New Work....

I had an mail from model KatyT last week, she moved to the US last year but was back touring through Europe and had a few days in Scotland. She had some spare time and was I up for a session, so following in the same spirit as the last post having worked together many times over the past 4 years with every shoot producing some fantastic work it would be fun to meet again to see what we could produce together. I hired Contrast Studio in Glasgow for just a couple of hours intending to just do some work on my dancer series which with Kate's dancer background was guaranteed to produce some extremely creative images - and it did !!
As a warm up we worked on some fine art nude figure work with a specific theme, I had an idea of what to expect but knew that once I gave Kate the props she would bring her own flavour to the images, which she did.


Kate's enthusiasm and dedication to her work is infectious so the short session was as productive and creative as ever - and great fun !
This shoot has given me some ideas for more in his series, and as for the dancer work I have dancer and model Eenia booked for next week, we have already done a test shoot and if all goes well will finish the shooting for this project very soon and will publish the work when complete.
ps - Kate and I still have some unfinished business with 'that tree' - one day !!

Shared development ???

I find it interesting to go back over old work, sometimes this brings some embarrassment... "did I really think that was good then ??", but more often with a sense of fresh appreciation when the events and memories of the day have long past allowing me to see my work as hopefully others will.
However what is really interesting is looking at work over time with the same subjects and seeing some development in our work which I can see with all he models that I have worked with more than once. One such model is Holly (Ivory Flame). My very first shoot was in Sept few years ago where I wanted to create some outdoor nudes in remote settings. We had never met and the day started badly with rubbish weather and the poor lass being kicked off the bus about 40 miles too early and got dumped by the roadside for over an hour in the rain, but being a true pro she just got into the shoot from the first frame as if nothing had happened.

The day ended with some great work and we had a thoroughly good time in the process and looking back I am still pleased with the shots. Since that day I have seen us both move forward and the next few images are from our last session a couple of months back, the shoot was really as an introduction to a colleague wanting to try art nude so there was very little brief, just playtime, but these shots are far superior to my studio stuff in this style a few years back .... and not just the technical but in the 'spirit' of the images, something that cannot be learned from a magazine..!!
I now certainly have a different view on my photography and Holly just gets better (if that's possible). Nowadays I take far less images per setup, partly due to knowing more what I want - well, sometimes, but also as one gets to know individual models this helps to create stronger work. I used to think it partly due to being more at ease with the subject, but now I think its more about being at ease with ones self, confident in your own ability, and knowing what works (sometimes !).
My greatest inspirations come from photographers and models that are not afraid to experiment and avoid falling into the trap of creating the same images but with a different subjects or locations, that's just turning the sausage factory handle !! Working with models that strive to make every photo session better than the last are the ones that develop, but as a model you often give a lot of the creative control to the photographer as they are (normally) setting the theme, which is why for me this style of work has to be collaborative, and this means working with subjects that bring that little extra to the session and that have the same aims in life, to enjoy every shot and just get better !!
Thanks Holly.