Gone get gone

During my last few weeks at FIT I styled and assisted on this bohemian shoot. We took ourselves down to the West Village in NYC and after hours of adjusting and styling we finally came away with these shots, which I have to say I am so pleased with!

This is what I had been waiting to do in my styling class for the whole term, however we had to focus on food and objects before we could style an fashion editorial piece. 

The clothing are all pieces we all already had from home (and some of the girls parents wardrobe!). It  was so cool and interesting looking at spring/summer 2015 trends and following their history back in time. We focused on the bohemian vibe and included up and coming trends such as tassels, nude make up and braided hair. 

I love the relaxed look our model conveys on these images as I truly believe it makes the story come to life. 

Photographic Styling - Lemon chicken

My second Photographic styling shoot...

This time we had to create an image which could be used in a catalogue selling the cooking equipment NOT the food. Sounds easy but it is in fact very hard! It was difficult making sure all the pans, chopping board etc were all in shot but still looking quite natural as well as making sure the food doesn't out stage them! A very weird task! 

We chose to create a lemon chicken dish with a side of veg - broccoli and mushrooms. The next challenge was making sure the food looked cooked when obviously we don't have a kitchen in the studio! We had watched tutorials previous to the shoot which gave us tips and tricks on how to achieve this. We started by using coffee to brown the chicken off (they had been slightly cooked before class)  and we also used it on the lemon. We added grease to the pan to make it look like the oil that would be used during cooking chicken. We also added herbs to the pan to give it a more authentic feel. We then browned the veg with coffee so the whole meal looked as though it was ready to be served and eaten. 

We used marble contact paper to give the impression we were shooting on a kitchen counter top when we were in fact shooting on a wooden board on the floor of the studio. This just shows how deceiving photoshoots can be!

We experimented with the layouts multiple times by making the tea towel look like it had just been thrown on to the counter rather than folded and placed. We also sprinkled salt and herbs on the chopping board as well as seeing what the salt would look like it had spilt on the black towel - I really loved this shot because the salt contrasted so much with the black towel! Even though I loved the black towel in that one shot I preferred the red overall as it added a pop of colour - much more interesting! 

I really liked this shoot and much preferred it to the perfume ad! Now I just cant wait to get started on the last two portrait and editorial shoots!

Photographic Styling - Taking a trip to the beach

This was my first shoot in Photographic Styling at FIT and it was so interesting! I've assisted on shoots before but this was obviously so different as its A) on a much smaller scale and B) it's not fashion! However, I learnt so much about the lighting, setting up the backdrop and setting up the camera. I'm really excited about this course as I will develop my skills so when I return back to Nottingham Trent in January I will be much more confident when we are required to produce photo shoots. I'm even more excited for the last two shoots as these are portraits and a 4 page fashion editorial. I'm praying I get the role of stylist for these shoots! 

This shoot was interesting as I have never really worked on such a small scale in photoshoots. I have either worked with people or large scale art installations such as window displays. 

We chose to photograph the perfume 'Aqua Savon' for our advertisement project, which I admit I had never heard of so I first had to research the history of the perfume and the brand before we made any decisions for the shoot. We eventually decided on re-creating a beach for the backdrop of the shoot with sand, sea and shells. In theory we wanted  to submerge the bottle into water which had golden sand at the bottom - which turned out to be not the greatest idea! By mixing the sand with the water we ended up with a mud-like pond, not what we were after! So we used our initiative and placed sand under the plastic container holding the water and that thankfully gave us the golden beach we were searching for! 

My favourite shots are definitely where the bottle is surrounded by sand and shells as this really gives off the beach vibe we were going for. Overall I am really happy with the results for this shoot and I can't wait to get stuck into the next project in a few weeks! 

Bailey's Stardust

During a recent trip to London I visited the National Portrait Gallery and saw the David Bailey exhibition: Bailey's stardust! It was so interesting and exciting to be able to see all these iconic images first hand. I got told I couldn't take photos after about 5 minutes so these are all I could get but I absolutely loved it! 

I really want to get into photography more and photographic styling so I think during my time at FIT in NYC I'll take some classes which will help improve my skills in these areas! 

Twerking with Terry Richardson

I've ALWAYS loved Terry Richardson's risque photography and his wicked eye for it but ever since doing my presentation on Tom Ford and looking at his ad campaigns I've realised just how much I do! 

Terry shot Tom Fords eye wear and fragrance campaigns, which shocked a lot of people! Although this doesn't come close to the shock factor of some of his other stuff....

Some of my favourite images by him are his most recent, especially his photo shoot images with Miley Cyrus. As geeky as it sounds I was a HUGE nerd about Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana back in the day and her transformation reeeally shocked me! Although I have to admit I kinda love the new edgy look she's got going on. 

These images really show a completely different side to Miley and they definitely encouraged everyone on their rampage about her! I mean she's hardly recognisable now?! 

I seriously love these images even though they are hugely controversial, like most of his work, and I especially love the one of Miley and Terry himself. Her confidence is what makes these images and it must be a god send to work with someone who isn't afraid to show it! When I've worked on photoshoots it's draining trying to force poses and facial expressions from someone who lacks confidence and is afraid to experiment and both of these are things Miley has bucket loads of!