File:Just A Girl (24063924945).jpg

You can view the full post and all images taken on this shoot HERE

LOUISA-MARIE

Her name is Louisa Marie and the title of this image is all about the effect she has had on me. As you may or may not know, my relationship with photography is very much love/hate. One moment I'm more passionate about it than anything else, the next I am ready to throw my camera into the nearest lake. Today, and tomorrow for that matter, I got to work with the beautiful Louisa - and she has thoroughly restored my faith!

What can I tell you about Louisa-Marie that isn't absolutely bloody-obvious. Ok, let us start with what you have already worked out for yourself. Yes, she is incredibly attractive. I mean, as attractive as it is possible to be. But forget that, you can see it for yourself. Instead, I want to tell you just how lovely she is as a person. When I walked into her house for the first time, I instantly felt like I knew her. Not in the new-age way of past lives and all that stuff, she just made me feel so welcome. We stood in her kitchen, drinking coffee and chatting whilst constantly getting interrupted by Barney the parrot. Seriously, he doesn't stop talking. After initially looking at me like he wanted to peck my face off, she began to warm to me and eventually I think we were friend; if him saying "hello" to me every time I walked through is anything to go by anyway.

But back onto Louisa. She is the mother of two, lives on a farm and looks like she should be famous. She just has this air of confidence that you only normally see in the very rich and famous. She looks like the type of person you have seen somewhere before, a distinct mix of Bridget Bardot and Pamela Anderson. She is warm, friendly and has no airs or graces. She is normal, polite, genuine. We stood and gossiped, talked about the world and eventually took a few images. The day was so dark and when working with natural light, no light is a bit of a problem. So an hour or so into our shoot, we decided to call it a day and regroup tomorrow. I seriously cannot wait!

The Following Day

Today was a day of Deja Vu. Having worked with Louisa yesterday, we met up again this morning and decided that we would use the beautiful morning sun to create some soft, romantic, sensual images that would better suit her look. Yesterday, the clouds were grey and moody and that didn't suit her as much as soft, morning sunshine would. So, I arrived at just before 11am and we got cracking.

Today was much more fun than yesterday. Thats not to say that yesterday wasn't great, but when you already know each other and you click, things just go so much better. We laughed, we chatted, we drank coffee and we talked about pretty much everything. To be honest, I am surprised we actually got around to taking any photos. But we did and I have to say I am very happy with the outcome. See I wanted to create something really soft and dreamy. Louisa is one of those rare girls that can actually look dreamy. When caught under a soft light, she is transformed into a would-be girl next door and the images look a little ethereal. It was important for me to shoot into the sun whenever possible, diffusing the images considerably to accentuate this effect even more. But her house is large and a lot of the rooms are very neutral and the strong sunlight was bouncing off of the walls and ceiling as if we were stood in a huge reflector. This was great, but it makes the light harder to control.

When shooting into the sun, images are always less contrasty and softer. That is not to say that they appear blurry, they just lack clarity. This is a great effect if you want to shoot something a little dreamy, but it can be hard to get right. Having started off working again in her bedroom, we soon moved downstairs to a living room that was decked out in dark woods and marble. This gave the images a completely different feel, with the darks of the surroundings creating a natural vignette and allowing the light from the window to be clearly visible. This recovers some of the contrast lost by shooting towards the source of light.