Fashion Photography Workshop

So Friday saw us hosting our first location Fashion Photography Workshop at Bede’s World in Jarrow. We enlisted the help of some of our favourite models to ensure that our attendees experienced some of the best models that the North East has to offer.

We literally shot from 10.30 through to 5pm and I for one was exhausted at the end. Steph O’Neill our hairstylist and Make up Artist Holy Moulden produced awesome looks with some clothing from Chic Unique.

Here are a few images from the day along with some diagrams on the lighting we used.

Portfolio Shoot – Lucy

Solar Eclipse

15 years ago, during the last Solar Eclipse, I was still at school as a 13 year old!!

This time I was pretty hyped up about it. I had an idea in my head to capture the eclipse as part of a stunning Fashion Portrait using dramatic lighting. So that’s what we headed out to do. Assisted by my friend Stephen and with model Faye Winstone all ready to go, we travelled up to Chester Le Street Park. I remember shooting a family portrait session there in 2012 and I remember this awesome leaning tree that would look great in the image.

If anyone from this part of the world was watching the eclipse, it was a bit of an anti climax in that the cloud cover pretty much blocked most of it out. We had literally given up hope of even seeing the sun through the clouds and started shooting in the opposite direction.

We did manage, during a break in the clouds, just two frames with the eclipse in. The first was a misfire on the flash and the second one (bottom image) nailed it with a little smile at the bottom of the sun.

We shot a few more frames while we were there, but I got the shot I wanted…..

Ashley & Costa Studio Night

So it started with a concept of a shoot I seen where Beyonce worked with Vogue and an idea for a background that I had seen where Brett Harkness created a backdrop in his home studio  and I wanted to pair the two of them together….I knew the exact model who  could pull of this look and a great creative team to bring it together.

 

I started by constructing a frame out of 3×2″ CLS timber mounted on the back of some 12mm MDF sheets to give it some rigidity. I filled all of the holes and gave it a primer in some grey paint I had spare so that the “Cement” could key to it. I used Rapid set tile adhesive as the “cement” and boy was it rapid! I literally got one side of the panel done and the adhesive starting setting in the tub I had mixed it in, so it has a tough task to get it on the wall and for it to spread fairly evenly. I used some spare flooring from the kitchen and bathroom to give the area a base.

 

 

This shoot was part of a creative evening I was hosting at the studio , so we had another ten photographers attending and using the set ups we had. Ashley (our model) was perfect for this set up and style…. enough talking here are a couple of headline shots…

 

In terms of lighting, for the standing shots, these were lit by a strip softbox over Ashley’s left shoulder directed towards the wall, and a beauty dish off to the left of the camera to provide fill light. See the diagram below;

We also had the very cool and crisp Costa as part of this session…

 

A massive thanks to everyone who came along for this shoot but most of all the creative team who turned my vision into reality…

 

Model – Ashley Robertson

Model – Costa Toulis

MUA – Laura Lou

Stylist – Steph O’Neill

 

Influx Clothing

So we’ve been working with the very talented Riley of Influx Clothing recently to capture some of his amazing designs. Over a couple of different shoots we captured a range of images that will be used on Social Media and in Magazines around the Country…here is a taste of what you can expect from Influx….

You can find all of these designs and loads more over on their website http://influxclothinguk.bigcartel.com

1940’s Headshot Series…

So recently I got together with the very talented model Sarah and worked again with the awesome Laura Lou Make Up Artist  to create something a bit different. I had a vision in my head that I wanted to tell a story of a 1940’s female going through the emotions of getting ready for a night out and then right through to having an argument and being quite upset but shooting purely as head shots. To be honest I thought I gave Sarah a very tough gig with this one, god knows I wouldn’t be able to convey all of these emotions while sitting in exactly the same place….

So I wanted to channel a little bit of Emma Stone in Gangster squad with this, while letting Sarah do her thing! I think she nailed each look amazingly….

 

We also created a little video while shooting this one….

 

 

June Studio Night – Dee Dixon Headline

“The biggest part of making a mistake is learning from it..”

So this rang true very much so for me on June 10th when I hosted the first creative studio night in my new studio in Hebburn when the post code I believed was that of the studio actually led all of our attendees into a residential cul-de-sac about 1/2 mile away…Safe to say I won’t supply that post code again.

Apart from that somewhat ropey start I was delighted with the turn out to this event. A real mix of talent and abilities turned out and everyone left with some amazing images of our models….that is except me. I was too busy trying to entertain and mingle that I took very few images of our guests and even fewer of the photographers strutting their stuff. Again- I will not make this mistake again….

Here are a couple of behind the scenes images and what we actually created on the night… and a couple of diagrams showing how we created them…

Fun with Colour

So we teamed up with the epic Stephanie O’Neill (stylist) for the second time in a week to create something really funky. The awesome makeup was delivered by Laura Lou with the theme of colour in mind. Helen really rocked this shoot with a few totally different looks while sitting in the same spot for a few hours…

Portfolio Shoot – Dominic

Beleive it or not, this is the first time this young man has been in front of the camera. He rocked his first shoot, very confident, very cool and very driven on a future in fashion! Here are a few shots form the set including some with the awesome Influx Clothing Tee.

Portfolio Shoot- Sabrina- Sneak Peek

So Sabrina and I got together in Middlesborugh town centre for a quick shoot which she absolutely nailed with a number of different looks in 40 minutes! Here is a sneak peek from the set…