Not a blue dress

I have been too busy with all kinds of stuff to allow myself to sit down and write a photography related blog. Well, here it comes, at last. Some time ago, Simon sent me a picture, made in our office, of a girl called Angela. She was one of his colleagues, but she was gonna leave the company soon. Simon said, I always wanted to do a photoshoot with a girl with red hair. Angela might be it. A couple of weeks went by and Angela let Simon know she was willing to take part in our little project. A week ago we scouted two possible beach locations. It was a cold windy evening. I didn't take a jacket with me and I was freezing my bits off. Even though the environment wasn't really hospitable, we saw plenty of potential for nice photoshoot.

We anxiously watched the weather forecasts days before the shoot. But even on the day itself the weather could go either way. Also the unpredictable public transport Angela was using and a pile on of several cars on the motorway to the beach threatened our plans. But in the end, it all worked out. The bus picked up Angela on time, the alternative route to the beach wasn't too busy and the weather was reasonably good.  

I took Nikki with me, Angela brought a couple of dresses and her ukelele and Simon...wel... he brought his (lighting) equipment and his endless photography related knowledge of course. 

One of the first choices we had to make, besides on which spot we would like to start taking pictures, was with which dress to start. We chose the green one and started shooting in the dunes first. Nikki was having a great time. While we were shooting, she was running up and down hills, sometimes stumbling and falling on her face. At one point it was my time to shoot. Simon, holding the octobox (umbrella), spotted a fox, which stopped and was standing still about half a meter right next to Angela. Simon and I both were fumbling for our gear. I was also hastily putting a leash on Nikki, otherwise she would go into hunting mode. Simon and I were both too late to take a picture of Angela with the fox. Bummer! But a cool experience nonetheless.

Even though it may seem that way when looking at these pictures, Angela did not take a blue dress with her. This was achieved, or better said was the result of a happy accident in editing. When experimenting with Lightroom settings, I accidentally turned it from green (as you can see in the first picture on this page) to blue (without changing the other green elements in the picture). I really liked the blue coloured dress. It matched her eyes and the cool colour tones I was going for.

When I was finished with my first round of editing, I took a peak at the pictures Simon posted. They were not only great, it turned out he went the total opposite with his editing. He went for warm colour tones, giving the pictures a dreamy summery look. That's one of the things that is so great about our cooperation. Even though we do shoot together on the same location, we choose different vantage points and editing techniques and also use different kinds of gear (I shoot Micro Four Thirds and Simon shoots Full Frame) resulting in two totally different looking sets of pictures. Giving the model something to choose. You can find Simon Sutcliffe's pictures here: ​https://sutcliffe.photography/blog/portfolios/angela/

It was golden hour, but the sky was cloudy and the wind was cold. The sun was almost invisible. Angela was a real trooper, bearing the cold like a pro. We kept on shooting, but now near the waterline.

I loved the ecstatic of the beam. Here the green dress really workes against a warm background. Angela looked amazing and the sky, a bit colourless, could be fixed in post ;-). 

The shoot ended like it began, Angela playing on her ukelele. It sounded really soothing and brought a feeling of calmness and content. We went to the car, put the heater on and warmed up while driving home, exchanging experiences while eating some healthy snacks Angela brought with her. The chemistry was great and I'm pretty sure there will be another shoot with the three of us.