Early on in the year, I had the opportunity to work with the wonderful Peggy Soo for both my tattoo project and Zivity.

From her portfolio, I already knew she had a range of exquisite tattoos but she also brought along the most wonderful wardrobe selection!

From this 50′s inspired outfit:

To a beautiful black dress and vintage lingerie combimnation:

To her bullet bra and tights:

And definitely not least, the beautiful tattoos I mentioned before!

A great shoot and it was a great way to kick off 2011! If you want to see more of this incredible model; find her on Facebook!

• Independent Designers and their workspaces
• Fashion Retail
• Independent Boutiques
• Street Fashion
• Textile Industries
• Independent Craft Fairs
• Fashion Recycling/ Charity Shops
• Shopping Culture
• Beauty Industries
• Fashion Shows and Trade shows
• Fashion Related Advertising (Billboards, shop windows, etc)

Model: Karley

In the not too distant past, I had the pleasure of working with Karley as a client. More recently, I had the even greater pleasure working with her again on a test shoot as a model!

Already I knew Karley had a natural affinity for being in front of the camera. With the help of Terri Wood doing hair, we certainly took advantage of this and came out with a variety of results!

From a dishevelled wedding dress, to a cut up pair of fishnet stockings, to a lacy vintage dress nicked from a wardrobe I have full of randomeness, to a pair of novelty underwear; we were working with a few concepts from Karley herself, a few from me and some made up on the spot we made a quite eventful few hours with a selection of work I’m more than proud of to show off here!

It’s always nice to work in a room full of creative people! That always helps to ensure that the results are so much more than the batch-processed assembly line standard of photography so abundant today and always so much fun!!

Thanks for reading!

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of adding a new face to my portfolio. The model: Sophie Larissa Vice.

Sophie has a gorgeous and unique look perfectly suited to the direction I’m trying to take my portfolio, which is a darker, moodier side of high fashion.

We had a range of outfits to play around with and throughout the afternoon we managed quite a sets in various styles.

All in all, another great shoot with plenty of results to add to my portfolio!

Thanks for reading!

Last week, I had the rather unequivocal experience of working with Medium Format film for the first time. This is something I’ve dreamed of for years. When I found out I would have the Mamiya 645, I immediately started asking around for willing guinea pigs who would allow me to experiment and play around.

With Rudigo returning to Sheffield after the summer, it turns out I couldn’t have picked a better time. She volunteered and our 7th collaborative shoot very quickly followed suit.

I wanted to make the absolute most of the huge amount of detail possible in the huge negatives so I had a few concepts prepared. One involving sand and another involving charcoal. Time constraints prevented us shooting the charcoal, but we’ve already agreed that will be getting done soon! The sand; however, provided exactly what I wanted it to. Texture. Lots and lots of texture. Hopefully, once I have the rolls developed the grains of sand will do exactly what they’re meant to and pop straight out of the print in vivid, grainy detail. Of course, I still shot digitally alongside the analogue film, so here’s a peek at what I should see once they’ve been processed!

For another set, there has been a lighting technique I’ve been looking to run through its paces for a while. Put simply, it involves reflecting a ton of light off a huge surface and then back onto the subject. It worked and absolute treat. Bright, smooth and creamy skin tones with plenty of contrast in tact were exactly what I was looking for!

Of course, this being Rudigo, she had a big bag of tricks and plenty of ideas of her own. Since this shoot carried on straight after another, I borrowed my lighting set-up from that one and carried on playin with flare, trying to break as many photographic rules as possible in one day! Cue Rudigo pulling out a tartan jacket that I promptly asked her to wear backwards.

And a long-sleeved white shirt perfect for the ethereal lighting!

All in all it was a day of experimentation and playing around with lots of stuff for us both to add to our portfolios and of course it was a good few hours of laughs and flowing creativity as it always is with Rudigo! Another amazing shoot, another amazing day!!

A Personal Collection: Of Vivienne Westwood Shoes is an exhibition currently on show at the @Gallery at the Barnsley Civic. This show is an absolute must for anyone remotely interested in fashion and of course shoes. Everyone of the eighty plus pairs of shoes on display is a masterpiece in itself! The collection itself, spans several decades of the designer’s illustrious career! From seemingly simple black heels with auspicious spikes potruding from the rear to the infamous, incredibly high platforms that saw Naomi Campbell spilled on a Paris catwalk, there is certainly something on display to catch the interest of everyone.

