Something that really pisses me off..

Apologies for the almost 4 month gap between updates (its not felt like 4 months).

(Personal non ranty update at the end)

Well you all know how much I like getting involved in the forum debates, I've tried to avoid posting much on them recently mainly because I don't have the time to argue and I have better things to use my energy on than random online critters however one thread has sparked my interest. Seeing as I don't have the time to argue or the energy I thought I would just air my thoughts on here instead rather than verbally argue with people I will never agree with (and they wont agree with me) so its pointless even trying but given that some folks have an interest in the inner workings of my noggin here are some of my thoughts on the subject of good photographers vs bad ones

To me a good photographer isn't necessarily the ones who shoot the images I'm personally into - they could shoot any style/model/location but in any of their images I see that they have put effort and thought into not only that image but the whole process of photography, they have learned and tweaked their craft to make it better along the way. Its not only experienced photographers either, new photographers with that passion to create and expand their craft are also considered good even if their product still needs work if they put the effort in and soak up everything they possibly can then good luck to them!

Having picked up a few bits of basic photography along the way I know one thing - its not that difficult to be ok at photography. Argghh easy for me to say but its true, or maybe it comes naturally. I don't profess to be great or even all that good but I can tell when something I've shot just doesn't look "nice" and its automatically rejected from public viewing. Why show a substandard product when you can show something worth showing? 

Now for the bad photographers (this could go on for awhile) - 

I just don't understand them. We have absolutely thousands of articles online at our disposal with advice/tips and tutorials so there really is no excuse other than being unable to read or see. Magazines/online imagery - you don't even have to read if you really don't want to -  magazines are a fantastic source of inspiration look at the clothing/lighting/locations and figure yourself out and what you want to achieve. I've picked up a shit load of hobbies along the way in my life - knitting (FAILED), crochet (FAILED), cross stitch (FAILED), Keyboard (FAILED), Guitar (FAILED), writing a memoir book (FAILED *after about 150 pages*), nude drawing (FAILED), Painting (FAILED), making clothes (FAILED) - I think you get my point, I no longer do any of these things because even though I was reading or going to lessons I just wasn't made to do any of the above things so they were a bit of a waste of money and time. I guess if I had the same amount of passion for any of them as I do for modelling I would have been better at them but I didn't have the love in my heart enough to want to be better. Anyway I realised I was shit early on. When I see photographers with years of experience and a portfolio of awful images I wonder why they never realised? I guess we don't really need to be good at something to enjoy doing it but as I said above basic photography is not that difficult, its more difficult to be a bad photographer (in my eyes than a good one). 

Picture this - Bright orange model, in a child's bedroom - teddies in the background and a cot. You see a window at the back of her... in that window you see outside to the council house across the road maybe even a reflection of the photographer and the light he is using. Model looks uncomfortable, lighting has picked up every single uneven fake tan streak she has, pose looks awful and there is shit cluttering up the badly decorated children's room. So photographer picks that image, then goes on to edit it  adding a nice big chunky frame and throwing some italic lettering in as a logo then he gives it a nice gaussian blur and saturates it even though it was set on the wrong WB anyway making things more orange than they really were - but brings out the whites in her eyes and adds some fake make up to an already overdone model. Why would anyone think thats a good image? by any stretch of the imagination? I can understand maybe a first timer getting it so wrong but after years and years of experience you would hope someone would automatically just know that their concept is shit, their model doesn't look as good as she could, their editing has done nothing to enhance the image if anything he has done the impossible task of making it much worse. So imagine a portfolio full of this shit, all similar in tack. His portfolio notes say "professional/experienced" maybe a few lines about being published and having 25 years of experience in the industry, offers portfolios for new models... WHY?

Another why would be models - WHY? a tf should benefit both people, if he is going to make you look like shit should you really work with him? will it benefit you at all? will it even benefit him? its not like he is planning on getting any better so why update the portfolio bad photographer? your work is still the same bog standard as it was when you started only difference is now you have more than one hideous picture as evidence to your crimes against photography.

I know I sound horrible but it really gets to me, if anyone dares to insinuate someone with such poor standard of work is a GWC then they get pounced on for "looking down their noses" at these people or labelling them. Sorry but nobody is beyond the stage where they need to learn, especially a bad photographer. If they are not GWC's only interested in seeing a pair of tits then why don't they stop shooting naked models and start reading up on what they are supposedly there to do - which is photography like I said its actually much more difficult to be so dreadful than it is to be good.

Anyway its now 2am, I spent about 9 hours doing my house up today (technically yesterday) and I'm off out again at 7am to do it all again for a mammoth 12 hour shift. 

I'm sorry if my post offended anyone, I honestly don't think I'm great.. I just wonder why people don't put the effort in or they care so little for the people they work with that they would photograph them so crudely.

Night folks xx

(this was what my post originally started like)...

Anyhow I've done very little modelling in the past few months, focused totally on my new housey. I did mean to do a "trip blog" but haven't had many images back from it so might just randomly throw the ones I have got back into a blog every now and then. House things are getting there although if I had a pound for everytime someone asked "do you regret buying it?" or "when are you moving in?" I would have enough money to afford to do everything which needs done before I can move in.

