Glastonbury: Ice and Ivy

Last week I drove for hours on treacherous ice and snow to get to Glastonbury for a shoot with Ed Melville. Much of the journey was in first or second gear and there were times, during the way back, at which I thought I might never get home!! BUT it was worth the trip and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Ed wanted some Christmassy images with a 'pagan', natural theme, amongst other things. He'd gathered ivy and holly, and I fashioned myself a headdress.





We then went a little bit mediaeval/pre-Raphaelite. I'm really struggling to decide which to upload to my portfolio, so any help here onwards would be appreciated!!





Red and musical, featuring a Nordic lyre (which I could not resist twinging constantly, poor Ed):







Also, I now have these. I'm so sorry I'm bombarding readers of my blog with belly-dance pictures, but I'm having such a blast doing them...







Hope everyone had a wonderous, splendiferous Christmas. HAPPY NEW YEAR and love to all!

Pure Magic!

Merry Christmas everyone!

May it be filled with magic, warmth and wonder.

Tear sheets

... From the Berkeley Castle Charity shoot. This was to promote charity shops around Christmas time and publicise the wonderful work of the Cotswold Care Hospice (see my earlier blog entry). Recently delivered to my inbox by photographer Simon Walden:

Ah t'was grand.

My favourite Irish phrases: 'Grand', 'Your man', '..... so' and, mostly said in baffled amusement: 'What are you like?'

Hilarious. I must go back.

Seriously, I love the place. I would say I understood at least 85% of what was said, too, which was good! This was my second trip to Dublin and my first ever flight alone. I know, it's ridiculous that I was worried, having done a lot of travelling all around the world, but I always freak out slightly when the plane takes off and lands. Normally I grab whoever is next to me during those times, but I wasn't sure this would be entirely appropriate with a complete stranger, so I resisted and managed to convince myself, instead, that I was on nothing more than a big train in the sky.

It worked! I feel so liberated. I'll be all over the place in 2010, I warn you all.

Anyway, I was spoiled by both Ciaran and Lorraine and then Des, all wonderful photographers with such fun visions.

Ciaran announced in the car between the airport and his house that we'd be straightening my hair - I love it when photographers turn me into something different - it's so much fun. But nothing could compare me to the shock of how different I actually look in this photo. I literally (and that's a cliched word, but I mean it) didn't recognise myelf at first when I looked in the mirror, after the make up too (MUA: Nicole). It's so strange when that happens. And again when I saw the photos - wow! Is that really me? Certainly makes a change!



The curls reappeared for Des, thanks largely to the rain (I was there during the mass flood epidemic), and the make up artist - Elaine Hopkins - did the most gorgeous blue eyeshadow. It was so cold out there, but worth it, I think. :-)

Black

I worked recently with Dave Kennedy in my local Oxford studio, and today received some images from him. We covered a range of stages from clothed to nude. A few of my faves:



(Well I couldn't resist doing some belly dance, could I? Dave said he'd never shot it before, so I think he quite enjoyed the experience!)

Near the end, we switched to a black background. I realised it's actually been a while since I've worked against black. No idea why! I agree with Dave that it can work nicely to bring out skin tones, even though I never wear black in everyday life as I'm a huge fan of colour and would die of bordem in black. Hope I'm not alone in liking these:

Swish, Sway and Storm

Here are some recent shots from time spent with the wonderful, now Oxford-based, Mark Bigelow. We still have plenty more to do and I enjoyed it even more than the first time around. Mark even got to sample my terrible driving, which he was very polite about. For a spatially-aware person I am not very spatially aware.






The last one reminds me of the ocean - tumultuous/turbulent and moody (like all good oceans). I think the skirt (tied material) looks like liquid in some of the shots too.

Dance, Habibi

I once did a belly dance in a show in an AMAZING orange (yes, orange) belly dance costume, one I will regret not purchasing to keep until the day I die, and I remember the chorus of the song 'habibi...habibi...habibi...' was our choreographed section between the individual improvisations. It means 'my beloved'/'darling'/'baby'. I was in my final year of uni, and had been attending dance classes seven days a week (belly dance, hip-hop, street, contemporary, ballet, tap and salsa) and had no idea just how good I had it. The standards of university dance classes are often incredibly high (we won national competitions at Nottingham) and the cameraderie is something I really miss.

Back in Oxford, I seriously struggle to find decent classes to a good enough standard and often have to settle for glorified aerobics. So you can imagine my absolute delight in discovering an amazing ex-university-affiliated society of middle-eastern dance! I'm so excited! It's brilliant! 2010 is going to be my year of belly dance - it's good to know that I will have that, in between the dabbling in other styles. (I've also found a really good contemporary class.) I've always felt drawn to the style for its earthiness, elegance, seduction and hypnotic rhythms. It's always felt very natural to me, along with salsa.

One dance teacher (I can't remember who now) articulated the main divide you can impose upon all the various dance styles which exist; you can categorise them as either 'earth' and 'air'. 'Air' dance styles are all about lift, lightness, leaps and stretches. Think ballet. I did a lot of ballet when I was younger, and contemporary dance incorporates much of its movements, but it appeals less to me now, as I often find it very stilted. The 'earthier' styles (hip-hop, belly dance, salsa, bachata, etc.) are all about rolling, shimmying, hip-working, feeling the upthrust of the ground against your body and using it in your motions; admitting that gravity is there, and that it is beautiful.

On that note, here are a few recent photos. I got a bit carried away during the dance part of this shoot and would probably have carried on for the entire shoot if Manuel hadn't stopped me to suggest we change outfit occasionally... :) Mid-December, I'll be adding to my costume collection from the 'souk' at an annual arabic dance event in London.



I somehow feel I should have had a sword in the above photo!



I have a claw in the photo above, I know, but I love it. Turkish dance is all about hand gestures.

Finally, we also did some nude stuff.