Ok ok so I’m maybe a tad late with this blog…only 8 months but I do have a very valid excuse, I’m just bone idle. So let’s kick off with a story that led to an interesting and unexpected outcome. I had been working in Fife at the beginning of the year, somewhere along the fishing villages so I decided to use the chance to do a little location hunting. I drove around Anstruther and Pittenweem area lookng for somewhere around the shoreline to freeze a model, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but I did see a couple of castle type ruins from the road, the first one was St Monans castle.

Plus the tower off to one side

I thought this had loads of potential so carried on to the next ruin, Lady’s Tower which actually isn’t a ruin just a folly however really nicely situated on a small cliff

This folly is a little walk from a car park and on the way there I came across and startled a buzzard with a fresh kill, I had my camera in my hand but didn’t get a chance to take an image. It was so close to me that I think the bird and I were stunned to find each other, however it recovered quicker than I did and flew off without its kill. On the way back to the car I came across a heron which had found the buzzards prize and decided to steal it, fortunately I was prepared this time and caught a number of shots. This following image was accepted and added to the BBC wildlife magazine, the heron picked up the feast which was a vole and flew off with it. The image was featured in the August edition of the magazine.

So December comes round again and it doesn’t seem long since the last time, only so far there’s less snow…and long may that last. Today my car decided that one of the windscreen wipers would pack up, 3 days ago a roof tile blew off the neighbours roof during high winds and dinged the wheel arch. Yay!!..happy xmas me!…lol. Anyways December so far hasn’t been too terrible, especially as I got to shoot with Chrissie Red again…yes again, I know but when you have a top model on your door step it’s difficult not to book her….and realise how lucky you are to have her here. I also ran into a photographer called Dave Hunt at a competition, what a revelation!…..he judged the inter club comp between Dundee, St Andrews, Cupar(? not sure on that one) and Perth. I had been losing my faith in judges especially after one of the judges during a previous competition admitted that he didn’t know how to judge my work (at least he was honest). This time though the judge was spot on with everything, I don’t think there was anything I disagreed with….he was looking for a story behind the images, it had to be more than just a pretty picture….wow……..nudes were judged on the merit they deserved…double wow! ….talk about a kindred spirit there! he definitely restored my faith in judging because after seeing the recent PAGB results for 2010 I was completely and utterly dismayed!
Only about 10-15% of the PAGB results were actually photographs the rest were digital art, don’t get me wrong, digital art is great, fantastic even but its not a photograph.
The view at my house over the river Tay at this time of year is sensational and it will last for about 5 months, lovely sunrises and sunsets, golden mornings and pink evenings. Every day is different, and I for one never take it for granted.
So back to my shoot with Chrissie Red, I had this idea about using red rope in an old dark building for a while and I knew Chrissie’s new home was being renovated so I told her the idea and we set up a shoot at her house. Originally I had the idea of using her hallway for a backdrop but after trying it out I realised it wasn’t going to work so we went into the loft…..wow!!….what a place for a shoot!!
The loft had 2 skylights which lit up her body beautifully but also made the colour of the rope stand out, now those of you who are of the ‘interesting’ persuasion may be thinking bondage but I choose to avoid that and show that there was no ‘restraints’

Ok so it was bloody freezing in there and Chrissie did extremely well considering the conditions, and after a quick warm up we went for a shoot in her hallway using another skylight….isn’t natural light fantastic?!

Ok time for a change of scenery, we drove to my house…I gotta say a lot warmer…lol, we planned to do some semi nude images with material such as scraves and blankets. We got warmed a bit with a snack and some hot chocolate, then on to the next session. Taken in my conservatory with natural light, using the closed blinds the room becomes a natural light box.

This is only a small selection and I have plenty images for future competitions, but more over I had fun making images with someone who has become a firm friend, and that is more important than what anyone thinks of the images we have produced….we?…of course!, it’s always teamwork when working with an outstanding model of Chrissie’s stature.

