While being away this last new year time I managed to go out and get some landscape pictures done with the help of my father. I do not get a lot of opportunities to do this, due to medical reasons so it was nice to indulge. Northamptonshire is not the most dramatic of landscapes (unlike Derbyshire), in fact its nearly as flat as a witches tit, but you can still get some interesting views and I hope I have captured a few here?
Thank you Dad for the day out. Loved it x
We have started the year off with a great showing of new flowers from our friends Chris and the ladies at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours. A lot of white going on this month and viewers may think my eye sight has completely gone when they see blurred pictures. But this is not the case.
I have simply smeared a UV filter on the front of the lens with Vaseline to give it that dreamy effect. Picasso had his 'Blue Period,' so I can have my 'Blurred Period.'
Thanks again then to Chris and the ladies at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours and a mention also to my wife Amy for all her help.
See you all next month.
X
Welcome back to the final blog update of 2022, and how the year has gone fast.
As of writing this blog, Christmas day (or Mariah Carey Day as I like to call it) is past and building up again for the a rival of the new year. I already have some shoots booked in for doing in February when things start to come alive again, as well as some appointments in Clinic 8 … a place where all your dreams do come true and of which I am a frequent flyer! At the start of the month I visited my favourite clinic to have laser done on my left eyeball. I have had it before and it is a drawn out procedure of some Doctor zapping you with his laser gun. This session I was stuck with a young Doctor who thought he was Roy Rogers or Quick on the draw Mcgraw He zapped my into oblivion, shooting from the hip. Now its safe to say I do not like laser any more than I like being at Clinic 8 in general. Laser is up there with root canal, colonoscopy, cervical smears (so I am reliably informed!) and the odious pleasure of having a small camera rammed down your knob! As perceive as it may sound, I actually prefer injections into my eyeballs as I am used to it and it is over very quickly. Unlike laser which is thirty or more minutes of agony and torture.I hate it and recoiled in pain when he would not stop zapping me after I told him it hurt, only then and after I gave him a string of experlatives did he finish inflicting pain on me. Saying that he guessed I did not like the procedure, top marks to that man for working that one out all by himself! So for the new year, my new years resolution will be a simple one …. NO MORE LASER !!! It should not be a hard one to keep.
Collected here on the website and blog are some much better things I have done this month, including getting to work with the lovely Mercybongo model She was a real treat and we got some great stuff to finish the year off with. I will be back in the studio come February 1st, for a second shoot I have planned with model Aasiya Azeemali. So roll on February.
Thanks then to Phil Lynam at the Boardroom Studio for his help. To Shadrine at Kavour Beauty for all her makeup work. To Chris and the ladies at Flowers To Yours and the Brambles Florist. A special thanks to my long suffering wife Amy, and to you all seasons greetings
.Enjoy the blog.
Instagram is a great resource for watching people create images and I am taken by how many are helpful enough to show you how to do product photography. Its just a pity that the majority of Instagram is 'bots' trying to defraud you out of money with Bitcoins, or asking you to look at semi nude photos of women and all the other bullshit.
I hope you enjoy the New commercial stuff.
Just a few digital art special I made from six of the images featuring Mercybongo at our recent shoot. They are a mixture of flowers and model, I do mean to get back to doing a bit more digital art as I had been doing when Covid came along, but its getting inspired to do it. Maybe in the new year?
Model: Various
Music: 'Somewhere over the rainbow'
– Israel Kamakawiwoʻole
Model: Mercybongo
Music: Cuff It - Beyoncé
I finished of the year in the studio with a truly great model who is reasonably local to me and happy to have weird ideas run past her for shoots. Mercybongo is a lovely African lady who put herself to out of the way the day before the shoot and have her hair specially braided at Shadrines Beauty Salon This help enormously as on the day Shadrine could weave small pieces of rope into her hair.
Mercy was a pleasure to work with and we already have plans lined up for more shoots in the new year so I can not wait. The big rope was supplied by Phil Lynam at the excellent Boardroom Studio, so a big shout to him. As well as a thank you to both Mercy and at Kavour Beauty.
Here is another new project I have started and its one that litreages me. I have already touched on it a bit in other projects, but here is its own folder. Abstract or Abstractism is something I am drawn to because I like symmetric patterns it can throw up. Featured here are some random stuff to start with like a radiator, some silk cloth and a weird designed building in town, now sadly vacant.
