Orla dropped down to the studio for quick test shoot. It is been 2 years or so since her last shoot and even longer since our very first ever shoot. Check out all my shoots with Orla here.
Orla Murphy Test Shoot
Hayley Ryan Test Shoot
Hayley Ryan is one of the most famous press call models of yesterday year. The stunning good looks and fab body could often ben see in the papers for various pr purposes. She has been with Assets Agency for most of that time as far as I know.
Hayley dropped down with her heavily pregnant friend Olivia Byrne who is also great at Hair & Makeup. Olivia got a few cool bump pictures for herself also.
It was amazing working with Hayley, obviously her stunning looks makes any photographer’s job that big easier. For this particular shoot, I loved Hayley’s tan lines. I would think that most other photographers would retouch out the tan lines, however I am not that big into retouching and plus, I think it adds a natural, edgy look to the shoots.
Let me know what you think about the tan lines below in the comments.
[NSFW] – Lauren Wood in London
Images below are Not Safe for Work – NFSW ….. You have been warned!
I have been heading over to London for syndication shoots with agencies over there for the last year, but haven’t posted any… (haven’t been doing enough posting in general). Syndication basically means that pictures are taken with the aim to sell them to various magazines and papers. The kind of shots that I have been doing over there are mostly glamour shots, i.e. sexy shots where the girls are often topless & implied nude. It is not something that is done over here in Ireland as there is no demand or industry for it. All the Lads Mags, Page3 etc. are all based in the UK.
With a standard Ryanair flight to Stansted at just €19.99, it is fairly cheap to head over for a day and shoot. A usual trip involves grabbing a flight over, renting a studio for the day and shooting away. The best of the shots then get sent off to the syndication company who try to sell the shots for me. Easy.
One of my first trips over there was about a year ago. I was shooting with the fab model Lauren Wood, whom is currently with Nine Model Management, a relatively new glamour agency. Lauren was fantastic to work with. Being confident and stunning made my job very easy.
The studio I rented had fantastic window light, so I utilised this for a lot of the shoot. Shooting with a Canon 50mm 1.2L, it soaked in all the light and gave a nice shallow depth of field, blurring out the background.
Things are a lot different over in the UK in terms of glamour. Being Topless for shoots is no big deal. There is no fear of a little nipple for shoots. Of course one can say that its trashy, disrespectful to women and all that jazz. My aim is to try capture tasteful glamour shots. Don’t be afraid to let me know in the comments what you think of the shots 🙂
Natalia Piechaczek Portfolio
Natalia is currently a model with Andrea Roche and doing great for her self. She needed a portfolio update and got in touch to book one. Aimee Connolly and Laura Mullett where also on my team for the day. To book your portfolio shoot, have a look at my rates and packages here.
Emma and Caoimhe Fogarty
I have been neglecting the blog a lot lately but I plan to try to keep it up to date a lot better in future ( I have said that before 🙂 ). One such shoot to catch up with is from back in January with Emma & Caoimhe ( pronounced Keeva), the twin models from Meath. The girls were my second shoot of 2013…. so that will give you an idea as to the back log that the blog has… so let’s get to it.
The girls have been modelling for 2 years with 2 different agencies. In that time they have worked on many things from TV3’s Xpose, to shooting a cover and spread for the Irish examiner, so they are not taking things lightly and getting stuck in. They are confident and determined to do well. They are also fashion and style conscious, which is advantageous being a model. The girls styled this shoot themselves, coming up with the concepts and sourcing the cloths them selves. In comparison to other models who may not be able to style a shoot them selves as they usually have a stylist do it for them. Being able to style a shoot is great, especially for when you want to do a quick test shoot or try out something funky.
