I had never worked with Carla before, I’ve seen her work and knew she was often up in Scotland but I never had the chance to get to work with her. So when the pandemic hit it gave me an opportunity to create something remotely when Carla set up some scenes in her home. Again I was trying to work on a specific editing technique this time with subtle pale colours.

The lighting and techy bits were set up by Adrian Crook

A quick change of hair style, accessories and props……and something fluffy!

Another change for some mono work….

Our final scene was a complete change of set…basically a different room altogether, already set up with drapes and props.

I loved the images from this remote shoot, Carla was lovely to work with and Adrian was chatty, helpful and friendly during the shoot set ups. Hopefully at some point we can get a 1-2-1 shoot, however the world is topsy turvy at the moment so who knows when. Anyways, I highly recommend a remote shoot with Carla, fabulous set ups, props and clothes….and of course model.

So quickly moving on from my first remote shoot, Ivory Flame and I got together for another remote shoot. This shoot being a little different from before because I had a specific editing style that I wanted to try out and as such the setup, props and poses were constructed accordingly by Ivory Flame, who did a lovely job with the colours and fabrics.

It wasn’t long before we got underway with a rich purple fabric…

Moving on to some sparkles and pearls….

And then a rich red….

Some floaty sheer greeny yellow green green in a yellow green sheer way….

We changed things around and added more props and changed the backdrop, keeping the same ‘feel’ for the final set of the shoot.

Ivory Flame has done a lot of work to turn her home into a lovely studio, with a wide range of sets and costumes. The lighting is lovely and the colours are rich and vibrant, with all her clothes and accessories at hand the possibilities are almost endless. And of course working with a top model means stunning images are guaranteed.

I would encourage all photographers to get the Ivory Flame remote experience, for those who have never worked with Ivory Flame you are definitely missing out on something very special.

So the pandemic had been a whole year by the time I got on to doing remote shoots, many models and photographers had already started doing remote shoots for a while. For me personally I used the pandemic to give myself a creative break for a while. During 2020 I did very few shoots, much less than usual. In March 21 I decided it was time to get back into the swing of things and try out some remote shoots, fortunately for me Artemis had some time available for a remote shoot. It didn’t take long to get going as Artemis had everything all set up ready to go. We started with some pink fluff!…

Then moving on the some orange and cream colours….

Then some Lingerie….something I haven’t got many images of…..

And lastly some nudes and the peacock chair…..

So this was my first remote shoot and very enjoyable it was, once you get the hang of controlling the remote camera the shoot is a breeze. Of course Artemis made it easy to do and guided me through the initial set up. The results were high quality images sent via dropbox and it gave me a taste for doing it again. Plus it’s always good to catch up with Artemis anyway and discuss a possible ‘reality’ shoot for August. If you are thinking of dipping your toes into a remote shoot then doing so with Artemis is highly recommended.

So back in October 2020, while the Covid-19 restrictions weren’t so ….erm restrictive I managed to team up with Chris Scott at his studio and had a trial run at the equipment and lights. Chris has a local studio in Dundee equipment with first rate gear and an excellent array of backdrops, however I needed to test it out with my Nikon camera. I got in touch with Kai Yee to see if she could come along for a short shoot, it had been a few years since we had a shoot together. One other small technical difficulty was getting my new fresnel modifier set up properly, eventually we had it rigged up and while it wasn’t as good as the previous Bowens one it did the job. And after a quick chin wag with Kai Yee we got down to work and took some shots.

We played around with some fabrics and moved on to some portraits using Chris’s lighting gear.

We got a fair bit done in our short shoot and it was good to catch up with Kai Yee after such a long time. I’m not even going to mention how long ago it was but I’m pretty sure electricity was a new thing back then 😉

Chris has an excellent studio and is a first rate photographer, you can check out his work and web age at https://www.chrisscottphotography.co.uk where he caters for a huge range of photography needs from weddings, family portraits, newborns to commercial work.

Nicole Rayner and I had been trying to get a shoot organised for a while but bad timing and the pandemic made things very difficult. Eventually in September we both managed to get a day sorted for a location shoot, the studio had been sold so location was the only option at that time, come hell or high water. As it turns out it was high water really, the morning of the shoot rained like the start of Noah’s flood. Before leaving the house I made a flask of coffee to warm us up on the beach, and then promptly left it behind as I ran out the door.

I picked Nicole up at the train station and headed for snacks before hitting the beach, luckily on the way there the rain eased off a bit and by the time I parked the car the rain had stopped. The clouds were still hanging in there creating a very dramatic scene.

We dragged a dress along with us…..just because…

And then Nicole decided to brave the water….

We head off to the forest for a break and warm up a bit…..things were still very soggy and water logged. After wandering around for a bit we came across this scene.

Heading back the car for a bite to eat and a break, the weather had improved a lot and even the sun threatened to make an appearance. We grabbed a couple of props and head back into the forest for more shots.

And then lastly we found the second world war lookout post….