Music: 'Cornfield Chase' – Hans Zimmer
Music: 'Together' – Austin Farwell
Why not finish the year on a high with some pictures of flowers, not quite seasonal enough for some, but I am immensely happy with them. Its been a great year for flower photographing with help of course from Chris and the ladies at Flowers To Yours and the Brambles Florist. If you haven't seen the highlights sideshow above please do so. You will not be disappointed. So a big thanks to all at Brambles and a special thanks also to my wife Amy who helps me with everything these days.
Seasons greetings and see you all again in 2023 x
Welcome back to my little corner of the web.
This last month has been a busy one with two fashion shoots under my belt and a new phone to sort out!
I had the distinct pleasure of working with a lovely new Muslim model who is local to me named Aasiya. The weather was with us on the day and we took some snaps around town. I was pleasantly surprised with her and am looking forward to hopefully working with her again early in the new year and beyond. I also managed to fit in my old friend and champion boxer, the undefeated Nicolie Campbell (aka 'Pretty Boy Assassin') at the studio for his seventh shoot together. He just keeps getting better and is a genuinely nice and decent man. Which leads me on to my mobile phone …
A week or so ago I picked up my charged up Alcatel mobile phone to make a call and the damn thing fell in half in my hands. Just fell in two. I had not previously gone caveman on it or sent it into orbit around the room, so all I can think of is that it was just a cheap jack pile of pantihose waste! (I only got the thing because it was cheap and simple, calls and text only. For a truth be told, these new all singing and dancing smart phones have a way of intimidating me) On top of which if that was not bad enough, this came after the previous week when somehow I managed to drop my brand new Nikon D850 camera into the vegetable soup that Amy had just served up. I could not have made this up if I planned to ! But I must say that it added nothing to the taste of ASDA's own vegetable soup, nor put me off eating it. So no harm done there then.
So all in all it has been a memorable month (Amy did a sterling job in cleaning the soup off the camera with no harm done). I hope you enjoy this months collection of pictures and don't forget to come back next month in the festive season, or Mariah Carey season as I like to think of it.
x
My wife has a habit of bringing home bits and bobs she finds on her journeys. They could be interesting stuff that she finds in charity shops like vases, which always come in handy or twigs with dried up leaves on them. She recently found on sale this ceramic candle holders that looked a bit like the faces from Easter Island with a view to taking there pictures. So now you know what I am doing this weekend? But last month she brought home a darkened wet twig that was all gnarled and had some ripe crimson red berries on it. You would not give it a second glance if you see it on the pavement, but Amy noticed it and we took some pictures of it. I added a frosty look in Photoshop to the three images and this is what the results look like. Thank you to Amy and enjoy this months Still Life / Fine Art?
Model: Nicolie Campbell
Music: 'Paint It Black' – The Rolling Stones
I hooked up with champion boxer, Nicolie Campbell for our seventh shoot together and he was looking good after his recent fight. We were at The Boardroom Studio and used nearly all natural light for this session to some great results. He never fails to take a bad picture and always looks good. There are plans now to do a 'Tribal' look shoot next year before his next fight. So I am looking forward to that and will have to do my home work to think on some ideas and concepts.
Please enjoy the pictures?
Model: Aasiya Azeemali
Music: 'Hypnotized' – Fleetwood Mac
Aasiya is a new model to me who contacted me through Instagram. A point to add here is that she is the first model to contact me through this platform that was an actual human and not a BOT created by a computer or a scammer in anyway, which makes a refreshing change on top of which she was lovely. She arranged to meet up with me and brought her Mum with her and we went out shooting in a few locations in town. Aasiya is a Muslim model and a hijab wearer, which was another first for me and we got some great pictures together.
I have asked if Aasiya would like to be my first model back in a February shoot next year at The Boardroom Studio on Derby with Shadrine my makeup artist from Kavour Beauty? She has agreed, so all looks good to go on that front.
I hope you enjoy our work together?
I have added a few more this month from the flowers selection we got from the Brambles Florist to the Lujon Fressoniue gallery. I know this is not to every ones taste as the images are rather dark, but I will go with it some more as I like the outcome. In December I have the added bonus of some fashion shoot extras that I shall be taking in the studio as well as the flowers. So don't miss that.
I am really pleased with this months flower gallery, the Brambles Florist staff came up with an even greater selection of flowers this month. A dried thorn plant that photographed wonderfully and a deep red gerbera. Now I know I have done gerberas before on many occasions but this was a double gerbera and a beautiful deep red. Amy placed it against a deep green background and it worked out with the opposite colour theory. Have a look at this months selection and see. So thanks as always to Chris at Flowers To Yours and his staff at the Brambles Florist for their help. Not forgetting a mention to Amy for all of her assistance.
See you all next month for a festive season offering. X
