Here I Go

Here I Go

It's been a good while since I've had the opportunity to post here. The last several weeks have been a veritable roller coaster with all the ups and downs. A lot of highs a merciful amount of lows.

The biggest news of the lot would be that as of last Friday at 2PM, my employment in the textile manufacturing industry officially ended. I now have no other source of income other than my camera.

Now other than my continued full time employment, there's the multitude of things that kept me from posting here as I would have liked. Of the many things finished and started over the past few weeks, this is but a quick breakdown:

• Business Plan Complete
• Several Meetings with a Business Advisor
• Several Wonderful Photoshoots
• Marketing Plan Complete
• Press Release Complete
• Several Events and Fairs Scheduled
• Found a Studio Space
• Lost Said Studio Space
• Finished Full-Time Employment (Did I mention that yet?)

Now I plan to touch on a lot of these topics in future posts, as this is still a blog about my endeavour to make a career out of my photography, but for now, I will just leave you with a couple recent images whilst I begin to plan what is next to come.

Bring on The Flashguns

Bring On The Flashguns

Okay, it might be blatantly obvious, but I love my strobes. Particularily my Bowens GM500. It's magic.

However, a recent conversation with Phil Winterbourne got me thinking about my long neglected, yet trusty flashgun. (430EX) It's been well over a year and a half since I dusted this guy off for no good reason other than I had my strobes to work with.

Phil had pointed out that the flashgun has a highspeed sync feature that I had somehow overlooked. Enthralled, I knew I wanted to try it out.

After a couple test shots in the garden, I knew I was going to get hooked on using my flashgun again. Of course, the first port of call was to take more than a passing interest in the Strobist blog. It can only be considered convenient that the first thing I saw upon arrival was an article on water drops; something I've done dozens of times in the past, but perfect for getting back into the swing of using the 430.

Now, this is by no stretch of the imagination perfect, nor is it even an example of highspeed sync. What it is; however, is me picking up my camera for the Hell of it, for the first time in a long time and even if it is just a quick five minute experiment, I know, once again, that I need to shoot just for the sake of shooting a lot more often!

Tattoos and Things

Tattoos and Things

Okay, I lied. There aren't really any things involved in this post, but there are certainly tattoos!

This past bank holiday Monday, for me, hosted a shoot I have long anticipated ever since Nick (tattoo23) proposed the shoot! The other model, Demari Vi Syth, I have wanted to work with for a very long time. Sadly, distance prohibited such a collaboration. Until now!

Seriously, this was a fantastically amazing shoot! Having worked with Nick twice before, I knew he is great to work with. Now, Demari Vi Syth: Wow! This woman is amazing! Amazing as a model and just an amazing person in general!

Now put these two together in front of a camera for six hours: MAGIC!!

These guys made this one of my most enjoyable photoshoots to date! Honestly, the energy and enthusiasm they brought to the table broke the scale!

As always, thanks for taking the time to check these out! Don't forget to drop a comment below should you feel the urge!

Who Needs Octopus?

Who Needs Octopus . . .

When you have Gummi Worms (well, technically Jelly Snakes)?!?!?

Just a fun take on all the alternative beauty shots involving octopuses and models' mouths!


Enjoy!

Androgyny

Androgyny

I could easily have titled this post with a song reference, but I refuse to quote that atrocious "Beyonce" song and the "The Who" lyrics I have in my head are probably a little too obscure to serve this purpose.

Alas, today I'm going to talk about one of my favourite trends in fashion and fashion photography. Androgyny. I love it. So visual, so visceral, so moving at times. From images of David Bowie to Agyness Deyn to the backup dancers in the video for "Addicted to Love" to the fashion photography of Paolo Roversi. I love it. The whole style, the whole movement.

As such, it is only natural that I would want to incorporate the use of androgyny into my own photography.

Thanks to a few keen models, though not entirely without trepidation, I have been able to start an ongoing body of work based solely on that single, yet enormously broad, concept.

While I am over the moon about being able to conduct this project, I've found that there are a few misconceptions out there that turn a lot of people off of the concept. In particular, male models . I seem to find people tend to believe that androgyny is the act of a girl looking like a boy or a boy looking like a girl.

At least in my vision of the concept, that could not be further from the truth. In fact, it's about being genderless. Either or. Not gender reversal, rather a convergence of both feminine and masculine traits.

Minor hindrances aside, I am now fully on my way to furthering this particular body of work and I can only assume that as the project progresses it will only get easier to justify my vision. I have seriously enjoyed creating my photographic work with androgyny so far and I can only hope to continue to do so in the future!

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings. Feel free to drop a comment below whether you loved the images, hated them or think I'm just completely full of it! All feedback is always appreciated!

Promotional Poster for the Barnsley Civic

Promotional Poster for the Barnsley Civic

The Civic Hall in Barnsley has recently been refurbished to an extreme and wonderful degree. Inside, one will now find a music hall, art gallery and creative workspaces all surrounded by the exquisite architecture of the building itself. It really is a wonderful place.

To bring things back to the matter of relevance: below is a promotional poster created for the Barnsley Civic incorporating one of my photographs of the lovely Monika!