Baby Its Cold Outside

Models can go through a lot of discomfort when producing images with me, perching on obviously uncomfortable posing platforms, and enduring cold conditions as we are often shooting at sunrise which can be the coldest part of the day.

I try to minimise and repay their suffering by shooting extremely quickly, pre-planning the shots as much as possible before the model disrobes, and producing the best possible images I can as an end result.  More recently because of the strange times we are in I have also taken to editing far more images from sets than I have previously done, as it’s a shame to only show one image from a set when a model has put so much effort in..

I’ve produced a new Iceland book with 129 images in it, of which nearly 100 are newly edited images, showing how amazingly productive those trips were. Lulu will obviously be getting a copy of the book, a very small token of my appreciation for all the discomfort she has endured and wonderful poses!

Here’s some of the newly edited images for the book, all from near the well known glacier lagoon in Iceland.

For the first set we spent a very long time watching the waves coming in and seeing which blocks of ice were stable so were suitable for posing on. Then the much shorter shooting time, which is where the fact that I shoot very quickly comes in handy. I also had my trousers unzipped at the knees and was standing in the sea barefoot, and I take my coat off when the models is nude in cold conditions, all of which gave me a very small sense of how cold it was for Lulu.

My mind genuinely boggles at how she is able to do such superb poses against a block of solid ice

The next set was in the glacier lagoon itself. I waded out with my unzipped trousers and monopod to check the depth of the water and how stable that ice block was for posing on. Strangely enough glacial melt water is bl**dy freezing cold.

I really like the reflections of the water on her skin, as well as the ripples in the standing shots.

The last shot was rather easier as Lulu was on land, and so it was “only” the cold air that she had to endure.

The books are now ordered, and winging their way to me. While I have made a large dent in my backlog with the 10 books I have produced while not being able to shoot, Lulu and I will be re-stocking the backlog over the coming years with new images as soon as we are able, but maybe I won’t let it get that large again :) Thank you Lulu for everything.