An Update from Guatemala!

Well hello lovely blog readers! I've had a few concerned emails asking if I'm still alive, and this is to say that indeed I am! Just thought I'd take a little time in the middle of my global gallavanting to update you all with some recent images, taken by the wonderful, kind hearted and generally excellent Ron Skei a couple of months ago. I currently have a Guatemalan boy sitting directly behind me, watching my every move (or rather, watching my every keyboard stroke). I have no idea why. Apparently I am fascinating. I hope when I upload the following images he isn't scarred for life or, most importantly, doesn't call the authorities... So wish me luck...

(...Just checked, and yep, he's still here. Ha.)

OK, anyway... Here are a few shots we did together. I love them! Hope you approve and that this might tide my readers over until I return to more comfortable computing conditions in December!

I think the first shot is my favourite - I love the abstract body shape, as if I've just been washed up from the water. It was such a nice, relaxed shoot - we initially just thought we might go swimming pre-shoot, then ended up shooting at the beach too. The double exposure shots were also really fun! A perfect introduction to a very successful and enjoyable week of modelling, from which I hope to be able to show more results soon!

I will almost certainly be showing some images from my travels (my colourful snapshots!) once I'm home, on top of the modelling ones. I'm seeing some BEAUTIFUL things and having an amazing time, snorkelling with nurse sharks, seeing sea horses in the wild, liberating baby sea turtles, swimming through caves with Mayan skeletons inside, checking out ancient Mayan and Aztec ruins. If you're a friend of mine on facebook you'll also know that I recently lamented the lack of a photographer when I swam around beneath a hot waterfall a few days ago! I am so lucky. Every day is action packed! I'm also somehow learning spanish, presumably through some kind of gradual osmosis, necessitated by the complete lack of english-speaking people here (fair enough) and helped by a 12-day speed learning course I put on my kindle! I'll be back in the UK in time for Christmas and available for plenty of bookings after that, as well as taking bookings for the European trips I'm arranging too. Just bear with me while I have limited internet access - I might be a little slow at replying to messages at the moment. They say a break from the internet is a good thing though, eh?

Back soon...

The Trees...

...They called me to go and model for Dave Aharonian, and what an honour it was! We were very excited to be able to make stuff together for his Rainforest Nudes project (see his incredible website if you happen to feel like being blown away). I just adore his technique and finishes; the pure quality of it needs to be seen in physical prints. We had 40 frames available and about 1.5 hours. Luckily everything just 'clicked'. I hope you like these as much as I do.

Any favourites?!

Also, Dave took these on his iPhone a few mins before we left the house:

 ...And, just to lower the tone a bit, here are some shots of me on the ferry (also iPhone-snapped - there's just no escaping it, is there?), documenting the perils of long hair in strong winds. In the last one, I was actually being attacked by my own hair. Nice of Dave to help...

Turning the Wheels

Sometimes, you've just got to cartwheel across the grass. It's an overwhelming urge, especially when you used to do gymnastics (I spent hours and hours doing 'round offs' in the garden. Cartwheeling and hand standing always makes me feel about 8 years old).

These were all taken on the Isle of Wight by Mark Davy-Jones, whose whimsical, sometimes 'twisted', style of post processing is brilliant, and who I'll hopefully be working with again at some point next year. Mark and his lovely wife kindly fed and put me up overnight amongst their gorgeous maine coon cats (sadly I failed to entice one onto my bed at night).

I'm modelling here alongside Miss Kayleigh Lush, who you'll have seen on this blog before. Click to enlarge as always...

Fresh Zing

I'm back in the UK! Woop! Gotta love those long-haul flights, especially when they decide not to bother putting your suitcase on the plane (ahem, delta airlines, NOT impressed!)... The conversation at the baggage reclaim desk went as follows:

Me, in London after a four-hour delay (during which I read an entire memoir of an ex-prisoner at Alcatraz cover to cover; pretty intense!), a re-routing from New York to Minneapolis, terrible vegetarian food, definitely not enough leg room and not really enough water to drink: 'Excuse me, my bag doesn't seem to be here.'

'Help services' man, glancing at my passport: 'Oh yeah, your luggage didn't make it onto the flight.'

     

(Un-elaborating pause while I stare at him...)

Me: 'Riiiight. What am I expected to do, in that case?' (I am extremely polite, despite my piercing glares)

'Help Services' man: 'Fill in this form. We'll then post your bag to you.' (NO APOLOGY OR EXPLANATION! (Until I, reminding myself of my mother slightly, say 'Will I be getting an apology of any kind?' to which Mr Blasé finally replies 'sorry madam' and 'sometimes that happens. They don't tell us why.') HUMPF!)

Anyway, so far I'm amazingly un-jet-lagged, so am spending a few mins addressing the ever-present and imminently overwhelming backlog of stuff to put on this blog of mine, before I address the rather exciting pile-up of emails I need to reply to. I'm hoping to cram in as many shoots as possible before I go away again in 3.5 weeks. Lots of Canadien/American stories to follow in due course (camera-computer cable pending), some with photographic evidence of the more artistic variety... but first... presenting what I call 'fresh zing', a development of a theme, by Rebecca Parker. So fresh and so clean (with cool lens stuff going on with trees and grass):

And something Rebecca found from a previous shoot:

Two To Tango

Just thought I'd show off a few shots from a recent shoot with Jeremy Howitt (I think this was our fifth shoot, but I may be wrong) and Kayleigh Lush, before I go away for a while for fun and holidays.

Jeremy wanted to photograph a tango theme. Both Kayleigh and I have varied dance experience, but neither of us had properly done this particular style before; I took one class once! Everyone knows that this is the dance of love though - passion and drama are what it's about! We did this shoot in Brighton, and there were many, many people walking past constantly, who were suitably blasé about us (mostly).

Kayleigh is wonderful to work with; I highly recommend her to photographers looking for a versatile (and tall) art model with fantastic dance skills. For this shoot she was playing the masculine role, and did a great job of being strong and supporting me. (We'd worked together before; I will blog some very cool images from that shoot another time!) We had lots of fun trying to work out the anatomy of the positions as we did them; whose leg should go where, how best to place our arms, tension in the hands, etc... For some of the poses we tried, we worked out that it was best to swing into them or for Kayleigh to catch me as I fell into a position for the shot, so you can see my foot tipping and hair blowing in some, etc. It made the tension and passion more real. Other more investigative/ambitious poses ended up with both of us falling on the floor in a heap of giggles and a knee-in-sternum position which should never be repeated by anyone ever.

Anyway, without further ado, and with thanks to Jeremy again for a fun challenge: