Bill's

Bill’s, there is a bit of a story here in that this is not the first Bills restaurant that Chiara Elisabetta has been naked in. In fact far from it, I believe this is #7

I’ve only seen the one image, which was taken by Simone at a Bill’s in Ealing Broadway, and its absolutely stunning. It was taken under a beautiful chandelier with Chiara naked on the table beneath it. A beautiful mono image that was long one of my favourite images they had taken together. Never in a bajillion years did I think that I might find myself in a Bill’s with Chiara one day, along with a camera.

But find ourselves in a Bill’s we did. Chiara was at mine for a week while she was shooting with various other photographers. We had popped our head inside the door of the restaurant a day or so before to have a look see and we were a bit disappointed it wasn’t as nice looking inside as some of the other Bill’s restaurants. She booked it anyway for a few days later, and it was made clear that I would be needing my camera with me!

Then the day before we went someone at work had mentioned to me that they had an upstairs too (which we hadn’t seen) so when we went back in and saw it was pretty full I asked the manager if we could sit upstairs. To our delight there was a great big Chesterfield type sofa and a huge chandelier behind it that was hanging directly over the bar below. Also, while the restaurant below was busy, upstairs was empty apart from us. Bingo!

We had some (really lovely) food, and discussed how we might get away with grabbing a few images without getting into too much trouble. Chiara was adamant that we ask permission to shoot so I plucked up the courage and asked the manager.

All was good until I said, ‘she’s going to be naked, is that ok?’ and then it went a bit quiet, Sensing we might be losing our opportunity I told him that we would be super quick, Chiara would run into the ladies, and come back ready to shoot but with a coat on, I would then look over the balcony down the staircase, make sure nobody was coming, she would lose the coat and then rattle off a few shots. We would be done in a couple of minutes maximum (honest!), nobody would see and therefore nobody could be offended. I watched the grin spread over his face as he laughed and gave us his permission and he wandered off back downstairs.

We did as we had said, only interrupted once by a lady who wandered upstairs looking for the loo. We thought she had cottoned on to what we were doing until on the way back through the room towards the stairs she walked into the wall and we realised she was (as they say in the ‘Nam) ‘proper mortalled’. We had a giggle, and got back on with it.

And so, that was that, we got some gorgeous images, said our thank you's, left a nice tip and ran off into the night giggling like a couple of naughty kids who just got away with doing outrageous things behind the bike sheds at school.

So thank you Bills, Cheltenham. Awesome food, awesome staff, awesome photographs!

We hope you like our photies!

Londinium

So back in August I went to London, with the intention of taking a few photos of Cheryl as she was visiting friends there and then going to a photographers and models social in the evening. I hadn’t been to the smoke in forever so I was really looking forward to it!

During the day we wandered about, but without the camera, went on a bus ride which was much more fun than the tube. I love seeing the architecture, there are some beautiful buildings to take in. We had a drink on the south bank, watched the tide drop and the beach appear and then I got a bit annoyed that I didn’t have the camera with me so conducted a little shoot with Cheryl under a pier with my phone, along with some balloons that had drifted up the Thames and deposited themselves at our feet. But those might be for a separate phone shooting blog I think! We also went to Camden and bought some cool set dressing stuff from Namaste in the Camden high street (more of that later)

Anyway, come the evening we head off to a fabulous pub called The Horseshoe Inn at London Bridge, it was lovely to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones, in what was the first trip out for many of us following the depressing lockdowns we have all been through. I’m hoping very much to come to another sometime, so thank you for making me feel welcome folks!

The plan had been to run around London all night, and take some nudes, however we didn’t plan for the fact that the Tube wasn’t running 24 hours again yet, and when we realised this we actually panicked about how we would get about and in Cheryl’s case ‘stay warm’ in-between shooting times. As it happened we got back to the tube just in time for the last train of the night, so in an attempt to save the day and get at least a couple of images we hung back when the train pulled in and let everyone else wander off into the night, and then we had a quick ten minute shoot while giggling about what the man in charge of the CCTV would be thinking. Then we thought we better make ourselves scarce, so we ran away giggling.

