Nausicaa – fishnets and leather
A chance came up to work with Nausicaa at the Boardroom studio in Derby. A cool studio location to work in.
Elena aka Nausicaa is based in Central London so when I spotted that she was going to be in Derby, I arranged to work with her. We had a productive shoot and below are a set of images from the first setup.
The lighting set up I chose was a single constant light which I reflected back towards the model with three mirrors. Which gave interesting light pattern shadows behind the model.
As I was shooting in monochrome. The styling of this set Elena chose the fishnets and a black body to go with the leather jacket. Hence the title fishnets and leather.
- Camera : Fujifilm GFX 50S II
- Lens: Fujifilm GF110mmF2 R LM WR
- Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec,
- Aperture: f-2.8 / ISO 400,
- Lighting – reflected light
Pippa Doll-White shirt White light-(NSFW)
This set of images features the model Pippa Doll. They were taken at my studio just using natural window light. The main light was high key and was coming from behind the model and was flooding the area. I placed a couple of white reflectors either side of Pippa to reflect the light back to her figure. A really simple setup which gave good high key image results.
- Model: PippaDoll
- Lighting: High Key back lighting
- Camera: EOS 5D Mark IV
- Lens: EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
- Focal lenght: 125mm
- Aperture: F2.8
- Shutter speed: 1/40 sec
- ISO: 100
- Outfits: Men’s white shirt
The camera was set on a tripod as I was using a slow shutter speed, so it needed to be supported.
Processed in Photoshop with a slight white toning added to give a slightly warmer feel to the mood
I have worked with Pippa Doll a number of times as she is also a dancer and you can see some of the freeform shapes I caputred when working with her as a dancer by clicking on this link
20 in 2020
2020 a challenging year
Well, what a different and challenging year 2020 has been.
None of us have been unaffected in some way by this global pandemic. Little did we know what was coming in the early part of the year. Shoots and travel were booked and then slowly they were all cancelled as the lockdown came into being across the world.
For all creatives this has been an incredibly challenging time.
Fortunately some enterprising people saw an opportunity to use technology and the web to enable remote shooting and thus image making could take place. With me at home and the models in another part of the world, this was a way to keep producing images during the periods of lockdown.
This certainly enabled me to work with creatives in other countries which would not have been possible in normal times. A few of the images selected here were shot remotely with models/dancers as far away as Denmark. When the restrictions eased mid year, some social distance studio work did take place.
I think I have learnt a little bit about myself during this time. I am more interested in the engagement with people and creatives, then the popularity of my photographs. If people like my work then that is fine, but I am not interested in creating images to be popular.
That would compromise my creativity and my style of image making. I have certainly found a calmness in creating images that I like and not being driven to follow the trend to be popular.
As is often said “Art mirrors life” and aesthetic output reflects on us as people. The twenty images I have selected here are ones where I felt strong connections with the creatives I was working with and reflect my style and values.
Thanks to all the creatives I managed to work with this year and lets hope that 2021 brings a return to a more normal artistic environment.
Models/ Dancers: Carla Monaco, Riona Neve, Poppyseed Dancer & Jasmin, Elesha Eden, Natalia, BOou, Ariel Taylor, Amie Boulton, Zoi, Erica Mulkern.
Paisley pattern tights leg shapes (NSFW)
- Model: Ivory Flame.
- Location: My Studio
- Lighting: Mixed constant and a grided studio flash.
- Camera: Fuji XT-2
- Lens: XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR
- Shutter Speed : 1/125sec @ F -5.6
- Aperture: F /5.6
- ISO – 200
I have worked with Ivory Flame (Holly) a number of times in the past, She is a great artist nude model, as the images show. This set of images were shot at my studio. During a session with Holly, I had purchased a pair of Paisley pattern tights and decided to use the edge of a settee to give a base shape for Holly to work against and show off the Paisley pattern tights and her figure shape. Lighting was a studio flash fitted with and striped softbox fitted grid plus an Arri contast light focused to give a strip of light coming down the background.