Sadly we ran out of time, as every shoot seems to. We needed to head back to get Nicole’s next train, it was a grand day out which started out a bit grim weather wise but in the end the sun came out and it was fabulous in the September sunshine. And of course Nicole is genuinely a lovely person to work with, actually let me change that to; Nicole is a genuinely lovely person, full of ideas and creativity. Much chat and humour was had (but no coffee) and it was great to catch up with our past adventures since our last meeting.

Hopefully we’ll catch up again for another adventure at some point.

What a strange year 2020 has turned out to be, and not in a good way. It’s been a year of very few shoots due to the pandemic, but I have managed to do some social distancing locations shoots. These have been bright spots in the year, and one of those bright spots was the yearly shoot with Artemis Fauna. Originally it was supposed to be a studio shoot and studio day for other photographers but at the last minute the studio was sold and all bookings cancelled. Plans were changed and it meant Artemis and I had more time together for a shoot. When the day came it was dark and stormy, but we made the most of it and headed into the forest for some costume themes.

A dark day and a dark forest…..lends to tricky lighting but also some moody looks.

And perhaps a little mythology and mystery – The Summoning Stone

It was a very busy forest lots of dogs and dog walkers, after a bite to eat we headed down to Port Allen reed beds for some art nude.

On the way back we hit some random spots before ending the shoot….

And so ends another adventure…though we did hit the wine shop on the way home, where Artemis had samples of the local wine and chilli jam. It was another fun day with madcaps and unexpectedness, including dog walkers, capes, hairy mouldy poo, puppies, weird eyes, buzzards, dead rabbits, arrows, leather belts, brambles, toadstools, mossy feet, a sacrificial stone, boats, geese, reed beds, mink traps, a stingy arse…or two, and the nettles of surprise.

In other words….the usual!!

Following on from last year, I decided to carry on to the next FIAP level. I had 2 years in order to attain 100 awards with 20 different works in 10 different countries, however I gave myself a personal target of achieving this in a year. In the end I met my goal within 10 months, the final tally for this level is:-

116 awards, 51 different images and 19 countries

This is a grand total of 302 awards with 163 different awarded images, 3479 acceptances with 732 different images.

And so ends my FIAP journey, I may do the MFIAP at some point but at the moment it’s not on my horizon. Below are a selection of the images used in this Diamond level, in alphabetical order.

Again, many thanks to all the models I’ve worked with in the past, even if they aren’t shown here they have changed and contributed all the same. Without their support, expertise and skills I would not have been able to achieve this level of photography, every model I have worked with has been a delightful experience with laughter and adventures along the way.

Back in July 2020 during the easing of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in Scotland Stephanie and I managed to do a social distancing shoot on location. It was quite easy to do on location as models and photographers usually keep a respectful distance anyway. So the locations were deep in the Blair Atholl estate, I had been there a few years ago but nature has a habit of changing interesting spots and revealing new ones. The main area we shot in was around Cally Loch but because of the dense foliage we couldn’t actually see much of the loch at all, however there plenty of places to shoot in.

We shuffled our way round the loch, such a warm muggy windless day with a constant threat of a storm looming overhead but thankfully no midges!

Up to the side of the loch is a craggy rocky outcrop that looks over the loch, it makes for compelling images from different directions.

After this we packed up and moved on to another location, a goodly walk to an area and loch called Mill Dam. It took a while to get there and unfortunately there were too many people around to take advantage of the loch so we clambered over to a stream and bridge which seemed to be more isolated.

It was a busy place so we had a quick break and walked on to the next spot, again a goodly walk away…..and time was running out. When we got there nature had changed the scene considerably but we managed to get a few images on another rocky outcrop just as a storm was getting closer.

At this point the midges decided to show and the air was warm and stickier than before, this was the last spot for the shoot and not far from the carpark. Along the way on this shoot we saw toads, frogs, stonechats and a very brave red squirrel than ran between our legs (and a velociraptor rustling among the tall ferns!) . All in all a grand adventure out indeed, it’s always a real pleasure working with Stephanie, whether in the studio or on location. I think the next time I go to that location I will hire a couple of bikes to make the journey quicker and get round a few more ideal spots.

The first shoot of 2020 starts of with a bang, well actually it’s kinda the second shoot as the first one with a different model got cancelled (with good reason) at the very last minute. Anyway it was a pleasure to pick up Aurora from the station, it was the first time we had worked together even though she doesn’t live too far away. Anyway, we got in, put kettle on, had tea and got started.

This shoot was intended to be dark, dark lighting and dark intent/emotions.

A little mono to bring out the muscle tones….again dark as a darkkity dark thing..

A change of lighting and ……snacks!, obviously….can’t do without snacks!

And some clothes!….I said some..

More snacks…and more light changes….and much more darkness!

In a portrait sort of style

The Dark shots are particularly techy to set up properly and it very much limits the models scope, however I think there’s a lot still to do there. And I will experiment more on the ‘Things that are not Seen’ in the future. Meantime we had a laugh and a giggle, and tried out a few experiments, Aurora seemed keen to play with ideas and managed to cope with my usual incoherent direction and mumbling.

Highly recommended model, fun, chatty and a pleasure to work with. Hopefully we’ll work together again at a later date.