I have bruises all over my legs, the cold air then jumping into the warm air conditioned car has left me with really sore red lips (and below my lip) its horrible and sore. I had some awesome clique lip cream which worked a treat but I put it somewhere safe and can't find it so every day I'm trying different lotions and potions to try and heal the stingy'ness but usually it just results in more discomfort. I have trapped my fingers and random bits of hand between wood at least 5 times now and got into a nasty fight with a broken hoover but I'm still alive just have a few more cuts and grazes than normal.

Andrew Box :D

I had so much fun working with Andrew Box in Castleford - must thank him again for sending me over a disk of images which were waiting for me when I got home last night!

Cxx

Abandoned near Newcastle'ish!

Well here are a couple of my favourites from my first day out with Shepy and Rory :D

My little trip away!!

Well.. as always I will start with the most commonly used phrase I have been posting so much recently "I know its been awhile" - blah blah blah.. Like a broken record I am!

Anyhow - I went on another England adventure, this time I dragged Rory with me - thankfully he wasn't kicking and screaming.  The first day we met up with Shepy at an abandoned hospital in Scotland, sadly all the doors and windows were boarded up so none of us could shoot there - its a shame as Shepy had travelled all the way up to Scotland from Newcastle. Off we went in our two cars, communicating with walkie talkies incase we got lost or spotted anything interesting on the way back down South.

We kicked things off at an abandoned coal miners bath's/showers which was pretty cool, someone mentioned it looked like the set from the film SAW - which was very accurate :D. It was really rather gritty there so we shot a little shadowy set which turned out funky (decided to do separate blogs with Images).

We then somehow managed to fit through a tiny hole in a fence to get into an old abandoned tile factory which was slightly less interesting but lots of open spaces and scary noises, last location was an old tuberculosis home - We didn't shoot there though but the place looked amazing, built in a valley so accessed via walkways at either side. I did take a couple of images of the outside of the place though.

Stupidly I agreed to going into the metro centre for some food, forgetting I am the worlds worst for eating in unknown places which are full of people.. Needless to say I didn't get past the queues and ended up back in the car in a bit of a cold sweat 5 minutes later. Damn Anxiety, always gets the better of me.

We finally got to our hotel - seeing the "leisure facilities" we got our hopes up expecting a pool and the rest of it, the place was undergoing refurbishment so no pool.. Least we had the internet :D

Sunday we travelled down to York - Went in for a visit to my darling Auntie Shelias and discovered you can buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts - caramel shortcake I can highly recommend!! In the evening I went over to the Marriott Hotel in York for a shoot, we shot some lingerie and nudes!

Night-time came and Rory and I were off to the outskirts of Leeds :D
The following day we went over to Andrew Box's studio in Castleford - I had a lampshade on my head and was covered in clingfilm, who needs to pay for a special spa wrap? Rory then had an hour or so with me in this awesome studio, so many toys to play with.. He was in heaven!

After Castleford we were making our way down to Birmingham and came across a funny village called "Bosover" - We couldn't help but pop in to see what they had to offer, we visited the castle and took some sneaky fashion shots..

Tuesday came and we woke up nice and early to the rain, I was picked up by Dinah for my shoot with her and Tim in the morning. Tim took us to a wonderful garden which had gorgeous bridges and beautiful Autumnal Colours, it was lovely. I had a great morning with them both, I always enjoy working with Tim and it was nice to see Dinah again. They make a fabulous team!

In the afternoon Tim and I went over to Robs studio, I had so much fun dancing about on his bouncy floor with gold isis wings - can't wait to see the pictures of me wearing them. They looked awesome at the back of the camera.

Night time came and I got dropped off at our Hotel for the evening, the rain was coming down hard and Rory was nowhere to be seen. He went out for a shoot with a model from Birmingham, I've seen some of the shots they are looking pretty damn good!

Wednesday arrived and we took a Trip down to see Silverlight in Bournemouth (and visited the sealife centre and the beach). Was fantastic to finally meet him and his stunning wife, what a lovely couple and great company :D

We travelled up to Winchester late in the evening and I think I crashed out instantly, all the travelling really takes it out of me! When packing for this trip I took a book with me, hoping to get in some quality reading time - I managed a grand total of 5 pages.

On Thursday I worked with the awesome Man Kit Wong in Southampton, I have admired his work for years. I remember seeing his shots of Kayt Webster Brown and thought "one day I want to work with this dude" well the day finally came. Our original plan was Autumn Fashion on location, it didn't really go to plan due to the crappy weather so we ended up in a blank studio with cheesy props. We decided to throw on lots of weirdly clashing clothes and strangely they worked together. Really looking forward to seeing how bad my "fashion" actually is!!

From Southampton we travelled up to Newbury, again I maybe managed half a page of my book before I went to the land of zzzzz's...

