Second Snow Shoot (Say My Name)

This shoot was very, very quickly thrown together the night before. It all came about because there was suddenly another burst of beautiful snow in the evening. We were frantically chucking messages back and forth about clothes and such, but then quickly realized that the snow might not last till the morning as it seemed to be disappearing quickly. So, we left  it and waited over night to see what would happen. 

The next morning I woke very early (unheard of for me) and sent one, very bleary eyed text to the model: 'Worth it?' Turns out, yes it was! Within the next three hours, a very cold model arrived on my doorstep, I chucked a vintage River Island coat at her - used previously in the Noir shoot - and we charged out into the cold.

Although it hadn't snowed much that morning and there where big patches of non-snow everywhere, as soon as we strode out the house, thick flakes began to fall down. It was perfect! Exactly what we wanted. When we finally made it back, we had hot chocolate and listened to a mix of Eminem and Destiny's Child remixes (hence, Say My Name) whilst I edited.

Innocence (Turn Around)

So, I'd been considering doing a shoot like this for a while, but I wanted to find a model that would be comfortable in that sort of situation. So, in the end I settled on the model I had used before in 'The Devon Summer'. That shoot was done such a long time ago, I find it fascinating how much my photography has changed since then.

The post is labeled thusly because one, the 'Innocence' is an inside joke and the 'Turn Around' is due to the fact that I asked the model to turn around a few times so I could get different angels of shots. However, every time I said those words, the lyrics to Conor Maynard's 'Turn Around ft. Ne-Yo' would invariably slip out. Therefore, every time I asked the model to do so, I would suddenly break out into song. ...Yeah. I am always the professional. 

(The model from the next shoot coming up also pointed out that I could have broken into 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' by Bonnie Tyler as well - More on that later).

Snow (Finally!)

Yes! This is what we've been waiting for!

If you live in this city, you will know that snow is something that happens over a day or two, every other year. Its something that is very rare around these parts. Its even more rare that we get more than a light snowy dusting. To put this into perspective; the last time we had a proper, thick snow fall - I didn't have a blog. 

In fact, I was so positive that we wouldn't be getting any snow this year that my last Twitter comment was: 'The #Weather tomorrow: 'Omg! Is that snow?! ...No, wait, it's just dandruff.' Long story short, it won't snow. #LetDownTooManyTimes' Yes, I was that positive that nothing would happen. I was up till about two the night before editing, and still no signs. However, very early the next morning I was woken up to the sound of people yelling 'SNOOOW!!! YES!!' 

Anyway, to get to the point - I'd never done a snow shoot before and I was so desperate to grab this opportunity that I practically dragged my mini model out the house, covered her in my vintage fur coat and old fluffy hat, threw a Hamleys bear at her and stuck her in the middle of the snow. The poor thing was freezing but I very much appreciate her effort!

Click here to follow my Twitter babblings!

Reflections

You know what I just realized? I said in my YOLO post (Link) that I would put some more shots up from our trip to Manchester, but I haven't kept to that... Until now! 

I'd never been to Manchester before, but I absolutely loved it! After a very long 4 hour drive consisting of coleslaw sandwiches, chats about the Sat Nav, the concept of YOLO (naturally) and chocolate advent calendars - we finally arrived. Man, i'd never wanted to use my legs more in my life! We stumbled out of the car and into the hotel. One of the first things we did after we'd booked in was to take an evening tour around the city before dinner. I took my camera anyway - though I doubted that i'd be able to get any non-blurred pictures from the darkness - and we took a stroll in the freezing cold. Totally worth it! 

If I thought it was beautiful in the evening, I was even more astounded in the bright and early morning! The light was incredible. Even though it was ridiculously cold the sun shone out casting perfect shadows and bouncing beautiful light off of everything. 

This weather was completely the opposite to what i'd  ever experienced - being in the south-west (which consists of no sun, no cold. Just... Dull and rainy).

Feathers (Update)

Hey everyone! This is just a quick post to say Happy New Year and may your 2013 be a good one!

I am presently lining up various shoots so hopefully some of those will be taking place at some point (once this darn weather clears up!)

The shot we have here is just something I did on the spur of the moment. Saw a feather bower lying around, grabbed my unsuspecting mini model and slung it over her head. Only took two shots. This was the first shot, the second was the feather bower slipping and falling over her face in a blurred mass.  Have kind of been unsure of the shot (might re-do it at some point) but see what you think!