Category: Portraits

Dina is a final year student at Cambridge University. I’d wanted to arrange a shoot with her a year ago, but she was out of the country for her language year. She’s just returned, and got in touch with me asking for a shoot, so I guess we were both fans of each other’s work. She has truly striking features, which made the shoot worth the wait.

I’d been planning on attending a photoshoot with 4 models up North at the weekend, but had several other events taking place on the same day, so couldn’t go. Fortunately one of the models, Amie, was available at a studio not too far away, so I arranged a 2 hour shoot with her. I normally prefer a minimum of 3-4 hours for a shoot, to work through as many ideas, lighting styles, clothing changes, and possibly locations, as possible; so given the brevity of this shoot, I worked quickly to get as much as possible from the model and studio.

Luckily, Amie is an incredibly professional, vivacious and talented model, which made my task so much easier. In fact, all I really needed to do was decide on costume changes, the mood of the shoot, and Amie did the rest! It was the first time I’d had use of a ring flash, and was blown away with the effortless fashion-quality of every shot, so got carried away with that, only using a beauty dish for a few photos towards the end. I wanted to get some edgy, modern, almost-fashion photos from this shoot, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Nor was Amie, as she’d like to collaborate together on some artistic ideas in the near future (she’s also a photographer, and asked to photograph me next time we meet… ;)

Peekaboo with Amieboo

The rest of the shoot’s photos can be viewed at http://claude.gallereasy.com/gallery/297/

I photographed Holly back in February, and as she was visiting Cambridge this month, we arranged a couple of hours’ shooting together. We’d planned to use a local studio, and then shoot in some nearby woods, though the recent sunny weather ended the morning of our shoot, so we’ll hopefully get together again for the location shoot later this summer.

After two gorgeous photoshoots with Ellie, I couldn’t wait to photograph her again, and there were still some outfits we hadn’t got round to photographing, so we arranged another shoot.

I’ve just upgraded to Lightroom 3, and although it still seems buggy (i.e. MUCH slower than Lightroom 2), it does have better vignetting features, and some new processing presets, which helped make these some of the best images I’ve created in my home studio).

I was so impressed with Ellie’s ballerina photoshoot last week, that I arranged an outdoor model photoshoot with her the following week. Many people ask her if she’s Lily Cole, and she also reminds me of several other celebrities (Debra Messing, Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried).

Ellie suffered over 30 midge bites during the shoot (which I apologised for!), but so many of the photos came out beautifully, that I can’t wait to shoot with her again (indoors, where there are no biting insects!).

I’d shot in the same location with Sharon a month ago, and was surprised at how much these grasses had grown

While Ellie was up the tree (lucky her!), some grazing cows ambled past, and one took a bit too much of an interest in me, giving me a light head-butt. I was probably standing on the tastiest bit of grass in the whole field…

More photos from the shoot can be viewed at http://claude.gallereasy.com/#gallery_287

A well-published model asked to do a photoshoot with me, so I arranged the hire of a local art gallery/studio to shoot in, as well as the great make-up artist (Emma Knight) whom I met at the Derelict Fashion photoshoot. Unfortunately, the model cancelled two days before the shoot, so I had to find some fill in models at short notice. As it was the middle of Cambridge’s exam term, most of my model/dancer friends were unavailable, and castings on model websites sadly didn’t come to anything, but fortunately Greg & Guen stepped in to save the day, despite Guen’s imminent exams. Greg was planning on taking some photos too, but has modelled for me before, and was just being fitted with a designer suit that day, so served as perfect model material.

The photographer who introduced me to off-camera studio lighting, Alex Beckett, organised a group shoot at a derelict RAF base. There were about 40 people involved in total, including amateur and experienced photographers, make-up artists, and models/musicians/dancers. As I’d had a shoot cancelled that weekend, I decided to take part, and brought along a handful of dancer friends, who happen to also be excellent models. I’ve done a couple of shoots with Jenny already, but this was Emily’s first shoot, and she definitely exceeded the potential that I saw in her.

More photos from this shoot can be viewed at http://claude.gallereasy.com/gallery/275/

My first studio photoshoot, with the incredible Holly.

Inspired by my last photoshoot in the snow (and at 3000m altitude!), I wanted to take some more photos in the snow that the UK has recently been covered in. A quick email later, and one of my previous muses, Jenny, was standing in the snow braving the cold, all for the sake of creating great photos. The resulting favourites show that it was worth it!

I’d taken acting headshots for Laura back in May, and we met up again to get some fashion photos. This shoot included a couple of things that I’d wanted to do for a while: photograph a model wearing satin/silk; reliably use two flash/umbrellas (wireless triggers just haven’t been reliable enough to date); use coloured gels to light up a black backdrop, providing subtle gradients of colour in the background.

All of these have contributed to a great set of photos, but none more than having such a beautiful model.