Bristol – Portrait and commercial Photography Bristol, Bath and West

Halloween and Christmas with Voodoo Queen Tuesday Laveau

07/12/2012 By David Leave a Comment

Due to a flurry of commercial and PR freelance shoots in recent weeks there hasn’t been much time for blogging but while archiving some images I thought a couple of a local burlesque star should be brought to your attention.

I’ve worked with burlesque and gogo performer Tuesday Lavaeu on numerous occasions over the past few years and have provide a great deal or the promotional imagery. She’s one of the region’s best known performers as can be seen regularly headlining shows in the UK and internationally in New York and New Orleans. She also edits an increasingly-read Burlesque website/ezine called Coochie Crunch. A lot of you ask me about my burlesque photography and you can gain an insight into that stuff here.

The gaveyard shift. Tuesday Laveau with a Vampira-influenced look

Tuesday’s a big fan of campy 1950s scream queen Vampira, AKA Finnish-American actress Maila Nurmi. Nurma created Vampira initially as televisions first horror hostess and portrayed her again cult Ed Wood classic film Plan 9 from Outer Space and was billed as Vampira again in the The Beat Generation where she plays a beatnik poet.

Shutter speed was such that the background could be darkened for a night time feel.

To get the right feel we used a local graveyard and here’s a couple of the resulting images. The set-up was very simple and guerilla and the whole thing was done in around 30 minutes flat – for lighting it was simply a Canon 580ex flash through an adapter through a Bowens Softlite reflector mixed with the ambient light darkened to give a more ‘evening’ feel, even though we were shooting mid-morning.

Tuesday also had a new Christmas act lined-up and I also shot a few studio images of this too.

Christmas burlesque booty-shaking with Tuesday Laveau

Christmas booty-shaking with Tuesday Laveau

While we’re talking things burlesque-related, a couple of my images have been used on a charity breast cancer charity by Welsh producers The Bluestocking Lounge, headed by Lilly Laudanum. It’s for a great cause so go and buy one over at their website.

Get yourself one of these fabulous charity calendars, which features two of my images, including one of Tuesday Lavaeu.

Filed Under: David's blog, Personal Projects, Portrait shoots, Recent photoshoots Tagged With: 1950s, Bowens, Bristol, Burlesque, cabaret, christmas, flash photography, freelance photography, Halloween, portraits, Portraiture, Scream Queen, Vampira, Vintage

Butterfly fashion shoot with makeup artist Jo Peters

29/10/2012 By David Leave a Comment

Recently I was lucky to work again with Bristol-based makeup artist Jo Peters, a makeup lecturer at City of Bristol college and something on an online celebrity with a hugely popular YouTube channel. Our model for the shoot was Jess who was keen to try out an idea I’d had making use of lots and lots of butterflies.

Jo, who’s also know as Joanna Delilah online, is brilliant with theatrical makeup styles and it was great fun to be involved with something quite high concept. I last worked directly with Jo sometime ago on a shoot with burlesque performer Keda Breeze, but Jo’s also put me in touch with several of her makeup students, who have all proven fab to work with.

Here’s one of Jo’s YouTube makeup tutorials…

Before the shoot I’d used Pinterest to collate some great visual ideas to communicate with the rest of the team. Everything. took place at my Bristol flat in a very small space but if you work within limitations you can produce high-end images anywhere and don’t always need a grand location or vast studio.

It was also an opportunity for me to test a new piece of equipment, the Bowens Luminair OctaBank 140, which is a large 8-side softbox. Working in a tight space I didn’t use an additional fill light but assistant, Sophie, was sometimes on hand with a large silver reflector panel to help control shadows. Mounted to one of my Bowens Gemini 500 studio lights, the Luminar Octabank is such a cool light there’s not much need to over-egg the pudding. I was able to squeeze in a background support stand and we shoot against Rose Pink seamless paper, a fairly rich magenta colour, from Calumet.

I’d obtained a large number of feather butterflies from a floristry wholesaler for the shoot in shades of bright magenta and lilacs. There were relatively detailed and looked even better on camera and were relatively economical to buy in bulk. To attache them to Jess’s underwear and skin we used some hypoallergenic body tape.

Jo was able to integrate the colour scheme suggested my the butterflies into her makeup scheme, which took well over an house to apply to out model before hair was styled by assistant, Sophie, who is one of Jo’s students. Joe was clearly enjoying going to town on the project as work commitments had meant she hadn’t had the chance to work on something this fun for a while. Jo integrated some simple but clever touches like using paper on Jess’s eyelashes. The finished look melded perfectly with the butterflies and we were ready to shoot.

