Ellen

14/04/2012 by Nigel | 1 Comment

This is Ellen, who just happened to be standing behind us in the queue for coffee in Starbucks on a Sunday afternoon with a friend, minding her own business. Catherine, always living a makeup life remarked to me how she thought Ellen had a great look, and in particular a real resemblance to the look of Jean Shrimpton, who of course was brought to fame as a model by photographer David Bailey, and quite controversially so in the early 1960′s.

Within a few weeks of that chance meeting with Ellen, the BBC happened to show a film called “We’ll Take Manhattan” which tells the story of David Bailey, his controversial relationship as a photographer with Vogue Magazine, his rebellious streak which went on to make his name in the business, and his relationship with Jean Shrimpton, an unknown girl who Bailey had complete faith in as a model. This is a great watch by the way for anyone who’s serious about people photography!

Following watching that film Catherine got in touch with Ellen with a selection of Jean Shrimpton iconic images with a view to recreating some of them. Ellen loved the idea and was excited to do it when she was home from uni for Easter.

A few days ago it all came together, Ellen arrived with us, Catherine made the fantastic 1960′s makeup transformation, and hair was styled 1960′s style by David Graham Hairdressing.

For the purpose of my blog however which is obviously photography related, I won’t steal Catherine’s thunder regarding the black and white series of Jean Shrimpton images we started out with as they were all about the makeup styling. Catherine will do a much more detailed blog on her own makeup website, though I’ve included a couple of the Jean Shrimpton inspired images at the end here.

This blog is more about the images we did after the Jean Shrimpton series. We had some time left so I mixed this up between some studio work and then we headed out within the street of shops my studio is in. The sun was full on which seems to have been the order of the day for most of my location work recently :)

Here’s a selection of images:

 

This is a new background I literally was making when Ellen arrived, and was finished while she was having her hair styled. I like it and look forward to using it more because I think it can have a contemporary look, or could also have a rustic look. Ellen was fantastic for a non-model and took direction very well and had an ability to grasp a mood or look with ease. Lit to bring attention to those fantastic cheek bones of Ellen's.

 

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Posted in Lashes and Flashes Makeover Photoshoot Experience, Location portraits, Model Portfolio, Studio

Off-Camera Flash Bridal Photography At The Beach

05/04/2012 by Nigel | 4 Comments

This photography project had been several weeks in the planning and for various reasons didn’t happen until now. In fact there was another postponement from the day previous due to weather problems.

It was bitterly cold, and I mean cold in the extreme with a biting winter wind, enough to make your face go numb in minutes! It was for this reason that we only managed one set of images right down on the beach itself as the wind coming in off the sea was almost unbearable at times. It’s fair to say then that with such strong, not to mention cold wind gusting around, allied to very bright, sunny conditions, it made bridal photography with a wedding dress quite impossible at times.

Technically, use of a soft box or any flash modifier was out of the question as it would have made in instant kite and disappeared down the beach. Also with such bright sun it was a working aperture of F11 and beyond, meaning bare speedlight flash on full power to compete with the sun. Luckily on most occasions the bright sand was acting like a very large natural reflector and bounced a lot of light back up.

I big thank you to everyone involved who helped make this happen. To Catherine for bridal makeup application and various touchups throughout the day, David Graham Hairdressing for bridal hair styling, Carla from Bonita Bridal for the use of a stunning wedding dress, Janice from The Flower Studio for providing a beautiful bridal bouquet, and our model Melissa. Melissa was a real trouper everything considered. Her commitment to this couldn’t be questioned,  she came very well prepared, and most of all followed me around to various locations, embracing each with the same level of enthusiasm without a single complaint, and in the extreme cold and wind.

Here’s a selection of images from the day:

 

For quite a bit of the day we had a stormy sky in one direction and a perfectly blue sky with fluffy clouds in the other direction. As Melissa's back was to the sun here, she would have been almost silhouetted so off-camera flash was used from camera left.

 

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Posted in Lashes and Flashes Makeover Photoshoot Experience, Location portraits, Model Portfolio

Summer Sun In Spring

30/03/2012 by Nigel | 1 Comment

What a week of great summer-like weather it’s been!

