Oh so wow shoot 2013
Saturday 30th March 2013 Photo Shoot
Peter has been my web designer for more than 10 years now, we usually exchange emails a couple of times a year, either just catching up with each other or if I have gotten my arse in gear then it’s me advising Peter of an update I need on the site. Peter does a lot of work on other sites, and during this other work somebody mentioned to him that they needed a model for one of their sites.
Peter gave me a link to the site which looked impressive and Sarah the site owner was trying to expand her business and break into the tv market. Sarah and I spoke a couple of times on the phone and she explained what she wanted to achieve and eventually we both found a date in our diaries for the shoot.
Sarah was based in Farnborough so I therefore had to get up early and drive once again round the M25(why do all my photo shoots involve the M25) Luckily as I was leaving fairly early in the morning I was able to beat most of the traffic and had a relatively pain free journey. Sarah had a lovely big house and I was able to park up on the drive way and heave my bag into one of the many rooms, after having a coffee and chat I unpacked my bags to show her the many outfits that I had with me. We had not really discussed what clothes she wanted me to bring, but I just filled my bag with as many dresses and shoes as I could fit in.
I had recently purchased a 1930’s style dress and was keen in doing some pictures in this outfit, Sarah also liked this one and we agreed that this was going to be the starting point. The second dress we chose was completely different, being a short black sparkly number. Sarah also showed me the dresses that she had picked out, but we agreed that as I knew mine fitted we would stick with them.
It was then time for me to strip off, put on a dressing gown and sit in the make up chair, must admit it was pretty cold sitting there and although it was a fluffy dressing gown, I had to keep getting up to keep warm and stop myself from freezing to the chair. We eventually solved this problem by getting another blanket to keep my feet warm, and upped the setting on the heater.
Every time I have my make up done by somebody new it is always interesting watching how they do it, Sarah was back to the traditional method of applying the foundation and then working up from this. She did not use the usual thick war paint to cover the beard, but whatever she used seemed to do the job pretty well. She also managed to put false eyelashes on me without floods of tears streaming from my eyes.
About half way through the make up Sarah’s assistant arrived and after making a few cups of coffee she sat down and started to do my nails, 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 and Sarah then went to work on my hair, she was impressed with the length of it and said it was great to actually work on a tv who had their own long hair. Enough hair spray was put into it to cause a hole in the ozone layer and she then put curlers in for about 20 minutes whilst she finished off the rest of my face.
Once the curlers were removed the hair was manipulated into place with even more hair spray and the final touches were applied to the face, it was then time to go upstairs and get dressed. Again this was a rather strange experience because the girls had decided that as my nails might still be wet they needed to dress me. I already had my knickers on, but its strange to be standing there as someone put stockings on you and then puts a bra on you.
The red polka dot dress was next, followed by the massive big white petticoat, which again entailed one of the girls going under the dress and ensuring the petticoat was correctly positioned. Finally it was the gloves and jewellery and a flower in my hair. We had to go back downstairs and across the garden to start the pictures so it was decided not to put my heels on straight way. Not sure it was a great look 1930’s red polka dot dress and grey adidas trainers(at least the laces were red and matched the dress)
After a few touches of the make up, and switching the trainers for red shoes we were ready to start taking pictures. To start off we kept with the Vintage theme , there was an desk with a telephone on it and we were trying to do some pictures with me answering the phone and pretending to be shocked by the person at the other end. I’m not sure I fully managed the shocked look, I think a glare was more like the response I gave. We then stood up behind the desk and this time I was standing up answering the phone, before we finally dispensed with the phone and did a series of either close up shots followed by some full length pictures. We tried to do some pictures where I was moving the bottom of the dress and petticoat about, and once or twice I almost fell over. Its not easy trying to swish in heels and still smile at the camera.
Once we had finished in the front room, we moved onto the staircase where we did various poses firstly with Sarah standing below me and me sitting on the stairs followed by, us changing positions and me either standing on the stairs or stretching out on the banisters and head shots being taken. We finally finished with a few taken with me looking in the mirror trying to apply lipstick. They are always strange ones because you can see the photographer at the corner of your eye, but you are not looking directly at them.
It was then time to change outfits, and we went for something completely different, this was a short thigh length black sparkly dress. It was the sort of dress that you wear to a party. We teamed that up with black stockings(probably not best move in such a short dress) and black heels. Sarah then decided that she wanted to do something different with the hair, I think she came out with some long technical term about what she wanted to do, but basically I held my down and just shook my head about. After a few adjustments and a bit more hair spray the hair looked fine and we were ready to start the second half of the shoot.
We tried to do the pictures different from the first set, dare I say going for a more sexy look(I’m not sure I managed to achieve this) we started off with doing the pictures whist I sitting in a chair , and Sarah was working around me, trying to take pictures from above. The further I slipped back in the chair the further my dress went up, so there are probably some very unladylike pictures on Sarah’s camera.
Once we had finished on the chair we decided to do some on the floor, there was a black fake fur rug on the floor and I was put into various positions on the rug. We started off with just lying down and propping myself up with my elbows, we then rolled over onto my back with my legs in the air. Due to all my running injuries I always find it difficult to keep my legs in the air for any length of time without getting a dose of the shakes. It was back onto my front again and trying to do a couple of pictures as if I was crawling along the ground in a cat like manner, again I was very aware of the short length of the dress whilst trying to stretch out.
We were done at last, I know it sounds stupid, but it is quite tiring spending a few hours trying to get into impossible positions, stretching necks and shoulders and still trying to smile. I was relieved to get the dress and heels off and get back into my jeans. The hair and make up always take a bit longer , especially with so much hair spray, it took an age to be able to even get a brush through it.
Once I was fully cleaned up and had my hair in a more way, we sat down and had a coffee and some toast and had a general talk, during the conversation it transpired that Sarah was a biker girl and was looking to get a new motorbike. I mentioned that I had always wanted to do a shoot on a bike, so we agreed that I would contact her again once the bike purchase had gone through.
After that it was throwing everything back into the bag and then into the car for the return journey back round the dreaded M25.