My Canon EOS 24-70mm f/2.8L tens to be my go-to lens when using studio flash, which use used for most of the images, although I did switch briefly to a 70-200mm lens for some tighter headshots. The Luminair Octabank was a delight to use if a little unwieldy in out tight shooting space. Still I could have been happier with how the images turned out.

Filed Under: David's blog, Fashion shoots, Personal Projects, Photographic techniques, Portrait shoots Tagged With: 24-70, avante garde, Bowens, Bowens Gemini, Bristol, bristol photography, Bristol portraiture, Canon, EOS, Fashion shoot, flash photography, freelance photography, portrait photography, Studio Lighting

Cave Girl pinup shoot with Marianne Cheesecake

30/08/2012 By David 1 Comment

London-based Canadian burlesque star Marianne Cheescake has been dazzling international audiences with her fun-packed routines and it was my great pleasure to shoot with her when she was in Bristol.

We’d been in touch via email discussing two different ideas and made use of Pinterest to organise our thoughts visually. The first act Marianne had in mind for promo shots was her ‘Cave Girl’ routine. While I could have done a great job using my home studio I knew the whole thing would get a huge lift by using a rocky Flintstones-esque location, so we headed for nearby Portishead where I knew of a great shoreline location that wouldn’t be too full of people on a Saturday morning.

Marianne Cheesecake pinup shots at Portishead

After an assistant had to pull out, I was lucky to be joined last-minute by by friend Bert Vessier, a Bridgwater-based photographer. Bert recently obtained a set of Elinchrom Quadra RX flash. He’s become a huge evangelist for the technology and was keen to demonstrate the Quadra’s powers on the shoot. I’m a big fan of the Bowens Gemini+Travelpak option of location lighting, and while I’m a bit reticent about going with unfamiliar gear on a real shoot, a flash is basically a flash and I was interested to see how the Quadras performed so we used them.

Although we were shooting in the middle of the day the sun was covered by clouds giving me plenty of options for shaping the light with the Elinchrom flash, which at 400 w/s is powerful but probably not up to overpowering direct midday sun with the Canon 5D mkII’s rather poor 1/160s maximum sync speed. I was keen to use ‘flash on location’ because of the ‘carved out of the background’ hyped look it gives, which for the colourful pinup vibe I was seeking is perfect. Although I had a few lenses with my Canon EF 24-70 f2.8L covered the bases – it’s not a ‘sexy’ bit of glass, but about as good as a general purpose lens gets.

Marianne Cheesecake is a fabulous model and brought some great posing despite my making her climb or all over the place for the best compositions – but needs must if you to great photographs.

The Quadras performed brilliantly and unlike a top-heavy Gemini monolight were light and easy to move around without the top-heaviness my Bowens setup often suffers – a nice touch was being able to control flash power via the Skyport triggers. As pure location lighting, the Quadras probably ‘win’ but then Geminis are a better indoors/studio option. It’s swing and roundabouts. I’ve been considering a Bowens 1500 Explorer set for some time and this would get around the top heavy problem and deliver oodles of power for those times I just have to shoot in the brightest sunlight or want to use light-sapping accessories like a softbox.

Are you a musician? Dancer? Pinup? Performer? For tailor-made promotional images packages, get in touch.

Filed Under: David's blog, Photographic techniques, Portrait shoots, Tools of the trade Tagged With: 1950s, Bowens, Bowens Gemini, Bristol, Burlesque, cave girl, cheesecake, elinchrom, flash photography, freelance photography, pinup, portishead, Portraiture, retro, Studio Lighting, Vintage

Framing photographs beautifully

06/08/2012 By David Leave a Comment

Beautifully framed photographic portraits can look incredible, taking pride of place in the a home and becoming a great talking point when guests come to visit.

As a portrait photographer, I love to see my images well displayed. While I do do ‘digital only’ packages (there’s a real demand for it these days) I love to deliver beautiful framed prints – the ultimate ‘finished product’. Everything is taken care off from the original composition, to careful editing on a colour-calibrated system through to high-end giclee prints professionally framed.

A great many framing options exist these days from traditional frames with a thick mount covered by a sheet of glass, through to the ubiquitous ‘canvas wrap’ and recent higher-tech developments like pring on sheets of aluminium or acrylic blocks. I’ve produced many types of prints for portrai clients over the years but the traditional framed print remains my own personal favourite. It’s a timeless, simple look that will never age.

While frames can be produced in many different styles, I prefer a simple ‘exhibition’ approach – a plain black frame with a bright white mount. This monochrome approach does not conflict with the colours contain in the photograph. All the photographs displayed in my own home are framed in this way.

Perfectly framed protraits can be the centrepieve of your living space.

Perfectly framed portraits can be the centrepiece of your living space.

