Lulu Just Fits In

I’m often asked if Lulu and I preplan our shots, as Lulu seems to integrate into the environment so well, and the locations are so interesting. While I would love to recce locations in advance, and work out what the shots are going to be, in reality we just turn up and wing it. I think the spontaneity of arriving at a new location, finding potential compositions, using whatever natural light is available, and usually being under time pressure in case the public arrive, really brings out the creativity in us.

With most of our planned shoots cancelled this year it was good to go through images from existing shoots and find lots of great images that were just dying to be edited.

We found these old pews outside a church in a semi-abandoned village. They gave Lulu loads of opportunities for poses, especially as one of the seats was missing. While I like some of the acrobatic poses she did, this simple natural one works very well and the top of the seats were just at the right level for her arms.

We didn’t know what this thing was, until I posted the image and somebody identified it as a charcoal oven. On this occasion I think the angular pose works very well.

This was inside an old lime kiln, and as I was quite close to Lulu I had to use a fisheye lens. By keeping her in the middle she is not distorted too much, and a big pose does give a slight elongation of her limbs.

In this case we just happened to in the right place at the right time to the minute, as a few minutes later this window was in shade. I think the pose fits perfectly with the shape of the window,

And Celtic crosses up on the moors provide lots of opportunities for stunning poses. 

And they also build cairns in the dales just for Lulu to hang off from!

Another super pose here by Lulu, enhanced by the garment we know fondly as “Tabitha’s Thing”

And dried riverbeds provide really nice framing.

And many doorways are coincidentally Lulu-sized ;)

And finally an image from one of our earlier shoots where this old control panel had plenty of handholds for Lulu to work with.

My job is to find potentially interesting locations, and then when we get there Lulu does her magic with her posing making best use of the environment, and many times it just looks like the location was made for her as she fit’s in so well. The variety and quality of her poses is one of the reasons why I enjoy working with her so much.

One small benefit of the lack of shooting opportunities has been to be able to catch up a bit with my backlog of images, and I look forward to seeing what we can do in 2021 as the outdoor shooting season is now realistically closed now in the UK. I hope you enjoy the images.