The exhibition is a testament to all the talent that not only went into the shoes, but into the exhibition. Having seen the gallery many times, it has been completely transformed into an atmospheric temple to the footwear on display. The moody lighting, the photographs, the quotes on display and the video all stand to direct attention and emphasise the shoes themselves and each exquisite pair commands just as much attention as the rest! No small feat considering the sheer amount on display.  This exhibition is clearly a labour of love by the entire team at the Civic and even though I was involved in early stages, I can assure you the exhibit screams triumphantly of the work put into it!

I had the immense pleasure and honour of working to create the photographs for the publicity material for this exhibition and I must say, every pair of shoes I got to photograph is a wonder! Though I was working under the close and astute art direction of David Sinclair, the mastermind behind the exhibit, I was still granted enough creative freedom as to photograph the shoes as they spoke to me! I must say that the several months I put into this material are by far some of the most rewarding and genuinely satisfying that I have had yet! Though I won’t go into details about the work put into it in this post, I must reiterate the honour of being granted such a dream job!

The exhibition has been on display since May and only has a week left on show as it finishes this Saturday, the 17th of July! If it strikes your fancy, I wholly recommend paying a visit to the Civic before it finishes to take in this breathtaking display!

Also, The Civic have created a limited edition run of postcards to accompany the exhibition. The high quality set features ten of the images I created for the exhibit including the four above. If you’d like a set of these postcards but cannot make it to the exhibit, please let me know via the contact forms on the site and I can arrange a set for you. The set is £5 plus P&P.

I’m going to take great pleasure in introducing, to you, the wonderful talent that is Integra Fairbrook (formerly Sir Integra).

I first worked with Lauren over two years ago when she was first starting out. Even then, I could only applaud her charisma, her energy and her huge personality that helped to bring the images to life. Some of these are still favourites in my portfolio!

Since then, we’ve worked together on numerous occasions on all manner of projects. From fashion and beauty, to body paint, to parts modelling for the Vivienne Westwood exhibit at the Barnsley Civic, to my tattoo project, to latex; Lauren is always extremely versatile and always ready to tackle whatever the challenges head on.

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Most recently, Raychel Perks of Raynbow Studio has been working extremely hard to bring together a charity event called the Jean Genie (more information about this on the way!). Lauren, or rather Integra Fairbrook, donated her time to be the face of this charity competition and in the end, yet again proved why both Raychel and myself hold her in such high regard!

Whether you’re a photographer, or a business owner or anyone else that might need a model: book Integra Fairbrook. She never disappoints and if nothing else you’ll just be glad to have met such a lovely, wonderful person at the end of the day. Contact her through Model Mayhem or “like” her on Facebook! She’s not one to be overlooked!

A photographic portrait is a great many things to many different people but most importantly a portrait is an everlasting representation of you the moment it was taken. A sort of time capsule, if you will. Portraits evoke memories and emotions. A portrait can bring back the times of joyous youth or they can remind you of your personality and how you looked and the way you dressed in times past, though I’m sure not all people enjoy that aspect. A portrait is a memento that should be carried with you through the rest of your life to ignite and carry on the legacy that you’re building now. Amongst all this: a portrait is for life!

Our daily lives have been full of photographic portraits since their inception. Just think of how proud parents adorn the walls with their cherished children, grandparents build photographic shrines to their families, loved ones carry portraits of they’re loved ones everywhere they go, hard working breadwinners display they’re family on their desks as they pay the bills and social media ensures the first thing anyone new sees of you is a portrait. Portraits are the now!

Picture this: It’s thirty years from now on a rainy day. An impulse leads you to start dredging through all the old boxes you’ve set aside for such an occasion. You come across a pile of prints. All of which are portraits from different times in your life. Imagine remembering your life now. What do you see? What do you remember? How does it feel? Everyone, is of course, different; however, the catalyst for all of those emotions is a  portrait. An imprint of times past that can revitalise dormant memories at any time.

