Of Castles & Gold

From one long-standing shooting tradition to another, how lucky I am to have worked again recently with Jeremy Howitt on another little adventure - this time in the north of England, around Northumberland!

It was the usual (finely) organised chaos of early starts and day-time cat-naps, so that I lost track of what day was what, where I'd been, who I was... etc... by the end of the fleeting trip, but we had such a lovely time! I love the results - dramatic beach scenes with castles and vistas as the sun winds up or down - and we even managed to squeeze in a trip to Alnwick Castle to see where some of the scenes in Downton Abbey (and Harry Potter) were filmed (and by the way, I hope you're all glued to your screens this season in case I make a fleeting appearance in a couple of scenes; I'm going to miss it while I'm away and am making my Mum record it all for me!); and for me to be utterly beaten by the world's biggest ice cream, which covered me in delicious chocolate and had me rooting around for tissues to clean up me/my clothes/the bench. I was such an embarrassment; clearly out of ice-cream-eating practise (I don't normally 'do' ice creams, but had a sudden craving. It was all very ungraceful.).

Anyway, I'm off to Indonesia for a month now, so things here may get a little slow, but will be back and raring to go in mid-November and am (by the way) taking bookings now for November, December and January; and from April onwards. Things are getting all a bit inter-continental again, and I like it! :-) I will be snapping away while away on this trip, I'm sure, so my instagram will floweth over in all likelihood, since I am clearly addicted to it these days. (and oh, I am going to miss Sir Fluffalot terribly while I'm away; I hope I survive without his enormous fluffy face looking alarmed at me. I know, I'm ridiculous, but LOOK AT HIS MAGNIFICENT FACE!!!)

OK, those mermaid scenes and so forth, forthwith (thank you so much again Jeremy!):

You can also read Jeremy's version of events here. (I'm so glad he posts these threads, not least so I can remember where exactly I've been. He knows me well enough to know how terrible I am at knowing my way around places (and knowing whether to turn left or right out of a hotel, despite having been there for three days, for example), so it will come as no surprise that the place names became a slight blur after the early morning starts, even if the places themselves are spectactular; it really is a miracle that I can travel solo as well as I do. Nevermind. If I was the sort of person who would end a blog post with a hashtag, it would be #cantbegoodateverything (but I wouldn't do that, because then where does the full stop at the end of the blog post go?) - I'll put it here: .

Another Post, Another Coast

... This time I'm showing off some pictures of me taken in Dorset by the very talented and widely published Joana Kruse, who booked me again for some book cover images.

Ah, I do like to be beside the sea side!

A bit of Victoriana, a very brief foray into Dante and a quick shot (snort!) at Bond; and to fit the travel theme (we couldn't resist using the vintage suitcase again), I should mention that I will be doing a bit of trip-planning this month, gradually, as I attempt to cohesively orchestrate the next few months; look out Holland, Belgium, Australia, US and Canada!

I also spotted this on Joana's facebook feed: I modelled this rather wayward cloak, which Joana somehow managed to make into an effective image! I'm not sure it's one for my portfolio, but the work was there. :-)

A story full of sea

Having spent this morning unpacking from yesterday's trip and re-packing for tomorrow's, and while listening to Eska's debut album (she fits somewhere between Joni Mitchell and Laura Mvula, I think; though those elements are disparate and she very much does her own, unique thing!), I thought I'd show some photos I've just received. In April, I was able to fit in a shoot with Perry (Imagesse), who I've worked with many, many times now, while in Cornwall primarily for another shoot for The Wool Company. We always end up in some very beautiful places (often beaches!) and I love his storytelling imagination which whirs while I pose. In fact, these images were delivered to my inbox yesterday with a long story written to accompany them! In between the images below, there are some snippets of his words and phrases...

'...When I was walking a quiet section of the coast path on the rugged wreckers coast...Somehow I had stumbled on a secret cove...'

'I made my way down a set of steep steps ...I found myself absolutely alone in that pure new world...'

'...The rhythmic mantra of the ocean...'

'...I made my way, to the glowing brightness which led me out of the cave...'

'...I discerned something else...' 

'...something smooth and curvaceous...' 

'...moving through the cove...'

'...My mind started to work overtime...' 

'...if she had not come from the land...' 

'...she must have come from the sea...'

'...she remained in my vision...'

'...then she turned and walked purposely towards the sea...'

Leonides the Lion Head

I was waffling on about how I would one day love to shoot with a lion (as is often the case, other waffle-themes sometimes involving tigers, llamas, lambs, peacocks and sometimes unicorns; and lack of animal-cruelty allowing) and David came up with this spot, half way down the Australian coast... Well, we work with what we've got... :-)

Pedal boats & Bikinis

Evening!

I'm back from a gorgeous 'sunshine shoot' in Portugal - lots of images to show soon, I hope, and in the meantime, the results of some more local (south coast of England) beach frolics, courtesy of a last minute road trip with the excellent Gary Sandy, and the fine Great British weather. Gary's so much fun to work with - I'm sure I'll be shooting with him a third time at some point.

These were great additions to my 'Bright' gallery on my new website.