Ella Rose Muse: the story: May 2011

Sunday, 29 May 2011

The shed with a cave inside...

I worked recently with Rayment Kirby at his home/shed in East Sussex (before the Ophelia shoot detailed below). I think Ray is absolutely brilliant - so refreshingly ingenious with his make-shiftery. He creates backdrops, lighting and even camera equipment himself, making the most of what he has to hand. He has such a creative approach to 'things' and this makes the results even more special, I think. The photographs below are intended to go towards a book he's working on at the moment, and you can read more about his fascinating methods on his blog.

Here are some of the shots from the session. Some of them were taken against a blue screen, with the idea that they would then be re-worked digitally into different backgrounds, but they work well in themselves I think.

The first shot is proabably my favourite. In front of the blue screen was hung some plastic sheeting, draped to create interesting plays with the light.

Through the window...

You can read about the methods involved in the last shot here - 'Caving for Beginners'!

Thanks Ray and I look forward to the next one!

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Ophelia...

...was the theme of my fourth shoot with Jeremy Howitt. I seem to have produced some of my favourite images with him and, in general, seem to love any opportunity to agree to throw myself into water and pretend to be a mermaid and/or nymph. These were taken during a leisurely two-hour early-evening shoot in East Sussex last weekend. People say it's 'brave' to get in water for shoots like this, but I think if the worst thing that happens to you in a day's work is that you get wet/dirty/cold while floating around pretending to be part of a mythical story, and you get beautiful images to show for it, you don't have much to complain about. Jeremy wanted to aim for something reminiscent of Waterhouse and Millais, an admirable aim in my book. The reflections in the water worked so well for a dreamy, painterly feel. For the first few, I have to admit I was imagining myself as a princess searching for a little frog to turn into a prince. When in doubt, my mind reverts to whimsy.

Thanks Jeremy - looking forward to the next one! :-)

Monday, 23 May 2011

Water, gloves, life guards and silver coins

More from John Evans and Gregory Brown...

Water (B&Ws by Greg; colour by John):

Villa walls, doorways and arches (first two by Greg; rest by John):

By Greg:

Friday, 13 May 2011

Pre-Raphaelite Goodness

The following shots were taken by Keith Cooper at a location (half an hour away from my house in Oxfordshire) which manages to combine the romantic 15th Century ruins of a manor house, a river and woodland - perfect for Keith's interest in pre-Raphaelite and historical styles. I've got two more shoots already booked in with him, so I'm looking forward to seeing what we come up with next!

Friday, 6 May 2011

More Spanishness - John Evans

I've been looking forward to showing some of these... A few more from the week I spent in Spain with Gregory Brown and John Evans (and fellow model Hannah Ashlea).

But first, a cute snap I got someone walking past to take with my camera on the last day, just as were packing up the car to go back to the airport.

This first one is by Gregory Brown, then the rest are by John Evans.

I love this headdress - I bought it over a year ago and thought it would be worth taking to Spain, as I was told some amazing rocky venues had been scouted. The wind was so strong (especially as we were near the edge of a bit of a cliff) it kept nearly flying off, all of a feather.

These beautiful lilles, on the terrace of the apartment, were teasing us with their photogenic potential all week. I love the freshness of this set:

We shot the following in a derelict, crumbling house on the side of the road. It just so happened that the turqoise underbust corset I'd brought matched the graffiti perfectly. A very happy coincidence.

A tree John found...

An amazing rock formation, surprisingly close to a mountain road, up which some German/Swedish/Austrian cyclists were huffing and puffing (I'm not sure we ever established which nationality they were, though we had a very long conversation with one man, who seemed keen to take any opportunity to hang back from the group and catch his breath and so wanted to make sure he had recounted the thitherto events of this particular trip in great detail for us.) Greg and John were positioned too far away for us to hear when the camera was actually clicking!

And finally (for now), I'm always happy when I'm near water... I'm really pleased with these, taken on a beach:

Thursday, 5 May 2011

Blubells 2011!

... The final installment from my bluebell sessions! The weather ranged from being hot and glorious to freezing, but I do enjoy my annual frolic! Hope you like these. Thanks to all involved! :-)

Rob Ellis:

Andrew Green (on a particularly windy afternoon, which actually worked quite well for portraits!):

and last but not least, Martin aka 'Mr Trompie':

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Walter De La Mare, 'The Listeners'

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses

Of the forest’s ferny floor:

And a bird flew up out of the turret,

Above the Traveller’s head:

And he smote upon the door again a second time;

‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplexed and still.

But only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,

That goes down to the empty hall,

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken

By the lonely Traveller’s call.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

’Neath the starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:—

‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,

That I kept my word,’ he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house

From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,

And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,

When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Natasha Khan/Bat for Lashes, 'Horse and I'

Got woken in the night,
by a mystic golden light.
My head soaked in river water.
I had been dressed in a coat of armor. They called
a horse out of the woodland.
"Take her there, through the desert shores."
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear.
You're the chosen one, there's no turning back now."

The smell of redwood giants.
The banquet for the shadows.
Horse and I, we're dancers in the dark.
Came upon the headdress.
It was gilded, dark and golden.
The children sang.
I was so afraid I took it to my head and prayed.
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear. You're the chosen one, there's no turning back."
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear. You're the chosen one, there's no turning back."

Mark Doty, 'A Display of Mackerel'

They lie in parallel rows,

on ice, head to tail,

each a foot of luminosity

barred with black bands,

which divide the scales’

radiant sections

like seams of lead

in a Tiffany window.

Iridescent, watery

prismatics: think abalone,

the wildly rainbowed

mirror of a soapbubble sphere,

think sun on gasoline.

Splendor, and splendor,

and not a one in any way

distinguished from the other

—nothing about them

of individuality. Instead

they’re all exact expressions

of the one soul,

each a perfect fulfilment

of heaven’s template,

mackerel essence. As if,

after a lifetime arriving

at this enameling, the jeweler’s

made uncountable examples,

each as intricate

in its oily fabulation

as the one before

Suppose we could iridesce,

like these, and lose ourselves

entirely in the universe

of shimmer—would you want

to be yourself only,

unduplicatable, doomed

to be lost? They’d prefer,

plainly, to be flashing participants,

multitudinous. Even now

they seem to be bolting

forward, heedless of stasis.

They don’t care they’re dead

and nearly frozen,

just as, presumably,

they didn’t care that they were living:

all, all for all,

the rainbowed school

and its acres of brilliant classrooms,

in which no verb is singular,

or every one is. How happy they seem,

even on ice, to be together, selfless,

which is the price of gleaming.

Kate Clanchy, 'Poem for a Man with No Sense of Smell'

This is simply to inform you:

that the thickest line in the kink of my hand
smells like the feel of an old school desk,
the deep carved names worn sleek with sweat;

that beneath the spray of my expensive scent
my armpits sound a bass note strong
as the boom of a palm on a kettle drum;

that the wet flush of my fear is sharp
as the taste of an iron pipe, midwinter,
on a child's hot tongue; and that sometimes,

in a breeze, the delicate hairs on the nape
of my neck, just where you might bend
your head, might hesitate and brush your lips,

hold a scent frail and precise as a fleet
of tiny origami ships, just setting out to sea.

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