Now, the only caveat is that not all portraits last forever. There are the images you never want to see again. These portraits are often full of bad haircuts and fashion faux pas’. Think back to your school portraits. Does anyone keep those? Does anyone dare actually ever look at them? Society has tricked us into believing that the reason we hate the school portraits is because of ourselves. In actuality, it’s because they’re bad portraits and bad photography. Just think back to them for a moment and you’ll remember the long queues of hundreds or thousands of students standing in the photographic “assembly line” waiting to sit down for 30 seconds each under the same lighting set up with the same horrible mottled background. It was neither a fun experience nor was any effort put in to make a good portrait of you the subject.

Sadly, the trend of late in portrait studios across the world has been exactly this. Portraiture nowadays seems relegated to a single lighting set up for all subjects despite the common knowledge that there is no single lighting method that is flattering to everyone. It’s undermined by trends and fads spurred by technology. For example, can you honestly tell me that in 20 years time, you won’t cringe at the black and white photo with your eyes or a bunch of roses in colour that epitomises the late nineties and early noughties? Digital technology has allowed for the “machine gunning” of images and thus, far too many “photographers” make their selling point quantity where there is no quality. Portraiture in a lot of “portrait studios” is no longer about photography. It’s no longer about memories. It’s only manufacturing. these “portrait factories” will churn out thousands of low quality, heartless images a day with no care for the significance a portrait can hold in someone’s life. The defining factor that many people use these “portrait factories” is usually cost. All I can say to that is that old adages are old adages for a reason: you get what you pay for.

When I provide my portrait services, every session is unique. The lighting is styled and tailored to each individual in order to catch you, the subject, at your very best. Each image is carefully and painstakingly retouched to bring out the very best. Each single image is a relic, a memory, an emotion that means as much to me as the creator as it does you the subject. To me, every image is personal and lacklustre portraits do nothing but reflect on me the creator. I believe in quality and I believe in the everlasting.

Every once in a while, an opportunity comes along that’s just irresistable. This opportunity came over a year ago when Raychel Perks of Raynbow Studio expressed to me her interest in trying some bodypaint. The experience was incredible, to say the absolute least, for everyone involved! The whole day was exciting and new and the results were just breathtaking. Of course, on the heels of such success, we absolutely had to do it again and then again and then yet again! This collaborative relationship between Raychel and I has not only made for an incredible collection of imagery but it’s built the foundation for a lot of great things to come.

Here’s a brief outline of some of the bodypaint specific work we’ve done since then.

The very first bodypaint session we did, involved a pair of concepts based around a Native American theme with Alexandra :

As well as a Cleopatra theme:

During our second session Raychel completely improvised an idea I had with ivy and then proceeded to turn Integra Fairbrook into a statue!

Our third bodypaint session with Rudigo saw Raychel take an aboriginal starting point and with a few twists and turns mould it into her own!

More recently, Raychel, again working with Integra Fairbrook, had the urge to convert her into a Na’vi from “Avatar”.

Very shortly after the Avatar incident, Raychel really wanted to try some UV bodypaint. We talked Madison Flint into the task and I must say it was rather spectacular to see in person!

Most recently, Kittiwake showed up for her bodypaint session with Ladybird fingernail polish! Some people might have considered that a mistake, considering the proximity of Raychel’s red paint!

In the end, over the past several months, we have immensely enjoyed making these images and I personally hope for a lot more to come. Though this post has focused on bodypaint, Raychel has done make-up on many occasions as well, but that might be a topic for another day!

What happens when you have 23 people taking a phot0 a day every day for 365? Well, you have the “NiceSmileSir” project!

Nice Smile Sir - Day 1

Personally, I have always been a bit frightened of the prospect of “365″ projects, but the idea of having 22 other people togo through it with convinced me! So here we are, already, on Day 12 and most everything seems to be going strong!

Nice Smile Sir - Day 6 - Violaceous Latex

The worst part of these sorts of projects is one of those tiny, niggling fears that makes you wonder if you can actually go through with it. However, the beauty of them and the ones undertaken by groups in particular is the sheer randomness that results! Don’t know what I’m saying? Just have a look at the Nice Smile Sir site! Like I said, it’s Day 12 and there’s already a huge assortment and variety ranging from completely random to the immaculately concieved. Colourful and dull. Just looking at the site, without clicking through to Flickr for the individual reveals, to me anyway, a wondrous menagerie of images!!

Nice Smile Sir - Day 10

Enough muttering and rambling! I do encourage you to bookmark the site and check back on the project at least every once in a while! I think even by the end of the first month, this project is going to have bloomed into something rather spectacular!