Most often as photographers we instinctively head for the relative safety and ease of working in the shade on strong, hard sunlit days, especially in midday and early afternoon when the sun is at it’s strongest and highest in the sky. Also with off camera flash becoming so fashionable and widely used, and in many cases with the flash power capable to overpower the sun, we can tend to pick our backgrounds at will with much lesser thought about the direction or quality of light from the sun which we already have in abundance. While the equipment and knowledge to do this is very useful and it’s a technique I employ often, on this occasion I was determined to use the light that was there from the sun first and foremost, think about backgrounds etc. and only use flash when absolutely necessary. I’ve studied some great work by photographers who use the power of sunlight to their advantage, so that’s what I wanted to do too.

While this blog is mainly about the technical use of light, the images wouldn’t be what they are without our brilliant model, Ria, the wonderful makeup by Catherine and expert hair styling by David Graham Hairdressing, both of Linen Green, Dungannon

All images were captured between 2pm and 5pm on an incredibly bright , sunny afternoon.

 

Careful consideration was given here for the strong backlight and the background. I had a series of these images. It's impossible to take a bad picture of Ria, our model.

 

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Posted in Landscape, Lashes and Flashes Makeover Photoshoot Experience, Location portraits, Model Portfolio

Ciara’s Model Portfolio

14/03/2012 by Nigel | Leave a comment
This is Ciara who was approached to do some modelling by a local agency. They advised she should get some model portfolio images, so Ciara then asked us and we were pleased to help.

 

Ciara came excellently prepared for her model portfolio photo shoot, and brought a fantastic range of clothes. As with all model portfolio photo shoots, makeup artist Catherine started out with a completely natural look to allow a range of head shots. Good head shots are a must for any portfolio, showing a range of looks. Catherine then funked up Ciara’s makeup to a much more fashion based look, to compliment a few outfit changes, and resulted in a great range of images to kick start Ciara’s portfolio.

 

A great afternoon was had by all, and we wish Ciara every success in her future modelling assignments.

 

Hair styled by David Graham Hairdressing

 

Makeup by Catherine Fleming Makeup (two looks applied during Ciara’s photo shoot).

 

Our bubble chair is as popular as ever, even with our model portfolio's

 

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Posted in Lashes and Flashes Makeover Photoshoot Experience, Model Portfolio

Stacey’s Lashes and Flashes Makeover Experience

14/03/2012 by Nigel | Leave a comment

Just a quick before and after from what was a very enjoyable afternoon for Stacey on her Lashes and Flashes Makeover Experience.

Makeup by Catherine Fleming Makeup Artist

Hair by David Graham Hairdressing

 

Posted in Lashes and Flashes Makeover Photoshoot Experience, Model Portfolio, Studio

Tailored Image Uniforms

01/03/2012 by Nigel | Leave a comment

A small selection from a larger collection of corporate wear photographed today for Tailored Image

Posted in Commercial

Keely – Creative Make-up and Hair Day

24/02/2012 by Nigel | Leave a comment

One from today when Catherine wanted to get creative with her make-up. I’m glad she did because I love photography like this.

A big thank you to model Keely, and hair by David Graham Hairdressing of The Linen Green.

 

The background for this image was an old Ikea mat which was rolled up and stuck away in a corner. It looks great hung vertically as a studio background now :)

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Lashes and Flashes – The Makeover Photo Shoot Experience Launch and Competition Video

16/02/2012 by Nigel | Leave a comment

 

To officially launch our Lashes and Flashes makeover photo shoot experience, we’ve made a video presentation. The video shows a Lashes and Flashes makeover from start to finish!

TO WIN your own Lashes and Flashes Makeover Photo Shoot Experience, watch the video, and send your answers to these 3 questions in email to info@nigelflemingphotography.co.uk
A lucky winner will be picked at random from all entries received on or before 31st March 2012.
Only one entry per person, and we’d love you to ‘like’ our Lashes and Flashes Facebook page.
The questions:
1. What is the name of the designer shopping village where Lashes and Flashes is located?
2. What colour is the hair stylist, David Graham’s tie?
3. How many ‘Before and After’ photos are there?
Good Luck!


Posted in Lashes and Flashes Makeover Photoshoot Experience, Studio