The next day our plans changed again, the weather was going to be vile in the afternoon, and we decided to change our plans and get the train back to pick up my car, and then drive to Brighton to meet with a friend and sit in a pub and discuss shooting some clothing for her brand (another blog coming soon on that) but 15 minutes before we were due to vacate the room I was staying in Cheryl decided she had enough time to build a hippy set (using stuff from Namaste mentioned earlier) shoot it, and take it down again. And to her credit (and to much delight of the bloke in the park outside who watched her build the window set in her shooting outfit) she succeeded! We got out bang on time, kudos!

So, after all that spaff, here are the photos, the first set taken at Kings Cross underground station, and the window shots from a hotel room in Kings Cross.

Hope you like them!

8 years and totally worth the wait

I haven’t posted a blog in over a year, and seeing as I don’t have a Purpleport anymore a lot of my stuff that is maybe unable to be posted on social media directly tend to go unseen, which is a bit of a shame I think.

So i’m going to do my best to get showing my stuff again, I mean what else are we doing this for? What is the point in creating if we are not going to show the results?

I’m going to start with this little force of nature, who at a time when I was really starting to question my ability and skills popped back into my life and actually reawakened my love of photographing people. I honestly felt like I had been treading water for ages, but shooting with someone who knows her stuff photographically, and also as a retoucher (not to mention her outstanding abilities as a model) has inspired me to rethink things, and has given me a bit of a push to attempt to up my game. So, Chiara Elisabetta, thank you, because I was getting to the point where I was thinking about walking away from it all, and now I just want to shoot and create again!

When I started shooting in about 2008 I was given some advice that I think is the most valuable advice I have been given as a photographer and that is this. The rapport you have with your subject is the most important element of a shoot, that and light. So while I am here I would like to repeat that to any photographers who are reading and who are not getting the results they want.

Rapport & Light. Find the light, understand how it changes, and interact with your subject with respect and kindness. Literally that is all you need.

Honestly everything else can be done on the cheapest 2nd hand bit of kit you can find lying around. You can do it on your phone and turn out incredible images! Do NOT believe you have to have ton of gear to do this. Sure its lovely to have it, that glass that lets that little bit more light in, those extra megapixels, that brand name, that long lens that makes you think you have a massive knob, (come on come on, you know its true) but honestly, without a good rapport, and without finding (or creating) some beautiful light, then you are not going to have a lot of results worth showing off.

Ok my camera for this shot (Nikon D750) was new two years ago, but my previous D700 was used for over 10 years, so i’m not buying new stuff often. The Nikon 70-200 is the oldest VR version, I bought it second hand in 2010 I think, its still going great, its a beautiful lens and I don’t need the latest version. All lighting was ambient, candles in this case. Top tip though, try not to set light to your models hair when using candles close to their head. ;)

~

Anyway, for those that are interested, a brief history lesson so we can get up to date with how we got to these pictures.

We were friends, we fell out, we didn’t speak for nearly 8 years. Then one day we both found ourselves in a zoom photography social online, I didn’t know what to say, she was probably feeling the same to be honest)

Then came an olive branch. (suddenly not so awkward)

Then came a phone call (5 hours, 1 minute) one mother of a catchup!

Then came a request from a photographer friend for me to pick up a model from the station that he was going to shoot at my place that evening. So I went to the station and instead of some blonde model from Bristol there was a tall elegant woman from Angryminge with serpents in her hair and a massive suitcase. She was grinning - Gotcha!

Then came the knowledge that I didn’t have to go to work for a week because she had called my boss and arranged time off for me. Ohhh i’m on my holibobs in Twinklebury-On-Sea, with Medusa!

Then came the pub, a cocktail or two.

Then came a bottle of Red Leg spiced Rum.

Then came absolute drunkeness’

And then came our first photographs in 8 years in the middle of the night, pissed as you can get, me trying to not fall backwards (I think I had to lean against the fridge to stop this happening) and her trying to not look like she was full up of rum and look elegant instead.

And the reason they are so beautiful is because we have amazing rapport, and we had some beautiful light. its should actually be a criminal offence that we left it that long to take photos together again.

Anyway, its safe to say there are a LOT of images to follow, and there will be going forward. Creative heads are plotting and whirring.

Thanks for looking and I hope you like these.

By the way, photographers looking to shoot with Cheryl should take a look at her website while you are here! Photographers abroad, you can book her for remote shoots too!