Wot, no beaches!

I don’t shoot outdoors during the colder, darker months, so it’s usually time for editing or the odd indoor shoot. However, this year I was fortunate to go away with the very special Lulu Lockhart to somewhere warm in the Canary Islands.

I have never been to anywhere in the Canaries before, but had seen plenty of shots from other photographers taken there, and I vaguely knew that some of the islands had been volcanic so I expected some nice rock formations.

Whenever Lulu and I visit anywhere we try to get images that you would recognise as being from the area we were shooting in, and many people mentioned long sandy beaches when I told them where we were going. We didn’t get any time to visit a beach, but hopefully you’ll like the variety of images we did produce.

As an aside I am shooting a lot more this year, and I am looking for a model for a trip to somewhere nice in Europe in October. If you’re an experienced location model and are interested then please contact me.

I usually try and book somewhere to stay that we can shoot at, and this traditional Canarian villa was ideal, as was Lulu’s pose.

We also shot at some other traditional villas, with lovely textures and great early morning light.

And this one shows a villa as well as the beautiful background, and again that lovely light.

Palm trees are also iconic, so we had to do a quirky shot with a huge specimen we found.

I got a lovely white long material dress thing from the talented and kind Tabitha Boydell, and Lulu thought it would go perfectly here, and I think she was right – she usually is ;)

As well as that dress we also tried the super parachute dress from Alice Andrews Designs.

There are many volcanoes in the Canaries, so here’s one from a cave that is actually inside the cinder cone of this particular one.

Here’s a couple of Lulu on some rather sharp and uncomfortable lava inside a volcano with an interesting backdrop.

And the geologists among my friend can probably better explain what’s going on in this dried riverbed. I love how the rock colours match Lulu’s skin and hair.

We never did get to a beach, but there were some awesome dunes that we felt were much better, enhanced further by the beautiful light from the setting sun.

Many thanks to Lulu for all the amazing times we have together and great images we produce, and I can’t wait for all the other adventures we have booked this year.