First boudoir shoot

I had my first boudoir shoot today and I was very excited do start a new project. So excited, in fact, that I forgot to take my strobe trigger with me to the studio! Oh my... really, basically it means that I couldn't use my strobes at all. I didn't even have a flash gun on me to use as a stand-in trigger. All I could do is use the modelling light of my strobes. But hey, not to worry: just make the most of what you have, right? Right. Well, here are a couple of shots I got...

Actually, after I showed Deb a couple of shots in-camera, she kindly said she'd perfectly love to do another shoot with me soon with strobes. :)

So all in all, not all was in vain - I got to do a practice boudoir shoot - and boy, have I learned from the experience - and at least got some half decent shots regardless. I got to know a lovely model who really enjoyed the shoot and all is good. Hopefully, next time, I can come up with a lot more good shots, though!

Dina's portrait shoot

I did a portrait shoot for a beautiful aspiring model today: Dina. We didn't plan anything beforehand so we did a complete "play it by ear" shoot, and worked with whatever Dina had brought along.

Here are some shots...

Dina had this great poncho and came up with various ways to use it, which I thought was brilliant.

I bought some transparent fabrics some time ago and thought I'd see how they look like in portraits.

I wasn't quite sure how to make the most of them...

...and Dina said they weren't that easy to work with. ...hmmm, I think I need to explore the use of these fabrics more before my next shoot.

Sometimes, I find, I might be after lots of vibrant colours, but realise that actually the image looks better in black and white.

Our shoot was good fun and very useful for the both of us. I hadn't taken many portraits for a while (having been travelling for over a month again) and I was a little out of practise, so it was great that Dina came up with many poses and ideas herself. On the other hand I taught her about angles and attitude and other aspects that help make an image - and her in it - look outstanding rather than just good. Can't wait for our next shoot together, as soon as we have found a suitable location for it. Watch this space. ;-)

Wild Park

Rain rain rain... every day rain... Zebedee has been a little restless recently as he has only had one short 30-40 minute walk every day, so I thought I'd do a bit longer walk with the doggies. Luckily it didn't rain much. I had my 100mm macro lense with me...

I wasn't happy with the colours in the above picture so I thought I'd try and see how it looks like in monochrome.

Beech is still my favourite tree...

Then I found this lovely maple leaf lying on the ground and moved it a bit to take some photos of it.

Back in England

We are just back from our four week trip to Fiji, Hong Kong and Japan. It was amazing (will post some photos soon) but I'm glad to be back at home again. For one thing, travelling from place to place for four weeks is actually a little tiring, and another reason is that a few days ago I started missing our dogs quite a bit. Not like me to miss things that I can't have access to at the moment, but I've never been that long away from my/our dog(s) before. Anyhow, we are now reunited and, right now, just back from a lovely walk in Stanmer Park.

And here are the silly doggies enjoying their first "unleashed" walk in a month. Lots of waggy tails and smiles all round. :)

We first thought that Tigger doesn't look like he's grown at all during the past month, but perhaps he has - just a bit.