Last October I applied for an ARPS distinction from the Royal Photographic Society. I missed the deadline for posting the panel of prints to them, so I had to drive down to Bath to hand them in on the morning of the adjudication, which also meant I had to take the day off work. Not wanting to waste my day off work I decided to arrange a shoot, and as I had quite a few locations in mind I made it two days long.
For the model I chose Holly, although we have worked together on numerous occasions we always manage to get different shots each time, and I genuinely think that Holly enjoys the challenge of having to come up with something new every time she works with me. She always wants to make sure that at the end of the shoot I am happy with the results, and that I felt it was worthwhile booking her (again!) – well Holly, you’ve managed that so far for the last three years :)
On the morning of the Wednesday of my ARPS assessment we had a great shoot in an old abandoned fort and then mid-afternoon we headed of to Rhossili where we intended doing a sunset shot on the beach. Unfortunately the wonderful Welsh weather ensured that there was going to be no sun to be seen. So while I was very happy with what he had already produced that day, I thought we wouldn’t get any more shots that day and we headed off to the B&B we would be staying at. When I shoot location work I know and accept the risks with the weather, but they are balanced with the rewards of great location images when you do have good light.
I had chosen a surfer’s B&B to stay in, as Rhossili is a well known surfers beach, so the B&B was very close to the beach, plus as surfers are not known for spending that much money it wasn’t that expensive to stay there. This is where luck and having a great model comes into play. As it was a surfer’s B&B all the rooms were really colourful, and while some models may have been happy to be having time off because of the poor weather Holly was determined that we were going to get some more pictures that day, so at her suggestion we shot in her bedroom, my bedroom and my bathroom, and here’s a few images I am really pleased with.
To start with in Holly’s bedroom some of my now rather familiar ‘above’ shots – camera dangles precariously above model on tripod, who wonders whether it’s going to fall on her! – I think these work well because of the colour of the bedspread and the colours of the bits of material that one of us had bought along. I have also tried some various post-processing techniques to try to convey different moods.
Next one in my bathroom which had really a interesting floor and curtains, I think the soft light coming in through the window moulds her body wonderfully.
The rooms were not huge, and for the above shots the camera was not a great distance above her, so a wide angle lens was generally used and care had to be taken to ensure that most of Holly’s torso and limbs were in the same plane, otherwise limbs closer to the camera can looked markedly out of proportion to the rest of the body.
Finally a simple portrait of Holly without too much fiddling about done on it at all. There are a number of technical faults with it, but I just like it because it brings back good memories of our trip, and really in the end if I like it that’s all that matters.
I did pass my ARPS as you can see in a previous blog post, and we produced some super location images during our shoot as you will see in future posts. So a big thank you again to Holly, you do really work hard and push me that extra mile for which I am very grateful :)
4 Comments
That are some very lovely shots Tim. I do love the colours and the way Holly has draped herself in the bedcover. Waiting for the other photos.
Thanks for the comment, I have a slight problem with the images from the main event of this blog post, and similarly from the Portugal shoot. There are just SO MANY great images I just dread going through them, I need another bank holiday or two :)
I love those first shots in the purple fabric especially Tim, it was a fab little place! Thank you for the lovely blog… it was great we could make the most of all the locations :-)
You two are a good combination. There is always something new and fresh to see.