techniques: Caffenol

A busy but very good week...

This week has been quite good, although very busy! I've finished the Communication Technology brief (Low Light photography), had 2 model shoots and taken another 2 wedding bookings!

I promised myself that I wouldn't do more than one wedding a month this year due to the volume of work I have from Uni, but I really enjoy it and I just can't say no...besides, I won't take a booking if I know it will cause a conflict between my workloads.

There will be lots of photos to come this year as I have over twice as many bookings than last year for Weddings alone. The majority of the weddings are referrals which is great and I think that speaks volumes about my work and client satisfaction.

Live Brief: Final Project Plans

I have been looking forward to this brief for quite some time now as it gives me the full freedom to do exactly what I want and I have a million and one ideas!

My initial plans were to hold a series of shoots inspired by Tim Walker and Tim Burton, some focusing one one influence and others on both to give more variation with styles and themes with a high fashion, fairytale and classical Gothic twist.
As with any project involving models, the shots would be used by the models themselves for their portfolios making the project 'live'.

I thought about this idea initially last year but I decided that it would be too complicated at the time and that I didn't have enough experience photographing individuals which then became my reasoning for the portraits project.

Having looked in to this idea in some depth now, I really don't think that a wide selection of shoots with these themes will be possible, mainly due to the financial implications.
I have quite thoroughly researched Tim Walkers style including props and locations which are generally very extravagant and expensive. Replicating this for a university project would be far too costly and gaining location permissions can be very difficult. There is also the issue of wardrobe. Without a wardrobe stylist or designer, I would have to source most of the clothing myself either through hire or purchase which again, is more expense that I am not in a position to fund at the moment.

With all this in mind, I may focus on fashion and model photography without set themes to be held both in the studio and on location to gain more experience, allow far more freedom and be a far more viable option. Again, it will be live as the models will be using the images for their portfolios. This will still allow me to do some of the themed shoots that I originally would like to have done and I already know models who would like these sort of images to add to their portfolios.

I will post more details on this project shortly when I have a more precise idea of what I intend to do.

Painting with Light: Sparklers

I think my neighbours were quite confused when they saw me out in the street with my camera set up on the tripod while I was waving sparklers about!

This was quite different as there was so much light from the street lamps so the length of the exposures were quite limited. To enable them to be longer, I used a very small aperture so that less light was let into the exposure. The sparklers were still picked up well as they were so bright.

Above Left: Taken at F.16 exposure 13 seconds, ISO 100
Above Right: Taken at F.8 exposure 6 seconds, ISO 100

Above Left: Taken at F.8 exposure 6 seconds, ISO 100
Above Right: Taken at F.8 exposure 6 seconds, ISO 100

After messing about for a while, I decided to try drawing round something - there isn't much in our street so I used my car.
I have seen this done before in magazines and its quite a cool effect. It was just a shame that it wasn't darker as it would have looked so much better!

Taken at F.16 exposure 25 seconds, ISO 100

Jayne (Model Shoot)

On Friday I had a shoot with Jayne, an agency signed model from Leeds.
Jayne was after some new images for her portfolio to give it a bit more variety so we came up with a few different styles that would add to both of our portfolios.

All of the other shots and edited variations from the shoot can be seen in the gallery on my website here; JAYNE

The shoot went really well and there was a good amount of variety in the final images.
Jayne was really happy with the final shots too - she used the word 'AWSOME' and said that they were just what she wanted.

Model: Jayne Robinson
Styling & Make up by Jayne & Hannah Jowett
Photography & processing by me :)