the next steps

so, now i have had time to mull over this open brief for PH2010, i have decided i will stick to the fashion genre (as lets face it, we all know fashion is my passion lol) and i am aiming to do up to four shoots, one high street fashion, one inspired by lady gaga one with a distinctive theme and another which im not sure about yet :) each of these will be very different, i will also try and use the studio AND location for these shots, but obviously due to the typical Prestonian weather (or generally the northern weather) this may be difficult.

i also want to build up my contacts for things like hair, makeup, stylists and models which would give me an opportunity to work with different people. saying that i have decided to work again with the two styling students i met in the PH2011 module 'Fashion Image' - Rachel and Jess. i really enjoyed working with them and we had a blast brainstorming and shooting the fashion assignment we did together. they also have some great ideas and work well as a twosome and with some of my ideas i think we could create some good looks for my fashion shoots.

i also would work with my two hair stylists, one of whom i went to high school with. we both know each other very well and he understands my ideas and the looks i am after and creates pretty much what im after for each shoot he has done for me so far. he has no problems with trying something a little bit different either which adds an edge to my models and the shoots i do.

i do not know a makeup artist, yet i know quite a few girls with good makeup knowledge who have done shoots for me before. i want to make it a mission to find a good makeup artist who i can work with on my shoots, or as another option - learn some makeup techniques myself so i could do it.

when it comes to models, as a starting photographer we all go for our friends, i know ive done it.... but now after the lectures with adam about the model i have realised that using people who aren't my friends would work better for my shoots. i do however have a couple of friends with modeling experince whom i could still use, but i would like to get myself out there and get some 'new meat' as they put it :P and find some new models. it would also be good for my practice to start working with new people etc.

the final thing i aim to do this semester (or by the end of 2010), is to get my work out there into the professional world of fashion photography. this could be through online magazines, projects linked with the university, doing a couple of exhibitions etc. either way i aim to get my self known a little bit more. the first place i would start with this is my local library - they have a section of a wall dedicated to exhibiting artists of all mediums and genres... the audience would be very limited, but hopefully through word of mouth people would know about it as we all know, elderly people (who would see it) do like to gossip. lets just hope my work would be good enough for them to gossip about?

top shops spring/summer

as it is one of my favourite shops EVER! i thought id pop a post up with their take on the four different spring/summer 2010 trends and collections.....






i always find the topshop collections section a good way of keeping up with trends and findng items for fashion shoots. i like how they have a section in 'Look' magazine as well featuring the latest things in a different high street stores which always includes topsop. what can i say? im a girl and i like my clothes! so sue me.........

the devil in disguise.....

well, as we all know the girls among us are most probably shop-a-holics. i will quite happily hold my hands up and admit that i do have a shopping addiction. a very large shopping addiction. i find it very hard to even walk past topshop without having a quick glance inside, and it takes my friends all their effort to keep me out or else my purse will be emptied and my bank account will be raided in order to afford that one perfect purchase. so seeing as i am rather skint right now i am stuck wondow shopping or even wishful web shopping :( which gives me a perfect opportunity to discover the latest trends and also figure out some ideas for photoshoots, which is always a good thing.

so as i have decided to do a shoot based on high street fashion for my open brief i thought id put up a few of my favourite items from the topshop website:













i think i can honestly say that you may find me wearing some if not all of these items at some point during summer :)

just keep swimming.........

so as the assignment for fashion has kinda come to an end, all images chosen things all wrapped up, i decided to look at my new brief for PH2010 - the open brief. this is a big project which gives me creative freedom to do shoots based in whatever i want culminating in up to 8 exhibition prints. i have made a start on my sketchbook (like usual gone for my favourite A3 large style, work best this way) and have come up with a few ideas for shoots.

i would like to do upto 4 or 5 shoots (depending on time obviously) and then re-do my strongest idea and keep developing it up to my final prints. with my passions lieing in fashion i am keeping with this genre and developing my skill set ready for third year. i will also be workign with hair and makeup stylists, fashion stylists and perhaps some professional models. i am also aiming to build up my contacts for future referances and projects. bring on the shoots =D

snappy snap!

as part of the assignment my group has decided to use a studio for the reasons being mostly the typical english weather we get in these parts. we could see us plannign a shoot getting everybody down to the location, the hair and makeup done etc and then the skies opening and terrential rain! its typical northern stuff. so to conquer this, we decided to build ourselves a set within the studio. so we managed to come with a simple idea for the set that would be colourful and eye catching yet one which we thought would be achievable on a budget. so after bribeing a couple of hair stylists and sweet talking a makeup artist we have a full team and we are ready rock and roll next tuesday!

for the set we managed to get some cheap and cheerful fabric as a background, some balls to paint in bright colours and loads of balloons to spend our time blowing up. we wanted create a scene like photographer Annie Liebowitz does, and create characters to go with it through the styling, hair and make up and the way things are going we are well on our way to managing this.

for some ideas about a set for the models to prance about on i looked at the images that Liebowitz has done for Disney and Vogue in the past to get some inspiration.





the last image of the 'White Stripes' is a similar look to what we are going for with the whole circus thing, ours is just happier and more colourful. we wanted it to look like a location almost, but shot in studio conditions. we have a number of things to play with when we do our initial set up in the morning before the models arrive such as the background set up, the lighting (to get a spotlight effect we have booked a Dedo lighting kit out to try and get this lighting right) and also a coloured lighting kit (which we have thought would be too much, but we shall have a play anyways).

we have four models coming to create four characters. we are aiming for four final shots including a group one. we want the character to each have thier own personality yet still have a similar look as a constant between them which would be the hair and makeup.

so far everything has fallen into place pretty easily, and apart from some model issues we have everything sorted for our final meeting on monday to finalise for tuesdays shoot. so lets get snapping :)

Tim Burton & Tim Walker

so while doing research for my research journal last semester i came across this editorial from Bazar US.











i was really inspired by the way he creates the characters and they all look different. this a look we are trying to create with our shoot for the Fashion assignment two. keep the characters very strong and have small links between them such as hair and makeup and colour yet keep them very much their own character etc.

hair and make up

soooo after a fun few hours sat with Gemma, Rachel and Jess we came up with our ideas. after we had our little brainwaves and we came up with theme, the syling ideas (briefly), backdrops, props etc we then thought about hair and makeup. as i know a trained hairdresser and make up artist we instantly got them on board so we now have a full team.

i looked into a few ideas for make up including false eyelashes. i found the image below on the internet which looks a little like a doll that i though would work well. the red lips and pink cheeks is something that would work well with the characters we are creating, and with plain eyes and huge lashes i think we could have a good look for the models.



keeping the rest of the eye simple is very important with eyelashes like the ones below. as we are creating seperate characters we want different lashes for each character, and after a trip to Presotn market i found quite a few different styles which would definatly seperate each character while keeping a whole 'big lash' look there as a constant.





and as for the hair, as we are again creating different characters we need to give them different hairstyles, yet try to keep a constant. as an idea we had for one character we wanted to try and get a crazy crimped look like the one below, and the others will follow:



more info to follow....
=D