So this month I had a great shoot with Chrissie Red and her partner Rory, we had arranged this shoot earlier at the end of summer with Ellie Smithy, unfortunately Ellie couldn’t make it in the end. We met up at Chrissie’s new flat and she showed me around, it’s still unfinished but that is gonna be one excellent flat when it’s done, loads character and a room with a great bay window. Anyways because Rory and Chrissie were moving towns I thought it would be good to go somewhere closer to their flat so that they can take others photographers at a later date, I don’t mind sharing locations with other people, I’m not one for keeping interesting places secret if I find them; after all its just as much what you do there as the location itself.
 Firstly we went to Lairds Loch, it’s quite a common location for ramblers and dog walkers, it’s usually a very busy area but today was quiet….very handy. The path skirts round the loch and heads up into the pine forest, which although nice to walk thru isn’t really photogenic and the backdrop is way too messy. So I thought  the little jettys that poke out over the water would be a good start, especially as the  background foliage was getting to that dull green and brown stage making the model pop out in the image.

We worked our way back to the car, shooting in places we spotted before, first near the boathouse then onto the some tree stumps that stood at the side of the loch, finishing with a snack attack before moving on to the next location.

Work:- well I was gonna talk about work and how redundancies reared it ugly head again, every 6 months is the pattern now. But to be honest I’m past caring about work, I lost interest in it years ago and its been beaten to death by really bad upper management. Sound familiar anyone?

So seeing as I have just started this blog with a ramble I might as well continue with a non ramble.
So I will blog my shoot with Holly and try and add pics at certain points (Oooer!)

Well anyways I tried to organise a shoot with St Andrews Photographic Society which involved Ivory Flame (Holly) and Chrissie Red in a  flower fairies themed shoot, Unfortunately this didn’t come off thru no fault of anyones….just bad timing etc etc…. though I must admit to being a tad disappointed. I still think this would be an excellent shoot, however moving on. When Holly said she was coming up to Scotland for a tour I booked her for a 4 hour slot, nice move I thought, I’d always intended to book her seperately from the St Andrews shoot anyways. My next dilemma was what the hell am I gonna do with her?!…I had no idea! It was too late for the gardens and flowers and other locations were getting harder to get to or involved too much travel time.
Also Holly need to be in Aberdeen in the afternoon for another shoot with Sarah and Mike Fraser, hmm I pondered and thunk and bits of my mind went a dull grinding noise. In the end I  opted for going to the Bridge of Dun and the House of Dun, this being halfway between Dundee and Aberdeen. Now I had been there before with Chrissie Red, Chris Cargill and Mhari Miller but there was still bits of these locations that hadn’t been photographed yet. The previous shoot with Chrissie Red at the train station turned out great however at that time we were expecting to get on the trains….no such luck though as there was no-one there at the time to let us on….a bit of a let down but I can’t really complain as we got some really good images. Chrissie was exceptional as always.
Anyways Holly and I wander in to the train station and the main man was there fixing a lawn mower, after a little bit of banter he gave us the key to the trains!!…result!!!…totally unexpected!
I was only expecting to do the parts of the station on the outside that I’d missed the last time but hey who was I to pass up the offer of accees to the trains. These were carriages dating back to 1957 and 1962…all old wood and private compartments etc …real old style.

So of we go shoot shoot shoot…the light was a little tricky inside but do-able, Holly was great for that location, her looks , her style, complextion and clothes…couldn’t fail really I just had to go ‘click’

I think there was only one area that would have really good for  a nude shot but alas I failed to recognise it…it ain’t always the way when you look back at your images and say to yourself….’bugger’ ..if only.

 Ah well such is life, I can always go back again and redo at a later date.
After the train station we went to the House of Dun for a tea/coffee and cake, god that coconut custard pie is just heavenly. So on we go for another shoot down by the woodland walk and ice house, unfortunately we were running out of time by this point and I had to be a bit more slap dash than normal but it turned out good…still very tricky light though as the sun was very harsh that day, overexposure was a big problem. Holly was flawless, moving gracefully from one pose to another tireless and angelic.

 However all good things come to an end and I eventually drove Holly up to Aberdeen to hand her over to the hands of Mike and Sarah….all in all a grand day out!!