That said, a client with lots of, say, pine or mahogany furniture may choose a colour in keeping with their home’s interior design, which can also be a great option. Sometimes a frame can have a strong colour so long as it is complimentary to the dominant colours in the photograph itself.

Framing materials can vary immensely in quality and I only use framing suppliers that offer good quality products. Also important to me is choosing woods from sustainably-managed forests. The framed print comes ready to hang (or stand for smaller products), complete with a strong MDF backing board and, for larger prints, special safety glass. The photograph is set within a 1.5mm Daler Rowney art board mount.

I print images up to A2+ myself in-house so I can ensure the image is absolutely perfect and can make a final adjustment. Large prints are handled by professional printers offering the same great results.

If you are interested to learn more about my portrait photography or would like to check availability for a shoot, please get in touch via this page.

Filed Under: David's blog, News, Portrait shoots, Recent photoshoots, Tools of the trade Tagged With: Bristol, framing, giclee, portrai photography

Giclee printing now available to clients

06/08/2012 By David Leave a Comment

I can now offer high-end in-house giclee printing up to A2+ size for my clients, offering beautiful, vibrant images on archival-quality rated to last at least 100 years.

What is ‘giclee printing’ and why does it matter?
‘Giclee printing’ is a term invented by American print maker Jack Duganne in the early 1990s to describe a process for making lasting fine art prints using a new breed of high-end inket printers, which were being used in the printing industry for proofing colour books. Until then, high quality traditional offset printing was used for creating many art reproductions, but this still required a reasonable print run to be economically viable.

High-end inks are used for giclee printing.

Giclee printing offers even greater quality that offset printing and the advantage of being able to offer one off prints. Duganne chose to call the process ‘giclee’ (based on the French language word le gicleur’) to denote something different to the run-off-the-mill inkjet printing consumers are used to at home.

Giclee inkjets are professional systems with high quality inks designed to last for at least 100 years. The printers have multiple cartridges for variations of each CMYK color based on the such as light magenta and light cyan inks in addition to regular magenta and cyan. This allows far greater reslution and much smoother transitions between colours.

The process is completed through the use of archival quality papers, which again add to longevity, from simple gloss or lustre papers through to ‘watercolor paper’, cotton canvas, linen, etc.

Giclee printing offers beautiful prints that last a 100 years and more.

Why offer the giclee process in-house?

With in-house giclee printing I can gain even greater control of the process and save time. With carefully-controlled colour calibration there are fewer ‘nasty surprises’ when photos come back from the lab these days, but it means I can see results right away on my desktop and fix and minor issues that may have been missed right away. For larger prints there’s a modest cost saving too.

Portrait clients that have received prints from the new system so far have been blown away but the sheer quality, clarity and vibrance of the images. I can offer prints up to a size of A2+ and a tastefully framed A2 print with a deep mount makes a spectacular piece of wall art. As before, I can offer even larger prints, canvases, aluminium prints handled by print partners. My personal favourite way to display photography, however, is always in a black frame with a bright white mount – how images are generally displayed at exhibitions.

I am a photographer/artists. Can I send you my images for printing?
Generally speaking, for larger prints, I can offer pricing a little lower than most labs for Bristol-based customers. Get in touch with details of your requirements to learn more.
Additionally, if you are an artist that would like to produce limited print runs of pieces of work I can again get in touch for a quote. I can also offer photographic reproductions of artworks that are too larger to too textured/three dimensional for flatbed scanning.

Filed Under: David's blog, News, Photographic Musings, Photographic techniques, Tools of the trade Tagged With: Bristol, Bristol portraiture, clients, equipment, Freelance, giclee, portrait photography, printing

Behind the scenes burlesque and boudoir photo shoot

01/08/2012 By David Leave a Comment

Regular blog readers may have notice the link to my recently created YouTube channel. So far it contains a few photo sildeshows and now my first stab at a ‘behind the scenes’ video.

I set up the YouTube channel as it gives me another ‘hook’ into the internet. Online video marketing is on the rise and with powerful smartphones, iPads and internet-enabled TVs on the rise, multimedia is fast becoming as important as text. Moreover, some research suggests that text pages that have a video clips embedded in them are more likely to show up first on traditional text web searches. Of course, online video marketers, or just anyone who uploads to YouTube, hope that their video will be interesting enough that people will share it via email or post it t their Twitter feeds and Facebook pages and thus ‘go viral’, generating a very large number of hits.

Bambi's 'Italian movie starlet' boudoir photo shoot.

That said, another big reason for created my YouTube channel was for sheer fun. I’ve always enjoyed watching ‘behind the scenes’ footage online and thought I would add a little something to the mix for friends and clients to enjoy.

