Coming soon...

Somehow unbelievably it's been exactly 2 weeks since I got back from Kenya. In that time I've shot 2 weddings, visited Germany, relaxed at the foot of the Alps and now have a backlog of images and stories to share!

This was taken on the beach in Mombasa.. the town where I spent the first 16 years of my life. I'm looking forward to sharing more images from my beautiful home town with you :)

David Trumble

David Trumble is a talented artist and director who also happens to be a good friend of mine. A few months ago he commissioned me to take a series of images that reflected him and his personality to use on his website and also in his TED talk. YES that's right... TED TALK. 

For someone so young he's achieved a fair bit! I've attached the video at the bottom. It's beautifully delivered and talks about issues that I think every artist can relate to so please do check it out when you have a chance.

So, back to the session! A couple of coffees and a long country walk later, we'd outlined the images we wanted to create from the locations, to the props and to what he would wear. There were several things we wanted to incorporate such as his sketchbooks, signature red hat and the concept of duality (since David has a twin brother, Stephen). The images were taken in central Oxford and later in a field behind David's house. So.. (finally) here they are!

Stephen and David

Cheesy group shot!

And just for fun here's a dramatic outtake ^_^

David's website  and facebook page

And here's his TEDxYouth Talk - "The Journey to Indifference and Beyond"

Thanks for reading!

lady in the woods..

A quick series featuring the lovely Sevgi taken at the recent meetup in London.

This was such an impromptu set up. I literally grabbed Sev, spied the veil and ivy from Sarah's prop bag and placed her in the space that had the prettiest light and interesting tree features. 

I love setting up little daydreamy scenes and Sev was very patient whilst I danced about trying to make that veil reach new heights. As it so happened all around Sev were creepy thorny vines, perfect for a picture but not so perfect for my little ankles which were scrapped at mercilessly! 

Still, it was totally worth it :p

The three images all have the same colour way. I guess I just fell a little in love with the colour palette and wanted to explore it further. 

  I confess!! I couldn't resist playing with a b/w version.

Ahhh I'm so torn as to which version of this picture I like best.. which do you prefer?

Birds of Prey shoot

Model + Creative Planner: Little Twiglet

Clothes: Naturally Bohemian

Hair & Makeup: Siobhan Drew Makeup

Featuring: Aaron the (big) owl, Fraggle the falcon and Fred the little barn owl

Walking past rows of big beautiful owls, I felt like I'd walked through a portal and found myself contemplating which owl would be my partner in crime (and correspondence) a la Hedwig in Harry Potter. 

To be honest whole day was a surreal and enchanting dream. Everyones happy and positive energies came together creating an experience I'll never forget. For that I'll have to thank Little Twiglet for coming up with this concept (over a year ago I might add), figuring out how to execute it and for asking both Sarah and I to document it. I was deeply honoured and humbled to be a part of it. I loved every minute of it and now you can see for yourself how beautiful the location was, how the day played out  and some outtakes :)

Beautiful birds.. 

Location One

Whilst Twig was getting prepped, Sarah and I along with Gemma (the designer) took a walk about the premises to get an idea about what locations/ backdrops stood out the most and how they would work with the clothes. This little bridge, walkway with the sun streaming through was literally 2 minutes into our walk and yeah.. it blew my mind O_O..  

I think this little figure is Sarah coming through :)

Twig handling the owl like a PRO! Seriously you wouldn't even know that it was her first time.

Hahaha! The shot before this one was the one I uploaded on flickr.

Location Two
We loved the dappled light in this location and knew that the bokeh created by the leaves and light would be beautiful. Plus you know.. it felt magical..

It was Fraggle the falcon's turn to shine and I felt Twig was really great to be so calm whilst so close to him as he wasn't as docile as the owls.

The wings shot actually came about when the trainer was holding Fraggle behind Twig's back as she was straightening out her dress. I remember looking up and boom the girl had wings.

Lol she does not look fazed at all! 

Location Three
It was Sarah who spotted this beautiful tree with all its winding, creeping limbs. And it made for a perfect location to feature the little owl who stole our hearts, Fred.

He looks like he has such a mischievous little smile !

They make a cute couple ^_^

Location Four

We'd used up the hours that we had allocated for the birds and since we still had some light left we decided to go deeper and shoot at some of the locations that we'd picked out earlier.

The first was beside the river. I loved the light, tall trees and reflections I'd get from the water. 

I had brought along with me the feathery head piece I'd made a few months ago from all the feathers I'd found in my garden (I suspect the cat had something to do with it) and was glad I brought it along to this shoot as I felt it allowed the story to continue.

Location Five 

Sarah loved the long limbs of the fledging trees erupting randomly from the ground. 

This is why I loved shooting with her. We're both such nature girls :)

Group shot with Sarah, Gemma, the trainer, Twig, Siobhan and I.

All in all a very good day and I leave you with this little moment caught here.. 

I'll be releasing the final images through my facebook/ flickr so if you're interested keep an eye out :)

B xo

Oxford Meetup..

Three weekends ago Sev, Sarah, Niz and Gina arrived in my little town for our monthly meetup. 

The location this time was Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxford. If you live in England then I would definitely recommend a day trip out to visit it. It is so stunning and every time I go back I discover new locations and fall in love with it all over again.

That particular weekend we got lucky as there was still some left over snow from the weekend before which added to the atmosphere and magic of that location. By the end of the day we noticed the snow melting and by the next day there was hardly any left at all.

I know I say this often but I genuinely mean it, I LOVE our meetups. It's a chance to catch up, experiment and enjoy the company of crazy likeminded individuals. I do realise that if it wasn't for the internet I might never have met these girls. So thank you Flickr for bringing us together!

We arrived just after midday and after a little photo session against a gorgeous view we followed the path from the main entrance round the palace and deeper into the landscape. Here are a few behind the scenes photos and random snaps I grabbed that afternoon.

Some geese.

Gina with her lovely red coat.

The beautiful Niz

Niz setting up the scene with Sarah..

It was absolutely freezing that day but like troopers everyone pushed through!

Gina setting up her little scene.. 

 Sev with green smoke..

 Check out Gina's stream for her version of this picture. It's beautiful!

There were tripods and bits of camera equipment everywhere. It was pretty cool actually :)

Sev taking a self portrait. (Check out her stream for this picture)

 Having some flowing dress fun!

More tripods :)

Niz and Gina

 A freezing Sarah

:)

Thank you Gina for taking these!

Sev and the girls. Taking a short break to admire the sunset..

Sev

Niz

Whoever took these, thank you I love them!

 Sarah shooting Niz and Sev..

 Lovely Gina 

On the way back we drove under a low flowing river of cloud and not being able to help ourselves we promptly doubled back and tried to capture it on camera.. as you do!

Niz took this hilarious photo! Spot the odd one out! ;)

Niz and I ^_^

And finally a group photo of us all together courtesy of Gina :)

Check out the girls' streams for their photos from that day!

Nizaad

Sarah

Gina

Sevgi

And if you would be interested in joining us for the next meet up, please feel welcome to join us on Saturday the 21st of April at Hampstead Heath Park in London. Details of this can be found here.

Thank you for reading and here's a little video of random clips taken through the day :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnuBJUqfztA