My Kind of Models!

It would seem that I’m very predictable, models have been told “You should work with Tim, as you’re his kind of model”. There is a type of model that I like to work with, but it’s rather more based on their approach to creating images, rather than some identikit physical appearance that the person making the statement was likely implying.

I love working with creative people, be they photographers or models, so when you find one who is both it is extra special. I first came across the intriguing Stephanie Pearl just over 2 years ago, I loved her conceptual imagery which is so different from my images, which are more about shapes and form rather than narrative. I then found out she was a model, so thought I would like to work with her in both capacities. Sadly like many of these things we made contact and agreed we would like to do something together, and then as often happens with these things nothing came of it as I forgot about it.

Fast forward to around 8 months ago, and I rediscovered her work, but this time we made a concerted effort and arranged something. We arranged to work together as photographers first, and selected the super Amanita Storm as the model. We had one slight change of shoot date as Amanita announced she was pregnant, and we decided to wait until she had a nice big bump. We both got some great images, and I was really interested to see the way in which Stephanie worked, her images take a lot of pre-visualisation before the shoot, and post-processing afterwards.

I’ve only processed one image of Amanita so far, but I love the light, shape and textures in this one, and especially how her bump matches the dip in the beam.

Then a few months ago I got to work with Stephanie as a model. On the morning of the shoot she found a dead fox cub, and messaged asked whether I’d be willing to shoot her with it, and also help her do a shot with it with one of her conceptual images. It was probably one of the strangest props I’ve ever used, and here’s the image we produced that is more in my style. I look forward to seeing Stephanie’s image which I helped out with.

Some of the models I work with produce quite acrobatic and interesting poses. From seeing her previous work as a model I wasn’t expecting any of that, until she suddenly started climbing up this doorway producing a pretty perfect Isle Of Man ‘Manx’ pose! That’s takes a lot of strength and imagination.

We finished the day on the beach, or at least a rock pavement. This image was her idea, and interestingly this mid-pose image looked quite interesting to both of us.

And then we tried some shots with the super parachute dress from Alice Andrews Designs. As I found out these dresses are rather more difficult to photograph than I first thought, then we got too close to some water and the dress got wet which made it much less able to billow. After getting as much water out as we could we found a big rock for her to stand on, and she did a great job of draping it so that it  looked like she was a giant :)

And normally that would be the end of the blog post, but Stephanie has kindly given me permission to show some of the wonderful images she has produced of Amanita (All of these images are copyright Stephanie Pearl). I love the dreamy effect in this one, and I think I was just out of shot throwing the feathers in the air.

As Amanita was pregnant Stephanie’s idea included a piece of red string standing in as an umbilical cord, and also me out of shot throwing some more string!

And the final one has some airborne red flowers, along with the umbilical.

Although our work is so different, I love Stephanie’s imagery and her imagination, and it’s very pleasing that she love’s my work as well. It’s great working with another passionate creative,  and I’m sure we’ll be working together again.

Many thanks to Amantia and Stephanie for such a wonderful creative time, both of them ‘my type of model’!