The video was shot with a small, consumer-grade Panasonic HD camcorder, which was operated on the shoot by Lucy heard, who was also the photographic assistant. The final production was put together on a Mac with Final Cut Pro X, which suffered a controversial launch due to missing features and lack of similarity to previous versions, but is a very fluid and quick editor to use. As the Panasonic video was only so-so in terms of quality, I filtered it to look like old black and white TV, which also allowed the colour photographs included to pop. The concept for the shoot was to make anglo-Italian model, burlesque performer Bambi Beretta, look reminscent of the stars of classic Italian cinema but shot in a contempory, boudoir-ish style.

Filed Under: David's blog, Fashion shoots, News, Portrait shoots, Recent photoshoots Tagged With: behind the scenes, boudoir photography, Bristol, Bristol Burlesque, bristol photography, BTS, Burlesque, cabaret, Editorial, Fashion shoot, flash photography, video, Vintage, youtube

Hokey burlesque fun with Tuesday Laveau

12/07/2012 By David Leave a Comment

Here are a few images of burlesque star, Tuesday Laveau. Taking trailer park kitsch and Anna Nicole Smith as our sylistic inspiration, this is what we created.

Find out more about Tuesday and her performances at http://tuesdaylaveau.wordpress.com/

Tuesday Laveau with Fender Stratocaster

Tuesday Laveau, Voodoo Queen

Tuesday Laveau burlesque superstar

Musician? Dancer? Performer? For tailor-made promo packages, get in touch today.

Filed Under: David's blog, Portrait shoots, Recent photoshoots Tagged With: Bowens, Bowens Gemini, Bristol, Bristol Burlesque, bristol music, bristol photography, Bristol portraiture, Burlesque, cabaret, flash photography, portraits, Portraiture, Studio Lighting

London Boudoir Photography: Live studio session

03/07/2012 By David Leave a Comment

Live internet broadcasts are becoming an increasingly important way to brush up on your photographic skills and I’ll be right at the centre of one on Thursday 5 July, hosted by London Boudoir Photography.

You’ll be able to tune in and watch for free as photographers Carlo Nicora and Fabiana Zonca reveal how they work to achieve consistently stunning boudoir and beauty images.

I’ve been following the photographers online for quite some as their blog is always an interesting read and peppered with utterly beautiful photography.

IF you’ve never seen a web broadcast before they can be quite interactive. London Boudoir’s event will feature a twitter hashtag (#lbl) and a chat room where viewers can ask questions.

I’m really excited to have been selected to be the assistant/student photographer on the shoot. I love London Boudoir’s work as not is it technically proficient and distinctive in terms of lighting but, more importantly, they achieve wonderfully relaxed sensual poses from clients and models. So there’s plenty I’ll be eager to learn.

The event kicks off at 12.30 and you can find how to tune in and join the chat rooms here:

http://www.londonboudoirphotography.com/2012/06/broadcasting-a-photo-shoot-at-london-boudoir-photography/

Filed Under: David's blog, News Tagged With: boudoir, Bristol, carlo nicora, fabian a zonca, live web broadcast, london, round peg, webinar

‘Where’s Wally?’ – Performer promo shoot

18/06/2012 By David Leave a Comment

Here are some snaps from a recent promo photo shoot with Bristol-based performer, Boo, who goes by the stage name, Lou Leigh Blue.

Lou focuses on fun, story-led burlesque routines, often with a satirical edge. This shoot was to provide promotional images for a brand new act based on popular children’s book, Where’s Wally?

Lighting was provided by a Bowens studio flash head with 100cm softbox and fill came from a Canon 580ex bounced from the ceiling, via a Joe Demb Flip-it bounce card.

You can learn more about her acts on her new website, here.

Filed Under: David's blog, Music shoots, Portrait shoots, Recent photoshoots Tagged With: Bristol, Burlesque, freelance photography, lou leigh blue, promo photography, tattoo

Bowling alley fashion, The Lanes, Bristol

03/06/2012 By David 1 Comment

Recently, I enjoyed a great test shoot with amazing model and actress Jessica Elizabeth Swason, part of which included some retro fashion pinup-influences shots at The Lanes, Bristol.

Hair styling was done by Doug Hobbs at Hobbs Hairdressing, Bristol, organiser of the immensly popular Hobbs Shows with makeup work done by Jasmine Rogers, a talented makeup student at City of Bristol College.

The Lanes is a city-centre Bowling alley, decked out in a retro, 1950s style, so made a great backdrop for this part of the shoot, which could be called ‘vintage pinup with a modern twist’. For lighting, I mixed the ambient and natural light with a Bowens Softlight reflector – one of my favouring lighting modifiers – to give a studio-like ‘hyped’ feel to the shot. Not much Photoshop was needed, but Lightroom was used to boost contrast and darken/saturate certain colours.