The first project was for a shoot to get images that Sam could enter in a make up/nail art competition, being run by Scratch Magazine - and Sam and I met up, so she could show me sketches of the make up and nail art designs she had come up with . I loved the sketches and the idea's - Sam had created a look that was extreme and edgy, and straight away I had several idea's for locations we could use to best show off the look. And it was great that my idea's 'clicked' with what Sam had in mind too - from the start, the two of us felt we worked really well together, which made for the whole project being fantastic fun.
Samantha had arranged for her friend, Alison Roberts, to be our model . On the day of the shoot, she and Sam met up about an hour or so earlier than the time set, for Sam to not only do the make up and the nails, but also to style the whole look - hair and clothes, too.
The first location we headed for was in Moss Valley, near Wrexham . There was - many years ago - a large sandstone quarry, as well as a mine, in this location, and in amongst the woods, you can still find a couple of area's where there is a small rock face and large boulders scattered . The rock face has been covered in graffiti over the years, and this I thought would give the location - and the photographs - an urban/edgy feel that Sam wanted for the images. I also felt that we could use some of the 'natural' aspects of the area to showcase the look Sam was after in another way - the look was wild, exotic and even a little scary - so I was thinking along the lines of the woods show casing the look, rather as a natural habitat would show case a wild but beautiful creature.
Alison was fantastic, very easy to direct and very willing to get herself into some rather uncomfortable positions and poses to give Sam and I the shots we wanted - the ground was very rough and uneven, and lots of broken bottles and beer cans around to add to the mix - this area is obviously frequented by I guess youngsters wanting somewhere to knock back the booze, sadly .
The tree's made the area pretty dark, but here and there, a break in them let shafts of strong sunlight through, which created a really nice effect when combined with the flash on the camera. The pictures had to be interesting, well posed and of a high standard - and obviously, they had to show case all Sam's hard work and her creativity with the make up and nails. From the first photographs, it just all seemed to 'work' - the light, the location, the poses, and the fabulous make up.
We experimented with different poses, and I tried to use the natural light coming through the tree's, combined with the shadowy area's, to create different light effects to show off the make up - this would hopefully give Sam a good selection and plenty of options to chose images that she felt displayed her work bestt.
I tried some extreme close ups,
using the nails to frame Ali's face
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| Here, I wanted to use the soft greens as a back drop to contrast with the make up and look |
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| The nails were fabulously long and striking, so again, we used them to frame area's of the face - this showed I think, how the nail art and make up worked well together, as well as drawing attention to both those aspects . |
Having Ali crouch amongst the boulders resulted in images that to me suggest an air of a cornered wild creature
At one point, the sun coming through the tree's hit on a silvery barked tree, and Sam suggested that we could use that to take a couple of shots that highlighted the nail art exclusively .
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| I think the colour and texture of the bark works really well |
The following two shots are my favourites of the day, from a photography point of view - Sam had used make up that had a lustre and sheen to it, and had also used a body lotion/moisturiser on Ali's arms, that had the same qualities - combining this with the silvery bark and the shaft of sunlight that was hitting this area helped to create pictures that had an almost dreamlike, surreal glow to them, that I really liked .
Really happy with a scan through of the photographs so far, we then headed for the second location - a nearby subway, that was adorned with graffitti - this was to try a strictly urban feel as a backdrop .
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| The graffiti's bright colours were used to complement the colours of the make up. |
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| I shot some at the very entrance of the subway, so I could use the natural light to pick up the sheen and lustre |
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| This shot was taken deeper into the subway, and just lit by the flash, which gave a different tone to the colours |
All in all, I was really pleased with the results of this shoot - and thankfully, once Samantha had seen the images, she was really thrilled with them too . Its the first time I have worked with a professional make up artist and stylist, and I really enjoyed the collaboration - its a different sort of shoot to the informal, locational portraiture I have done before, and I really felt it gave me the chance to be creative in a different way - it wasn't just a case of getting nicely lit, attractive photographs - the purpose was to enhance and show case Sam's idea's and creativity, and I really enjoyed the challenge of it . Big thanks to Sam - I think she created a fantastic look for me to work with, and to Ali, who pulled off the look brilliantly, with expressions and poses exactly how both Sam and I had envisioned.
Hopefully, Sam's fabulous creative make up and nail art will get her placed in the Scratch competition, 'Anything Goes' - watch this space for any updates . And I'll also be blogging and posting photographs on at least another 2 projects that are in the pipeline, with Sam - and after this great experience, I really can't wait !
For more information on Samantha's work, link HERE to her blog .
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