Bike Shoot 2013
Wednesday 14th August 2013 Photo Shoot
During my last photo shoot with Sarah from Oh So Wow, it came up in conversation that she rode a motorbike. I mentioned that I had always wanted to do a shoot sitting on a motorbike and so the wheels were put in motion to do another shoot. Sarah was planning on moving house during the summer, so we had to wait until that was finalised, and also it had to coincide with me being able to take any time off work. Eventually we both agreed on a date which was mid August.
After agreeing a date the next problem was down to Sarah and her assistant Natalie to organise the motorbike, their main problem was going to be how to get the motorbike into the photographic studio. I had believed that we were going to be using Natalie’s bike for the shoot but when I spoke to Sarah a couple of days before the shoot she advised me that she was in fact bidding for a bike on ebay and was hoping to have it for the shoot.
I had ideas in my head as to what look I was trying to achieve and knew for once that I would not have to spend a fortune on clothes. I already had a leather jacket and skirt. I had also recently purchased a new pair of boots which would look great. As well as the leathers I thought maybe some underwear pictures may look good, unfortunately as life as moved on so has my waistline and so I decided to go for some stomach reducing, but still nice looking underwear. I managed to find a really nice set by Gossard on the net, which arrived in time for the shoot. Finally I managed to get a Harley Davison T shirt on ebay to complete the look.
So setting out for once for a photo shoot I was not over burdened with loads of bags, but there were still enough to feel the boot of my car. Although Sarah had moved it was still the same general direction so still had to spend part of my journey on the much hated M25. Despite having a sat nav I managed to get lost twice, but was still just about on time. Sarah advised that she had been successful on her ebay bid and that we were going to be using her new bike for the shoot which was a Harley Davison, she had only taken delivery of it the night before and then explained to me what an adventure it had been to get the bike into the studio.
After looking at the bike it was time to unpack and try and work out some sort of order for the shoot. I had only put together a couple of outfits, but Sarah tried to look at ways of mixing and matching what I had with me. Somehow I think she worked out that we could do six different looks.
It was then time to sit down and do my hair and make up, my hair was a bit shorter than in my last shoot, but Sarah believed she could still make it look good, and put curls in it. I had done my last shoot with Sarah so I knew roughly how long it was going to take for the make up, so you take this time to sit back and relax. During the make up time Sarah’s assistant Natalie arrived and after catching up on the latest news and making coffee she started work on my nails. As I said previously , its quite a strange experience as a guy to be sitting there chatting about various things and having one girl doing your face and another doing your nails and be talking about things that happen in my “normal” life. Eventually most of the face was finished, but I had problems with my left eye which was weeping constantly and we still had not finished the eye make up. We decided it was best if I tried to get dressed and then have something to eat and hope by then that the eye had settled. We ended up having to wait for about 45 minutes before the eye had settled and Sarah was able to do the final bits of make up around the eyes.
At last it was time for me to totter in my boots into the studio and try and get onto the motorbike, although I always wanted to do a bike shoot, my experience of bikes is very limited. The Harley was a pretty bike heavy bike and I was very wary about how much of my weight I could actually put on the bike whilst it was on the stand. Once I was confident about how much weight I could put on the bike we then set about trying to replicate some of the poses that both Sarah and I had found on the internet. We started off with me just standing in front of the bike with my leather jacket and skirt on, I was my usual unsmiling self, whilst Sarah and Natalie had the all to familiar job of trying to make me look at least a little bit happy.
Once we had done a few standing poses it was time for me to try and get seated on the bike, well it was difficult enough trying to get my leg over, with heels on, but with a tight leather skirt, and trying to do it in a ladylike manner was always impossible. The only possible way was to fully undo the zip on the side of the skirt and then get my leg over, which meant my stocking top and hell of a lot more was on full view, not quite the look we were going for. It was also proving to be quite difficult to balance with one leg either side of the bike. After almost falling over a few times we worked out the best way to get the look we wanted was to take off my boot which was not on view behind the bike. Also if I moved the skirt round so the zip was at the back, my leg facing the camera looked ok, the skirt was at a decent length and stockings were only displayed when requested.
It was then time to move the bike to another position and this was quite a job, as Sarah had to grab hold of it and just manoeuvre it back and forth each time changing the angle slightly., when eventually the bike was in the right position it was time for me to pose again. This time we were going for the underwear shots, once again I was trying to do my best to look happy and to force a smile, but not sure if it came across this way, knowing me probably not. Although I was pleased with the underwear when I got it, I don’t think the pictures looked that good, I was probably a bit fat in the pictures and this shows, with my stomach bulging over the top of my knickers.
We decided to do one more change and Sarah persuaded me to go with a leopard print dress, I can’t say I was too keen on the dress, but she reckoned that it was a contrast to the leathers so I gave it a go. The dress was slightly easier to get on the bike with and by this time we knew what to do with the shoes. I was by now beginning to flag, all this smiling and posing was beginning to get to me so after a few more pictures we called it a day.
It always feels sad taking all the make up off, especially as it takes so long to put on, and sometimes its a long time before it goes on again. However today due to the problems I had with my eye I was pleased to step under the shower to wash the hairspray out of my hair and remove the make up from my face. After the shower I managed to throw the clothes back into the bag, sit down with Sarah and Natalie for a cup of coffee before setting off home.
When the photos arrived I was a little bit disappointed, not with the photography more with how I looked, bodywise.