I always wondered about identical twin models, mostly about the unique-ness aspect. Would Kate Moss be Kate Moss if she had a twin sister? Not likely. Not only working with some one who looks identical to you…. having to work alongside a sibling must be tough. “I really enjoy having and working alongside my twin. It gives me a lot more confidence knowing I have her by my side all the time, but it’s not always fun and games, things can get a little heated sometimes, because we spend so much time together. but at the end of the day we love what we do, and love that we get to share the experiences together” – Emma.
Aside from modelling, they are extremely busy dividing their time between two of their passions Fashion and Exercising. They are studying fashion buying and merchandising and Personal training. If you follow them on twitta, you will frequently get the gym updates. On the modelling side, the girls are currently with Assets, each with their on page Emma – Caoimhe …. although they could prob just share a page seeing as they are identical… well kind of identical.
They have one feature that makes them not so identical and it was my saving grace for the day to help me “Spot the difference”. That is because Emma has a beauty spot on the left side of her face ( as you look at her), only for this, I would not be able to tell the difference. They did tell me they have slightly different shaped faces etc., but the spot was a much quicker way to tell the difference.
From a lighting point of view, the leopard print shots are a one light setup. Again… I’m slacking in the setup shots photos the last few months so I can’t show you, but it is just a single strobe with a 6″ reflector, which is placed above the girl’s head height. It is placed just high enough to create shadows under the chins, but not too have to create too dark an area. There is no formula to it, no set way to do it, it is just the way I did it on the day to try it out. The ideas behind using one light is to great the harsh shadow, editorial look that is popular these days.
The two shots above are a cool idea the girls came up with. They were the last shoots of the day as we were getting a bit tired. The idea behind them was a theme of opposite. The girls are looking fierce with the wet hair look while wearing the same cloths except for opposite colour jackets. We done the shots multiple times, alternating who was in front and in focus etc.
All in all it was a great day meeting and shooting the girls. Aimee Connolly was as hand to do another fantastic job on Hair and Make-up. Let me know what you think in the comments below, it’s always great to get feedback.
Galway Girl Layla Flaherty
If you like your reality TV shows, then Galway Girl Layla Flaherty will be no stranger to you. She was one of the stars of the E4 show Desperate Scousewives, which was based in Liverpool. She was also one of the contestants on the Irish Reality Show, Celebrity Saloon on TV3. Layla dropped down to my studio to get some new shots for her modelling portfolio as she is currently with Assets in Dublin.
Layla is stunning and in great shape. The first thing you notice about her when you meet her is her height… she is a towering 5’11 (without heels), just a shade taller that me. She also has fantastic skin also which made Aimee’s job of Hair & Make-up even easier. Aimee did a fantastic job as usual, make sure to check out her FB page Here. As I work with Aimee a lot, we have a good system going and work well together on a shoot.
Layla styled the shoot her self, picking up various bits and pieces. One of the sets was from a company called Sexy Smalls ( @SexySmallsxx). Of course, one of the best shots from the day did not require any styling, the nude shot.You can see from the behind the scenes shot below, how it was set up. The lighting consists of 1 main light ( above centre) and 2 rim lights (rear left & right) to add a hint of separation light. The lights are in pretty close which kept the fall off pretty short and let the white background drop to a dark grey. Add in some light smoke effects ( not really seen here) to add a little something something to the background and presto. The black thing on the left of the image is an iPad which I shoot tethered to. This brings up the images as I shoot them within a few seconds. A great tool for checking focus, hair, make-up etc.
Aimee making some adjustments to Layla’s hair
It was a super fun shoot (as always) and it was a pleasure to work with Layla. If you are on twitter, you can follow her here @LaylaFlaherty and you can check out her own website, http://www.laylaflaherty.com
You can check out the shots in the Irish Sun today: http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepage/showbiz/4780882/Knock-Sean-off-his-feet-Layla.html
Olivia-Tracey Hogan in Studio
Well here it is, my last shoot of 2012. Olivia is no stranger to my blog. I have shot with her a few times now and every time it has been a dream. Olivia is such a fun, bubbly person its hard not to have the craic with her. This time around, her big sis Lucci Minx came down for the spin to my studio in Wexford…. which sounds a lot further from Dublin than it really is.
