Scarlett of Soho

I'm so excited to finally share these photos - the SS14 campaign I shot for designer eyewear brand Scarlett of Soho earlier this year. Scarlett of Soho are a brand new startup, offering fresh and interesting designer glasses from just £97 and it's run by some of the most inspiring, friendly people I have ever met. The commitment, passion and hard work that has gone into creating and launching their product is staggering and I honestly cannot wait to see what the future has in store for them.

We shot the campaign on a lovely sunny day at the end of February, walking through the streets of Paddington with 4 lovely models, styled impeccably by Angelo Di Palma, with hair and makeup by Siobhan Drew. It was an action packed day (after we'd shot the lifestyle images, the models then went into the studio to shoot e-commerce shots!) but it was great fun and particularly wonderful to collaborate with Victoria Emslie and Siobhan Drew again as part of it.

So here we go.. a selection of my favourites from the day!

Models: Victoria, G, Sasha & Greg
HMU: Siobhan Drew
Styling: Angelo Di Palma & Scarlett of Soho



Curious to know more about Scarlett of Soho? Head on over to their site or Facebook to find out more!

www.scarlettofsoho.com
www.facebook.com/scarlettofsoho

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

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Maude Fealy

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Two young girls enjoy the sun relaxing in their suits and wraps in England by Bernard Wakeman 1929

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Cléo de Mérode & other vintage beauties

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Winter Morning

I'm slowly but surely catching up with old personal work that has never seen the light of day.. and here is the first post from those efforts. At the moment I've got another set of self-portraits to finish and a fashion test that is 99% finished.. all coming soon!

I shot these photos at the end of 2013, on one of those mornings that are so beautiful I can't help but grab a dress, a prop and run out of the house like a crazy woman to try and get some photos before the mist fades away. My favourite kind of mornings.

The Castiglione with Fan by Pierre-Louis Pierson c.1861-1867

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Evelyn Nesbit

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Rite of Spring, England by Kate Pragnell 1905

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Yvonne Arnaud by Alexander Bassano 1912

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Joseph Rock album artwork

I've always loved the idea of crowdfunding: people uniting through a joint interest to support a cause they believe in. So when classical guitarist Joseph Rock got in touch with me in late March with a view to us shooting his crowdfunded album's artwork together, I was thrilled to have been asked to be a part of his project.

He started his Kickstarter campaign as part of his final project at university, the aim of which was to record and produce an album of classical guitar pieces, written by his favourite composer Augustin Barrios. The campaign was a success, going over and above its funding target, and last month I was ridiculously excited to receive a copy of his finished CD in the post.

We met up at the beginning of April and spent the day trekking throughout the forest in the beautiful Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. Despite the falling rain that gradually got harder and harder to ignore throughout the shoot, we carried on shooting until we got everything we needed and finished the shoot next to an amazing pile of cut down tree trunks (something I have wanted to include in a portrait shoot for years!)

Joseph, thank you for putting up with all of my ideas and the awful weather that day! It really has been a huge honour to be a part of your project and I can't wait to see what you do next.



And finally.. here are a few photos of the finished album!




To find out more about Joseph and his work, why not take a peek at his Kickstarter page and website:

www.josephrock.co.uk
Kickstarter: Recording the music of classical guitarist Augustin Barrios
 

A woman stands in front of her flower stand on the Rambla in Barcelona, Spain by Jules Gervais Courtellemont 1929

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Q&A: What equipment do you use? (2014 update)

I don't really talk about my equipment much as I am a firm believer in the concept that a good camera does not necessarily equal good pictures, but it's probably a good idea that I put all the information about my kit in one place for people to check out if they're interested!



