Roz Shoot 2: Bath

We took a trip to Bath on the second day. I wore my Mulberry trench coat because when we left it was grey, so I reckoned the weather would stay like that - boy was I wrong. It was the hottest day I think we probably had all year, so unfortunately the trench spent most of the day slung over my arm.

For this shoot it was so unbelievably hot that we couldn't stay in the sun too long. I couldn't understand how Roz was able to jump and run about for the camera in the heat. I was only crouched on the floor for a short while until I said, 'to the shade!' and we joined many other families under the shade in an island of trees.

Most of our day was spent walking around. We visited various shops, pushing past great waves of tourists. We ate a wonderful lunch whilst looking out on the river and witnessing a wedding party moving onto a small ferry as they were sung off by three women dressed as lollipop ladies. ...No, I wasn't hallucinating. 

On our travels around Bath we visited an amazing vintage and antiques market, witnessed the biggest array of hats squashed into the smallest of shops and visited a fascinating hands-on exhibition by the astounding Robert Race. 

Again, modeled and styled by Rosalind Jana.

Roz Shoot 1: Trains

Here is the first shoot with the lovely Rosalind Jana from 'Clothes Cameras and Coffee'. This miniature shoot was done on the day she arrived. After a little bus trouble and a sprint through the rain to collect some lunch, we decided on going down to the docks for a wander. If I remember correctly, the weather was grey, that umbrella-half-up sort of weather.

It was quite amusing, with both of us having an artistic eye, as we saw potential shots at the same time. One would remark 'Hey, that would have made a great shot' and the other would say 'That's just what I was thinking!' This seemed to happen so often that our responses burned right down to 'Hey, that would-', 'I know.' We had one of these moments when we passed a group of punks dressed in full gear. We both agreed that it certainly would have made an interesting shot but they looked so intimidating that it was probably a wise idea to keep the camera away.

The shoot was styled by Roz. Strangely, the shorts she is wearing were actually bright green but for some reason they came out as blue on camera.

It should be noted that whilst we were doing the shots, some kids that had been playing around the trains where having their photos snapped by their mother. They must have seen what we were doing because they were really going for it with their modeling, striking various poses and hanging off of the trains. We both agreed that they had nothing on us.

Out Of Place (Update!)

It has been way too long since I've done a post - this is mainly due to technical difficulties but I wont get into that right now. However, you will all be pleased to hear that I now have quite a few shoots backed up and ready to be posted! Three of these shoots are with the lovely Roz of Clothes Cameras And Coffee (Used in the Summer Garden post and various others) due to our now annual get together. Trust me, your going to want to see them so stay tuned!

'Click Here' for a preview or two of the up and coming shoots!

As for this post - These are three things that I found in my travels this month and thought that they where worth a post:

• The first shot was taken in Bath (during mine and Roz's day trip - more on that later). I found the giant chess set at the back of a building and thought it kind of odd. You don't see that every day. Where the pieces in the trash? Or just being stored there until the employees felt like having a game? Either way, it made for an interesting shot.

• This one really is strange! The second shot was taken outside a Waitrose store car park, deep in the countryside (So deep that not only had it taken two and a half hours to get there but also I had never in my life heard of the place name nor would I be able to recall it). 

At first glance I was worried that the cat was dead, but thankfully It was just laying there in the trolly's child seat, asleep. To my surprise it wasn't phased at all by any of the noisy cars or dogs that passed. Fortunately, most people that passed didn't disturb it but merely cooed at it for a moment and then moved on. When I came back out the shop later, I saw that it was lazily stretched across the seat, purring.

• The third shot was taken somewhere in Chagford. I am actually dying to go back there with a model as I found loads of amazing settings for shoots. I guess these doors where awaiting the chop as I found them at the back of someone's wood shed. They did look obscure against the leafy background of the countryside though.

Grunge

So, as far as I can see, things seem to be progressing towards a new photo shoot - which should be fun! Always exciting. Still trying to come up with a theme for this but I figure once I have the right piece of clothing it should all run smoothly. Hang on to your hats for that!

• I'm going to have a relatively small rant now:

You know what I've decided? I hate technology. I really do. I didn't have this view until a couple of days ago though. You see, when one scrapes some money together to buy a beautifully refurbished Apple Macbook Pro laptop, one does not expect to have it for just over a year - enough to get attached - and for it to then die. One also does not expect that since the warranty of the beautiful computer ran out only a month ago, one has to pay an extortionate amount of money if one ever wants see the computer living again. ...Sounds a little like a ransom note. 

To basically sum up - Money scraped together has been thrown down the drain and I have lost my electronical baby. I guess its a big deal because I lived off of my computer. It was the main hub for my photography (editing programs and such) so now I don't have it, I'm a little stuck with what to do. 

...Anyway, the show must go on!

Birdies

Bird posts always seem to go down very well so here is another one! All shots were taken at completely different times/occasions. To see bird posts from before, look HERE and HERE.

In my current predicament I feel compelled to quote Mrs Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility: 'If you can't think of anything appropriate to say you will please restrict your remarks to the weather.' Im sure you will all agree that this quote pretty much sums me up. Therefore I shall - We have had some of the hottest days and I am currently basking in the sun and trying desperately to get some sort of tan. Really wishing I was in spain now though (It would certainly speed up the tanning process.)

Psst: Check my Facebook page to see exclusive shots that did not make it to the blog: Link 

Shine On (Embrace The Rain)

 

So after much moaning and groaning, I've finally decided to accept that our summers will no longer be sunny. I have accepted the rain. ...Well, I say this but really I was the one sheltering whilst I ruthlessly pushed my mini model into the pouring rain. In my defence though, the camera lens would have gotten wet if I had stepped out!

I thought this sloganed jumper was adequate for these shots as it seems to bring to mind the William W. Purkey quote - 'You've gotta dance like theres nobody watching, love like you'll never be hurt, sing like theres nobody listening and live like it's heaven on earth.' Or in this case, dance on the roof in the pouring rain for no other reason than to get some interesting shots and hope that you don't catch cold. In other words - Shine on!

I have to admit, when taking these shots I had a particular photographer in mind for inspiration - Charlotte Abramow Theres something very dark (almost macabre) and yet beautiful about her photography. There is so much movement... Why am I trying to explain? Go take a look yourself: Link

Black Lace, Black Coat

This particular shoot had no theme to it. It was just one of those grab-a-model-clothing-setting-and-go shoots. Feeling like i'm gradually loosing touch with fashion photography (this seems to happen with my hobbies when I don't do anything with them for a while) so I need to back on the horse - as it were.

Coincidentally, this model and I go way back to primary school. We used to make up little games when we first met, like- who could throw the most pieces of gravel into the hole from a large distance. We used to hide away in the girls toilets at break-time to chat and folded the silver aluminium wrapping of Kit Kat bars into swans to see if they'd float. And conkers! In autumn we used to do conker collecting. Seeing who could collect that most. Then, (if I remember correctly) we would use them to play with in games, trading them as fake money or food.  It was all such a long time ago I'm surprised I even remember! They were fun times though.

For this outfit:

Shoes are from New Look

Sunglasses are from Specsavers (should have gone)

Dress is apparently from a shop called 'Make'.

Coat is (Mine, used once before in THIS shoot) from/by Racing Green