The brief for this shoot was to be sexy…. which is generally easy enough. Olivia wanted to push the boat out a little with this shoot and make it a bit edgier that anything she has done before. The first thing I asked her was about the effect it could have on her TV presenting hopes, having sexy shots out there might not be the best thing for children’s tv presenter. However Olivia is not aiming for that market and plus the shots are not too sexy, so all is well in the world.
If your thinking that you recognise this girl from somewhere, then you probably have seen her on the telly box at some point as well as the papers. She has done work with the Damo & Ivor duo on The Republic of Telly.Follow Olivia on Twitter to keep up to date with her goings one. Olivia’s sister Lucci Minx herself is no stranger to the limelight, a talented Hip-Hop artist so keep any eye out for her.
Dana Arikane in Studio
Meet Dana Arikane – Football Lover, Diva Next Door, Latvian Export, Andrea Roche Model and an avid Tweeter. Dana has been living and working here for a few years now, she is practically a local. You can get a bit more about Dana from Independent interview here.
Dana dropped by the studio recently for a shoot. She came down make-up artist Ann-Jean Fitzsimons (AJ Make-Up) whom I have worked with a few times before. Dana had also worked with AJ and worked with before, so it was going to be a great shoot.
We had a few rough plans for the shoot…. well guidelines. We done the usual thing of exchanging ideas via email etc, sample images that we would use for inspiration. This has to be one of the things that most teams to nowa days when organising a shoot. We were aiming for a general sexy look that would include some full length shots. Full length were specified as Dana has plenty of headshots from recent her recent work with Hotloxs which are concentrating on the hair.
Dana is great to work with. Along with being stunning, she is easy going and good craic on a shoot which is very important. AJ was her usual bubble self also, so all in all it was a good days shooting.
The couch made another return on this shoot. We last saw it on Christina’s shoot. I really like this shoot of Dana on the couch. It’s all in the facial expression in this shot and I caught it just right. Props like a couch however, I am trying not to use too much as it will get boring rather quick. You could say that a white wall can get boring quick also, but not so much. The white wall is more of a blank canvas that paves the way for the style, pose, make-up and the model etc. to be the hero of the picture, not the background.
Speaking of backgrounds, as my studio is currently a little bit of a building site as I get the cyc wall / infinity wall finished off. We put all the the timber lying around to good use. One of the inspiration images we had was very similar to this one and it turned out pretty close to what we were trying to achieve.
I will finished up with the wet look shoot above. I shoot two versions of this. The one directly above was on a white background whereas the colour version up top was shoot against a white wall. Which version do you prefer?
As usual, if you have any comment or questions on any of my shoots, you can leave them below.
Lynn Kelly – Ninjamode
Lynn Kelly, the former Miss Universe Ireland (2008) has been causing a bit of a stir lately with her workout regime. Posting workout photos on her Instagram Feed was getting a Lynn lot of attention, and rightly so as she looks incredible. Lynn trains in No. 17 Personal Training, in Merrion Square, Dublin. Indeed since she started training there, a whole team of her fellow Assets models have started to train there, including Hazel O’Sullivan. If you follow Lynn on twitter, you will get the #ninjamode reference 🙂
Lynn had gotten in touch about a year ago to get some new shots for her portfolio, I was really looking forward to it as back then I was still getting my name out there in the photography scene (still am). To work with high-profile and experienced models like Lynn would have been a great addition to my portfolio. However, between different things happening and scheduling conflicts, we kept putting it off… until recently. I got in touch with her again and the timing worked out great for both of us and we made it happen. We planned out a shoot with the aim of getting it published and took it from there. I called up Aimee Connolly to get her on board for Hair & Make-up, she did an amazing job as always.
