Shot on location in Oxfordshire using a studio head and portable battery pack.

Natural light shot on location. These were from a shoot with Charlotte last month where we shot both in my studio and on location. Thanks to Emma for doing the hair and make-up.

A shop in Oxford lent some beautiful designer clothes for the shoot, thanks to Booty Oxford.

I tried to go for a classic look in this picture, thinking Egyptian princess! I have no idea how Shara got the hair to stay up like that! Great look though.

I loved the frills on this dress. To try and show them I got Abi to jump so they lifted up slightly to give the impression of her floating.

Photos were all shot at my Oxfordshire studio. A big thanks to Shara for doing a great job on make-up and Abi Penhale for modelling. If you are interested in getting your portfolio updated please contact me.

I did a shoot last month with a shop from Oxford called Booty. They have a shop full of beautiful designer clothes in Oxford. I have loads of photos to put up on here as ever but I have several projects on the go at the moment so not much time!

I go to Thailand for a month on the 15th June. Before that I have a website to finish, a major photography project for Oxford univeristy and 2 summer balls to shoot! Not to mention the mountain of photos I have to edit and other smaller shoots. Fun, but busy times! I will try and get some more new pictures up soon!

A country themed fashion test I recently completed with model  Abi Penhale. This shot was natural light and a little fill from a shoot through umbrella and a Canon 580ex II. The wind was absolutely freezing this day so we didn’t shoot for as long as we would have liked, I am planning some more shoots at the location soon though.

This location was once a rubbish tip apparently, you wouldn’t think going there today! This shot was with just natural light from the overcast sky and using the aperture of F/2.8 on a Canon 70-200mm lens giving the out of focus background.

A friend of mine, Emma, is in her final year of make-up studies (not sure if that is the correct term for the course!) at the London School of Fashion. I went along and photographed the result of their project which they designed the make-up and styling for. The shoot location was a balcony just off of Oxford Street in London

Here are a couple more from the shoot. Coloured gel used to change the colour of the window behind the model

This was the background from the balcony looking out across the city. The balcony window was quite small so couldn’t shoot any wider than this shot. I had a great time on the shoot, a big thanks to Emma and her group of make-artists; Emma Mason, Liz Tulloch, Kenny Chang, Shara Wilson and Alexia Lazarou.

I find it’s always a good idea to work with a concept when taking on a fashion shoot. This test shoot was to the theme of ‘Rock Chic’.

The shoot was all done in my studio near Oxford with one or two studio strobe mono blocks, depending on the shot (Elinchrom 250 and 500 head). Most of the shots were with just one Elinchrom 500 head with a shoot through umbrella, some shots used a soft box too. The great thing about a shoot though umbrella is that it is very portable, though it didn’t really matter in this instance it just creates a nice light.

This shot was taken at F/6.3, 1/100 second, 55mm at ISO 100. This create just enough depth of field that all of the face is in focus but the hair starts to go out of focus.

I wanted to create a really graphic image and the black cables against the white background achieve this.

A little look at the behind the scenes setup, note the fan heater essential to keep the model happy! I fire the strobe heads with Elinchrom Skyports radio triggers, this reduces the number of cables to trip over around the studio and allows me to move around the studio freely.

We had a lot of fun smashing up an old record, again the contrast of the stark black against the white background works to create an effective high contrast image.

I have included several more shots in the gallery below, please click on a thumbnail to view them larger. Some of these photos can be seen on the D1 Models website. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below

A few weeks ago I had a fun fashion shoot with Caleb in the streets just outside of the centre of Oxford. This shot was lit with one Canon 580ex flash through a shoot through umbrella to the camera left, and then a Vivitar 285 also to the left but further back as a rim light. I used a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second to reduce the background light as much as possible, just leaving the moody lighting setup.

To try and explain this here’s a little lighting diagram:

Caleb bridge photography lighting setup shot

The flash Speedlites were trigger by Elinchrom Skyports, shot on Canon 40D.

I used one Canon 580ex flash through a shoot through umbrella to light this one. I really meant to take some setup shots for this shoot, but I forgot. I really need to remember to do that more often! The flash was to the camera right. Anyway here’s another flash lighting diagram.

Caleb photography lighting setup shot

I used a slightly longer shutter speed of 1/100 of a second this time to allow a little more background ambient light to come through and light the pillars around Caleb, yet retaining the moody feel to the photo.

So this is the first time I have posted lighting diagrams, feel free to leave comments about them.

Recently Abi and I went and shot some photos for her book, for once the English weather proved to be nice enough that we could shoot out side, in the sun! A rare treat this year… Rather than shoot in the studio got out on location around Oxfordshire.

I shot using just a long lens (Canon 70-200mm f/2.8) and no flash. The result are really natural looking photos, and quite different to most of my other fashion photos. Deffinatley something I am going to work on more in the future.

I have been reading a lot of fashion magazine, most recently POP and I-D, so been trying to take influence from some of the ideas from shot in there. I have also been working with a styliast for some of the shoots. I will have one to put up from the other day, a geek/chic kinda look.

I love the look of the golden late afternoon sun, here it is being used as a catch light for the hair on Abi. It was a really fun shoot, thanks to Abi for doing it, expect big things from her in the future.

I managed to do two update on this in a week, pretty good going for me! I have lots more photos waiting to go up, so check back soon.

I had a fun shoot with my friend Local in my studio the other day, trying to get some fun different shots, nothing too pretty! Went for quite an exagerated lighting setup and post processing.

Always fun to get a few props involved, getting wild with an axe…

Found a really small little chair which was fun to play about with. This was probably my favourite photo from the shoot.

I have LOADS of photos and stories to put up on here, just finding the time to do it is a bit of a problem. I was in London last weekend taking stills on a TV advert set, not something I had done before but it was really interesting. I am going to do a whole post on that soon, I just need to sort through 850 photos from that weekend… I have also been shooting quite a bit of model/fashion stuff which I am really excited about. I am going to try and update this a little more regularly…

Last week had a fun shoot with Jim to photograph 19 different types of leather jackets for Black Scissor tailoring. I have put a couple of my favorites up here, each jacket was shot from 3 different angles.

Leather jackets are not an item of clothing which I normally wear but there were some really nice designs in the collection.

The client had asked for an urban look for the shoot, and found a great location, a dis-used housing estate just outside of Cardiff.

There were so many cool places to shoot, it made the whole process really fun. A big thanks to Jim for modeling at short notice and doing a stellar job!

I always forget to get setup shots, but here is one for once! Each jacket had quite different features which needed to be captured. I used a mixture of natural sunlight and strobe for the shoot, depending on the particular location. Here two flashes are being used.

If you would like to purchase a jacket, you can go on Black Scissor tailoring’s website.

Next week I will be in Bristol taking photos, looking forward to that.