Birthdays: Soft Dances in a Room of Grey

Here are some images taken recently by the wonderful Mark Bigelow in an Oxford studio of me modelling alongside mature model (a ridiculous term, but there we have it) Alex B. Alex and I had mutually admired each other's blogs (hers is here) and outlook for a while. I find her very inspiring. It's nice to model alongside someone with such character. She is incredibly elegant, with trademark long, silver hair, yet absolutely down to earth and sweet, and I really hope I will be as creative, open-minded, pioneering and graceful at her age and beyond.

There will be more images emerging in the future, probably. The first is one we did quickly before Alex arrived, and Mark has called it 'Soft Dances in a Room of Grey':

The Moon

Some romantic images for you on this disgustingly gusty, rainy day - these were taken by the excellent ManCave Studio (great name, hey?), with whom I'll be shooting again sometime soon-ish if we can get our diaries organised.

I'm also taking lots of bookings at the moment both here in the UK and in various places around Europe - looks like another busy year is in store for me. I'm always very happy to hear from anyone interested in having me model for them: ellarosemuse@live.co.uk (I get these urges to advertise myself when in 'organisation' mode; though I really wish I was more on top of emails at the moment; to anyone waiting for a reply, you won't need to wait much longer as I'm on to it over the next few days I promise!!)

I've been modelling for sculptors/painters a lot recently, and other highlights have included battling my way through trains, cancelled trains (which morphed into buses), boats and taxis to the Isle of Wight, to work with a very creative photographer who specialises in producing the images you see on the front covers of novels. All very exciting and I hope to be able to show you something in a couple of months or so. (And I'm absolutely not complaining about the state of the transport issues here in the UK at the moment; I can't imagine how horrible it must be for those really suffering with floods in the South West.)

I love the curve on the backdrop in the last one - looks like the moon. :-)

Also, I just have a tiny weeny rant I'd like to vent... Please oh please oh please, if you're a new model starting out in this world and want to give yourself a 'stage name' or pseudonym, please oh please check what names already exist and are in wide circulation on the internet. I have mentioned this before, but I'm getting a little fed up, to be honest, of the amount of models I see with painfully similar names to my own.

I'm not saying my name is wildly unique, but no one else was called it when I started (I checked, before I built my portfolio!!) and now there are countless variations of 'Rose's out there and even one model notably calling herself something just one letter different from 'Ella Rose'. Seriously, imitation is not necessarily flattering; sometimes it just looks silly, and causes all sorts of confusions online where messages are mis-sent to me (meant for her) or sent to her when they are meant for me. I am not the only model out there who has this happening; there are countless spin offs of my popular model friends, too. And I know I sound silly and petty even mentioning it, but it does seem such a shame and not at all helpful to those people who become confused about who, exactly, they are contacting. What's wrong with being as unique as we can each be? :-)

Curved Skies Down Under

New work by Jim Furness, who I've had the pleasure of modelling for a few times now (in Scotland, Switzerland and Australia), and who always produces stunning images.

For these, I was joined by Ivory Flame (and later Anoush Anou, for a rendition of The Three Graces). :-)

Rainforest Revisited

It's bad of me to revisit old work when I have so much wonderful new stuff to show on here - or is it? Sometimes looking back and being grateful for some very special moments is rather nice! The series below, recently put together as a montage for my website (Faerie gallery; and do go and check out some other galleries I've recently updated there, by clicking here) is a definite contender for one of my favourite collections of all time. These serene, natural images were shot by Dave Aharonian in ancient rainforest in BC, Canada.

My explanation of how these images came to be (recent facebook conversations): 'He had some kind of magical camera-box which he disappeared behind and went under a cloth; everything was upside down and miraculously these images happened.'

His, slightly more helpful, explanation: 'I shot these on a 4X5 view camera with a 6" Darlot Petzval lens. The shallow depth of field and swirly background is a characteristic feature of these antique lenses.'

So there you have it; the truth behind the hocus pocus. What an incredibly peaceful place to have been able to experience. I am very lucky!

Siiiigh... Looking back at these is really making me crave another visit.

So far this year I've stuck mostly to my plan of scheduling in just one short trip per month; plans now include France, Germany, Holland/Netherlands (um...), Norway and possibly Belgium. At some point I might think beyond Europe... Will let you know when I do!