Canon 5D Mark III
Early this year I upgraded to the Mark III (from the Mark II) and I have never looked back! The reason for this is that I shoot at wide-ish apertures most of the time, and when focusing and bumping over to frame my shot I kept finding a lot of out of focus shots, which is just not acceptable, especially terms of my client work. The Mark III has 41 AF points compared to the Mark II's 9, and I have noticed a HUGE difference.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

I bought this lens about a year before I upgraded to the 5D Mark II, and it's always worked stunningly well on all of my camera bodies. It's my most used lens, and at £300 or so it's a real bargain considering just how often I use it! Beautiful DOF and hardly weighs anything compared to my other lenses, so using it for hours on end is a breeze.

I'm now on my second one - my first one broke when the focus system failed. I managed to get it repaired by Canon but sadly the same thing happened again at the beginning of this year, so here we are onto number 2. Let's keep our fingers crossed for this one!

Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L USM
When it comes to choosing a favourite portrait lens, it always comes down to this and the 50mm. I just can't choose! The 135 is one of Canon's fastest focusing and sharpest, yet lowest priced L lenses and it is perfect for closely cropped portraits. The long focal length compresses facial features to create a really flattering portrait, and the DOF is amazingly smooth.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM

For me, a zoom lens is always a must-have for any photographer's kit. Even if you won't be using it a huge amount, the range of focal lengths makes them incredibly versatile and for me, it's always nice knowing I've got one just in case I need to shoot something particularly wide angle, which I can't do with my current selection of prime lenses. This lens is a little pricey, but the quality of the shots it produces is fantastic and it's the zoom lens with the widest aperture I could justify the price of!

BITS AND BOBS

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro

This is a brand new purchase! My husband does a lot of food photography in his work and I really wanted to have a macro to be able to shoot macro photos at weddings, so it had to happen. I've not a chance to use it professionally yet but from playing around with it at home it is amazing. I've never owned a lens that can focus closer than 30cm or so, so the entire concept of shooting macro on a DSLR is completely new to me!

Waterproof CF card cases / Sandisk CF cards

These cases are incredible. They feel absolutely bullet proof and are apparently waterproof (although luckily I have not had to test this out yet!) The main advantage for me is just having somewhere to keep my cards in the same place - if you're putting them back in a case you'll have no risk of cards getting lost floating around in your pockets or ending up in the washing machine!

I have a few of these because I like to use lots of small cards instead of a few big ones. The reason for this is to minimise risk if anything screws up on the card - I'll lose less images than I would shooting with a large one. Just search for "CF card case" on Amazon and you'll find this style of card case sold by multiple brands.

Tip: Replacing full cards into the case upside down is a handy indicator of which ones are full and which ones are ready to go!

Canon Speedlite 430 EX II

Another new purchase for weddings! I always used to use my dad's old film camera flash gun on manual, but I figured it was about time to get something more reliable. So far it has served us well and I'm looking forward to practising some more creative flash techniques too!

Looooots of batteries
You can never go wrong with lots of spare batteries. No explanation needed!

Collapsible reflector (not photographed)
At the very beginning of my love for photography, I purchased a large collapsible reflector with a zip off case from Jessops (it can be used as silver, gold, white, black or as a diffuser). I've still got it, it's every bit as useful as it was when I first purchased it and it comes along with me on every shoot.

Canon RC-6 Remote Control (on camera strap in top photo)
This is the remote I use for all my self-portraits. It's pretty basic, but its options work very well for the work I do: 2-second delay or shoot instantly. It has a good range and I've never had any issues with it (except for in thick fog) and even comes with a camera strap pouch so you don't lose it.

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So finally after 3 years I've updated this blog post! I hope this was useful to anybody who was curious, but again I need to mention that it's not your equipment that makes your pictures what they are - it's you!

Now it's your turn - what are your favourite things in your kit bag and why? Leave a comment below!

 

In the Sitting Room by Paul Sano c.1920

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Adrienne Ames

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Lily Elsie & Bertram Wallis

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Alphonse Mucha

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Children play in pool they have dug out of the sand on the beach in Le Havre, France by W. Robert Moore 1936

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