On Friday we went over to Bracknell to see my good friend Glenn Richardson, we have chatted for years so it was a long time in the making. He took me to this awesome studio, it was massive!! He wanted to get me something different for my portfolio so we shot some beauty which is something I've not had very much experience in doing in the past. After our morning in the studio we went back to Glenns to eat Bacon sandwiches and chat nonsense for a few hours, the sun was out so we popped over to his local park as the sun was setting.. Glenn stood on dog shit then a dog pissed on his jacket - really not a good day for him but it amused me!

On Friday late in the evening we went over to our hotel which was called Eynsham hall, close to Oxford.. It was magical, seriously impressive looking building with so much history (I will go into that in the picture blog I get around to uploading). When we woke in the morning we decided to have a wander round the gardens (and have a bit of a shoot) so we left a little later than we planned so had to dash over to Wales to see Mr Alison..

So we arrived in Wales, it reminded us of Scotland so much - seriously the colours, roads and hills were the same. The only difference is all the Welsh road signs :D Hugh has a mini Zoo at his house & we both love animals so it was heaven for us. Horses, Dogs and Cats <3

On Sunday I was due to work with Ade Kestral but he came down with the flu so had to cancel which I know he really didn't want to do. So next time I'm down I will need to pop over to see him. Hugh took us to a really gorgeous location which was an old Mill then we came across a waterfall on the way home. On Saturday evening Hughs daugher and son in law were over for dinner and we had a lovely meal full of giggles. We were both made to feel so welcome and felt like part of the family! I cannot thank Hugh enough for inviting us over and we had a wonderful time in Wales thanks to him.

Monday was a fun day too - (notice a trend here?). Rory and I had free reign on Hughs land/animals/studio and cars so we experimented and played around until we had to leave in the late afternoon for our hotel in Penrith which was bloody stunning, Lake side views and a grand bed - we woke up this morning and I HAD to pose in the bed, the light was perfect.

So now its Tuesday and we are back home, I missed my cat soo much but being on the road is a pretty good feeling. Part of me never wants to stop moving but the other wants to be in our new home.

I will update when I have some more images to post up

xxx

Day 2 with Carl Grim!

 Yes i realise this is very picture heavy :D I guess we have to thank Carl for that..
I may not be going out shooting much at the moment but when I do go out I defiantly make the most of it. This was a random day when Carl and I just headed off in the car in one direction and hoped for the best that we would find some locations to shoot in - As you can see from the images we did!

 The next 3 were shot at the queens view I think it was called.. Lucky it was so early in the morning before the tourists were out of their campers in the carpark :D

Also just a note to say I'm going to be in Englandshire next month from the 24th of October for 1 weeks.
I will be visiting - Leeds, Birmingham, Winchester, Reading & Nottingham. I have dates still available in Leeds and Winchester so if you are around either city and fancy showing me around your awesome scenery or have me dance about in a studio please get in touch!

Much love xxxxx

Working with others!! - Katy Cee

I do have other things which I really should blog about first but I am attempting to clear my backlog of things which need blogging about so here goes!

I could put literally hundreds of images up with this post from my recent shoot with Carl Grim and Katy Cee (or Pectin depending on what neck of the woods you know her from) but I will try not to :D

Like I said in my last blog which mentioned this shoot it was a fantastic experience, I know I'm not exactly a newbie at modelling anymore (although sometimes I do feel it) I must say that to work with a model who is as experienced and talented as Katy is was an honour for me. I do tend to hide away a little up in Scotland and there are not very many models up here so duo shoots are not the "norm" for me.  My new saying is "the only thing better than 1 art nude model is 2" and I believe when Katy and I came together that really was the case.

Working with other models really does make you move that little bit more, its  great learning experience. You not only have to think about what your own body is doing in relation to the grand scheme of things but how it works overall with your partner, then when you are in the studio you have to be more aware of where the lighting is falling as to not shadow over the person you are posing alongside.

First up is some outside shots, in the pissing rain.
I did have a plan of action but not being able to find the "plan" in the forest kind of messed up the overall plan so we settled for doing some nymphs in the woodland which actually (and thankfully turned out well).

The deep greens worked wonderfully with Katy and I's porcelain skin - its amazing to find another model who is as pale as I am. I used to dream that my freckles would all join together to give me a wonderful tan but now I really would never want that to happen - mainly because I see now my freckles are more orange than brown and secondly because I love how light skin photographs in some of the locations I visit.

Some duo nudes -

I have to admit I was slightly nervous about working with Katy, she is a dancer and dancers poses are always elegant and bendy. I only wish I could bend around like Katy does, she makes it look effortless but having worked with her I can tell you its anything but effortless she put in so much work and like me gritted our teeth when the rain was pouring and the wind was blowing!

I have to say again on here thanks to Carl for booking Katy and I together and taking such wonderful shots of our day, I will never forget it and I hope we are both booked together in the future *hint for anyone reading*!

xxx

Yorkshire Post!!

Things are still uber busy just now but had some awesome news that I was in the yorkshire posts weekend magazine a couple of weeks ago!!

Horray :D

Thanks to the lovely Claire and makepiece :D