Cracked Earth, Sleek Fashion and Tumbleweed

Very excited to show you these, from my most recent photographic adventure with photographer Jeremy Howitt. As you may have noticed, we do end up shooting in some fun places, and when I mentioned to Jeremy that I'd be in California in October he took the opportunity to visit too! I am having a bit of a dilemma here about which images to post first, but think I'll go for the ones taken at Lucerne Valley dry lake bed. (Edit: I might be lying; I'll probably post everything.)

Jeremy had in mind some images he'd seen of some dry, cracked earth, and I jumped at the idea, as I have never shot in a location like that before - one where you can literally see the ground splitting apart - and I knew it would make for some amazing shots! Luckily, we found an absolutely perfect spot and also managed to coincide our jaunt with a storm which was making its way in over the San Bernadino mountains, which made for the incredible sky you'll see below. (No, it really wasn't photoshopped in!). Jeremy has already posted a thread on PurplePort about the trip here, if you'd like to read his version of events.

As always, I'm very grateful to Jeremy for choosing me to model for him yet again, and in such amazing places! Some of these images are just so spectactular - a wonderful combination of landscape photography and figurative art. In this area we focused mainly on keeping the pose(s) simple while Jeremy experimented with perspective. I especially love the fourth shot here (which I then go on to post a million versions/crops of... sorry!... Help?) I think this amazing place deserves to be seen in both monochrome and colour. Any preferences though?

Previous to this set, we had visited El Mirage, another dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert, but one whose landscape is completely different. I really love how simple these shots are - in such a vast, empty space the poses are everything.. all the world's a stage, etc., etc., and I love the dusty tones on the horizon. (Clothes provided by Jeremy.)

I like to call this the 'Batwoman' set:

And we also managed some quick nudes, despite having to chase the black fabric half way down the desert at one point. That wind was fast!

And finally, a quick set we did with some tumbleweed found on the side of the road. We were pretty determined to do this (dappled light = goodness!) and again the wind played its part; it took great restraint and gravity control not to be pulled around while lifting it up. They are surprisingly heavy. And utter wind traps. Pretty amazing little (big) things, tumbleweeds!

So, I'm afraid this has been another bumper blog post... I have been spoiled with images again (I also have square-crop versions of most, and the colour/mono debate is evident once more...) so please do declare your favourites with any comments! Thank you!

Video: In the Leaves

Here's a new video of me, taken by Andre. We wanted to create something very natural and innocent, so hopefully you'll agree we achieved that. I think Andre did a great job and it was a lot of fun to work on!

Click here to view.

There's another short film on its way too... will post that sometime soon!

Beetroot and Rocks

It is completely and utterly unnecessary, not to mention irrelevant to the purposes of this blog, to let you know what I had for dinner this evening, but I think what I just made needs to go down in history.

Beetroot, walnut and goats cheese spelt risotto.

Method:
- One onion (or a few shallots) in butter in big shallow pan
- Add garlic
- Two chopped cooked beetroots
- One courgette
- Handful of walnuts
- 100g wholegrain spelt (serves 2)
- Sizzle briefly (that's the food, not the cook, though I was wearing an indecent amount of glamorous eye make up from today's shoot)
- Add about 450ml of vegetable stock, and a splash of white wine for luck
- boil/simmer until the spelt absorbs most of the water
- grate in hard goats cheese
- Inhale gorgeousness
- Grind in a load of black pepper
- Admire the bright pink concoction as it bubbles away
- When liquid is absorbed, serve into shallow bowls and top with a handful of fresh watercress.

Delicious.

In other news, I'm happy to say I'll be modelling for the Yerburys at the SWPP Photographic Convention in January (8th-14th at the Hilton at Edgware, London), for their two 'Superclasses', 'Boudoir to Nude', which has just three places left (on Tues 8th) and a portraits/creative lighting class (on the 11th) which has already sold out. It'll be my first time there, and I'm sure will be a lot of fun! Maybe see some of you there, so come and say hi!

And finally, here are some shots made by the very lovely Bob Freund, taken in the stunning, surreal, wonderfully spiky Joshua Tree National Park in California. I spotted a coyote there one day (I was lucky enough to go there several times in the course of a week) and spent one evening lying against rocks in the dark watching the amazing star-ful sky! Very very peaceful and eerie. Bob found a particular spot in the park that he'd been searching for years, since photographing it once and wanting to go back; that's not an easy feat, when the park is so huge, and required an initial detour to a patch of deceptively beautiful, violent cacti. Luckily, they didn't get us! Thanks Bob!

Solarised

Hoping the East Coasters are doing OK. Horrible time for all concerned. Wishing you light, heat and power!!

And here are some polaroids from the wonderful woman that is Zoe Wiseman. Zoe is so brilliant to work with - utterly laid back (we'd pause after every single shot to pull out the image, dip it in the bucket... and get excited each time, so it was a very leisurely pace... and cooling off in the swimming pool became the shoot itself!) but happy to direct too, and always has the models' best interests at heart, which doesn't go unnoticed. Half of the roll was of me and half of the very beautiful Meghan (in last shot), who will soon feature here more I'm sure as we also spent a whole load of time shooting together again, including UNDERWATER - that was a really fun challenge for me, and hopefully the images will be very special! We will have to see how the film comes out! Oh, the suspense!

Anyway, I love these! Some are (semi?) solarised, for an extra layer of coolness. Zoe was using a Holga with a Polaroid Back (polaroid Type 85 Pos/Neg film). She solarised the images by peeling the positive away from the negative before it was fully developed and held them to the Californian sun to create the funky stuff. Clever, eh?

Enchanted Forest

Hello! Back from my trip away and raring to go again in this beautiful English autumn. I had an excellent trip but I don't think I'll ever shake off that wonderful feeling of coming home. I'm so glad I appreciate my country still, even after loving so many other places.

My inbox is bursting with an influx of photographic gems, some delivered drip by drip (mini blog posts bubbling away gradually) and some in big, unexpected shebangs of glory - every photographer is different - but now I have so many I want to show! It keeps my portfolio changing.

These were sent to me recently from a photographer I worked with in Scotland in May. I have already put one in my portfolio. By Calandra, from the 'Kingdom of Fife', headdress mania:

The last image I am calling Fairy Steps. Nearby was an area covered in wreaths, lanterns and coloured ribbons after some kind of Green Man ritual, so it felt like a very special place!

Update: two more!