When planning out a shoot to get it published, what I have learned so far is that there are two main things to take into consideration…. back story and pictures. The back story is the text of the spread, the hook of the shoot. A spread being a double page spread, usually 3/4 of the space is pictures and text and the other 1/4 is adverts. Timing the shoot to coincide with something interesting in the models life will help with getting a shoot published, i.e. the ICA Boot Camp with Rachel Wallace or Tallafornia with Kelly Donegan. If there is nothing interesting happening with the model at the time and if they are not that well-known, then the chances of getting a spread are reduced… you might get a quarter page out of it. If the models are of a higher profile, then you have a better chance of landing a spread. Of course, it goes without saying that back story alone won’t land you a spread, the pictures are going to be the main part of it. The main rules of thumb that go for the pictures is that sex sells and give the photo editor choice.
For Lynn’s shoot, we decided to focus on her super hot “ninjamode” body that she has been sculpting with the help of John Belton and Sophie Kavanagh… who are now known as #Team17. Initially we were going to shoot in My Studio but Lynn sent me some shots of the gym and I liked the look of, in particular the outdoor gym section. I liked the outdoor section as it is different to a normal gym shoot. There is a big climbing rope out there too and as soon as I saw it I knew the type of shot I wanted to do with it.
Shooting on Location is always a challenge…. but a fun one. It’s great to get out of the studio and to be able to have shots that are different from your usual studio stuff. For this shoot, I decided to keep it as simple as possible in terms of lighting. All of the shots were lit with a single speedlight in an umbrella. Using speedlights is easier and faster than using my Elinchrom studio lights when on location… and in particular when space is tight. Another reason for using the speedlights is that I wanted to shoot at 1.4 for these shoots and the studio strobes would not stop down enough to obtain correct exposure. Helping me out with the light and gear on the day was Jason Ennis. Jason works for me in my School, Sports and Events Photography Company, DE Photo Ireland, so it was good to have him on board and giving him some experience.
Big shout out to John, Kevin and Sophie for helping us out on the day. They have a great setup, go check it out if you’re looking for a gym in Dublin. Thats if for now on the shoot. It was published in the Irish Daily Star and Irish Daily Mail on November 29th. I will be hopefully shooting with Lynn again in January, in studio this time. Stay tuned for that 🙂
In the mean time, follow Team17 on twitter:
https://twitter.com/Lynnkelly_
https://twitter.com/Johnbelton
https://twitter.com/Courtneyohara
Lisa Madden – BINTM
I had the pleasure of shooting with Lisa Madden in my studio recently. Lisa Madden was on Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model (BINTM) cycle 8. She was very popular on the show and did brilliant for herself. Unfortunately she didn’t win it, but she did finish in a very respectable 3rd. Brushing all the BINTM stuff to the side, Lisa didn’t waste and time in getting back to work with Assets Agency, ( *Edit now with Andrea Roche) doing various shows and shoots. Herself and Lynn Kelly done a great job at Belfast Fashion week the day after our shoot.
If you have worked with Lisa before, you will know that she is an absolute dream to work with. She is a lovely girl, fun, friendly and professional and not to mention tall and beautiful. While shooting Lisa it was hard to find many pictures that we didn’t like …. that were not due to my error at least. As a photographer, it is always a joy to work with models who are consistent in their posing and flow through it, taking direction when needed and imputing their own ideas.
Video is going to be a big thing over the next few years in the modelling world. It is already important in the acting world where potential actors need showreels etc. A model video portfolio / videofolio / fusion portfolio…. is a digital, dynamic way for people to see how a person looks, acts and sounds like in real like. It is easy to retouch a photo and make it pretty, but a video captures a person as they are.
I made my first video over a year ago with Rachel. I haven’t done much on the video front since then but I am getting back into it. Video is a whole different ball game, so it takes time to get the hang of actually shooting it and then in the editing. Check out the clip below though to see what we got.
http://vimeo.com/51954071/