White Dress Project Location Shoot 27th October 2013

Shattered!  But had a really enjoyable day! Plus, the weather held, we were very lucky, a couple of short sharp showers, we even got some sunshine!

During the week, Lindsay had collected the studio lights from college.  We had then arranged to meet at the Field Head Hotel, Markfield at 10:30am.  I was collecting Gemma and then her model (Sylvia).  Malcolm collected Nicole and her model (Claire) and Lindsay came along with his van (plus his wife Nadia came along as well to help out wherever she could).

I left the house at about 9:00 am to get to Syston for 9:30, collect Gemma and then off to Braunstone to collect her model for 10am and then to Markfield to 10:30am.  We then drove in convoy to the wonderful house and estate that Lindsay had found.  We spoke to the owners, just to say hi and introduce ourselves.  We then all piled into Lindsays van and drove to the other side of the estate for our first shots.  We planned to make our way back to the house during the shoot.

We parked up and piled out of the van.  While Lindsay, Malcolm and I took kit to the location, the models got dressed and had their makeup done in the back of the van.  Because it’s quite big and heavy we decided to leave the studio lights in the van and try with off camera flash.

We started with shots in and around one of the ‘turrets’  always conscious to keep moving and swapping models to keep them warm. Our first shots were the models standing in the windows, us shooting from inside the turret, getting the water and woodland in the background.  Although i’ve not got any of these shots, because I shoot Nikon and the off camera flashes that we had are Canon.  I did however take a few shots using Malcolm’s camera.

The photographers then moved out of the turret, the girls turned around and faced outwards.  I really liked these shots.  We didn’t need remote flash as the sun came out, although it was a bit frustrating because it was in and out, so we had to be careful with exposures.

Lindsay and I then moved around the lake to the top of the rocky outcrop (see recce shoot) back towards the tower.  We got the models to sit and stand, individually and together in the window spaces.  Again, no flash, just the sunlight, when it came out.  Really like these shots and the reflections.  Lindsay also went down to a lower level to get a different angle.

We then moved around to an area next to one of the other quarry’s, just in front of a shear rock face.  We did get a bit of a shower at this point and had to take refuge under a tarpaulin, was a good excuse to pause and get a bite to eat:

I took a few shots of Claire here, but wasn’t overly impressed.  The pictures looked a bit flat without any off camera flash.  I did try some on camera, but they looked terrible.  Here is one of the better shots (no flash):

We then walked around to an open fronted wooden building that was in front of a small field, which was one of the places we’d picked out for a bad weather shoot.  I’ve not got any photo’s from this location, because it had to be flash and I had the Nikon/Canon flash issue.  While there Lindsay went for a walk up the hill towards the house and found an amazing old, huge, tree.  So we made our way up there to take some shots.  It was pretty light, so I could shoot without flash.  Although I got Lindsay’s wife to direct a bit of light with a reflector for a few shots.  I was really happy with some of these shots, here is an example:

By this time it was about 4pm and as well as being conscious about models and fashion students getting cold and bored we were shattered and decided to call it a day.

We made our way back to the house.  Lindsay fetched his van.  Models got back into their street clothes, makeup was removed and the photographers had a quick whip round to donate to a charity that the landowner supports (his only request, as well as not photographing to house).

We all went our separate ways.  It was nice to talk to Gemma and Nicole on the way back, they had enjoyed the experience of the day and looked forward to seeing the final images.  I have just emailed a few over to them.  Here is a selection of my favourite images, click on them to get some notes: