Posted on

Location Photoshoot with Katie Louise

My first shoot with Katie was one of my best photoshoot days ever, so I had high expectations for our second shoot, when she came up to visit me in Cambridge. She’d barely settled in after an hour of traffic en route, when we headed out to catch the last hour of golden light before sunset. No sooner did we find our location (each climbing UNDER a fence to get into the field), that we got these shots.

I call it a perfect storm – the Trifecta of perfect location, perfect light, and a perfect model. I’ve seen photos like this in so many portfolios, so I’m thrilled that these all looked stunning straight out of camera.






We then headed back in and got this stunning beauty shot.

I can’t wait for our next shoot soon, hopefully a duet with Faye :)

Posted on

Cambridge Ballerina Project – Helen

I’d done a Cambridge Ballerina Project shoot with Helen in the winter, where she ended up standing on snow for ages without shoes, but she agreed the resulting photos were worth it! This time, it was the end of June, with warm evenings and no more exams, when Cambridge turns into an extravagant black tie party town, so we decided on a May Ball-inspired night-time ballet shoot.



See the full album, and become a fan of the Cambridge Ballerina Project on Facebook

Posted on

Location Photoshoot with Sarah

Even though I’ve been friends with Sarah for years, since she studied and danced a lot of ballet at Cambridge, she’s not yet taken part in my Cambridge Ballerina Project, mostly because she’s busy acting and modelling in London. On a short visit to Cambridge, we had an impromptu location shoot just after a downpour. I can’t wait to finally do a proper ballet shoot with Sarah!

More photos from this shoot at http://claude.gallereasy.com/gallery/380/






Posted on

Photoshoot with Maja

I’d wanted to shoot with Maja for a while, and after she posted a casting call for a specific photoshoot idea, we got talking. After about 50 messages back and forth (sharing creative ideas, not negotiating!), we finally got to shoot on some ideas we both loved, and the results were worth the wait. Maja may have an Eastern-European pseudonym, and matching bone structure, but she’s very English, which took me some time to adjust to having built up a Slavic image of her before the shoot! Not only does she have great pale skin, a toned figure, strong bone structure, and (currently) red hair, but she’s also a great make-up artist. Sadly, she got delayed arriving at the shoot, so we had an hour less to work with. We’d planned to end the shoot with some crazy/fashion make-up, but what we got was definitely nothing to be ashamed of.

Posted on

Photoshoot with Izzy

Sometimes things don’t always go to plan, but I somehow seem to always get lucky when they don’t…

My nearest (and very well-equipped) studio, The Works, had a not-the-royal-wedding party, with the studio open to any photographers and models who wanted to come along. I’d been in touch with two local models that I’d planned to shoot at some point, and they were both agreed to come along that day. The first model didn’t show up, despite being in touch the previous day. Apparently the second model showed up, and left a few minutes later. Later I found a message from her saying that she couldn’t find me (despite my being in the studio, along with a dozen other people)!

There were a handful of models who had come along, and one was accompanied by her younger sister, who had never modelled before, but fancied giving it a go. After a few minutes of talking with her, I found out that she danced ballet, so I showed her some of my photos from the Cambridge Ballerina Project. When she got to the photos from my latest shoots with Zoe, she recognised her from ballet classes they used to take together. Small world. Izzy now dances at Tring Park school, and I also found out that last year’s winner of So You Think You Can Dance UK, Charlie Bruce, was also from that dance school.

It’s only when she started posing en pointe, and leaping over and over to get the shot, that I realised she was of the same calibre as Zoe, and we got plenty of beautiful dance photos. I then let some other photographers have a go, but came back to shoot some non-dance photos with her too, and she also shone there.

Hopefully we’ll do a shoot for the Cambridge Ballerina Project soon…

More photos from this shoot can be found at http://claude.gallereasy.com/gallery/364/

Posted on

Holiday Photoshoot with Marta

Over the long Easter bank holiday weekend, I joined my family in Nice to spend some time with my relatives there. It was the first time that my niece met her great-grandmother, so plenty of photos were taken of the very youngest and very oldest. However, I didn’t expect to be doing a model photoshoot while I was out there too.

I contacted Marta, a professional photographer and ex-model based in Nice, through ModelMayhem, one of the model-photographer networking sites I use. I took a few hours while the rest of my family were off shopping or resting, and I headed to the neighbouring town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer, just 8 minutes train journey along the coast from Nice. She met me at the station, and straight away we started walking to some shooting locations she knew, and talking about photography and our backgrounds. Half an hour, and a three kilometres later, we found our location – a beach cove in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. At this point, I’d found out that Marta was smart, a great photographer, and very friendly. When I started shooting, I then added to that that she was a very good model. Great facial expressions all the time, strong fashion poses, and an effortless ability to be natural and move freely. We shot from late afternoon’s bright light, through the golden sunset light of Magic Hour, until the dim light of dusk, when even my trusty 50mm f/1.8 hinted that maybe we should stop. A welcome lift from her boyfriend saved us the half hour walk back in the closing-dark, and I made it to the train station a couple of minutes before the half-hourly train home.

It’s times like this, when you have a fantastic location, an amazing model, great light, resulting in dozens of great photos, that I’m very grateful for my passion, opportunity, and talent. All with the goal of sharing beauty and moving images with the rest of the world.

The full album from this photoshoot can be found at http://claude.gallereasy.com/gallery/363/

Posted on

Cambridge Ballerina Project – Lizzie

Lizzie had seen many of my ballet and dance photos, and as an ex-ballet dancer herself, was keen to have some dance photos taken around Cambridge before she left university for a job in London.

Become a fan of the Cambridge Ballerina Project on Facebook (http://facebook.com/camballet), where you can see more photos from this shoot.

The full set of photos, including varied colour versions, can be found at http://claude.gallereasy.com/gallery/362/
Posted on

Cambridge Ballerina Project – Zoe

The second of my ballet photoshoots with Zoe, where she managed to impress me even more than she did in our first riverside shoot. This time, we headed to the Sidgwick Site, where many of the Arts and Humanities faculties of the Univeresity of Cambridge are based. This time, we got the best of the evening sun, and the location had plenty of striking architecture to contrast with Zoe’s beautiful lines and graceful figure.

Feedback on the Facebook page for the Cambridge Ballerina Project confirms my thoughts that these photos are some of the best yet from the project.

Become a fan of the Cambridge Ballerina Project on Facebook (http://facebook.com/camballet), where you can see more photos from this shoot.
The full set of photos, including varied colour versions, can be found at http://claude.gallereasy.com/gallery/356/