Firefly

Congrats to the lovely Karen Jones who got another image accepted to 1x.com recently, taken on our last shoot at my local studio in Chesham - White Space Studios, of me in my Isis wings.

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North West Results Part 2

Here are some more results from my trip to the Manchester area in Feb. These shots were all taken at the amazing Hallam Mill Studio - True Definition, in Stockport. I had seen some images taken at this place and couldn't wait to work there, as I just adore natural light and this place is filled with it! Gorgeous textures, quirky odd props, big windows, ropes, lush old furniture. I was there over 2 days and was lucky enough to get some gorgeous clear sunsets where the warm lights glowed through the windows - golden hour!

Worked with some fantastic people and had such an enjoyable time, I left on a real high. Here are a couple of lovely references I got too which really made me happy...

'From her portfolio you already know how gorgeous and versatile Holly is. What the photos don't make as clear is just how much fun she is to work with. She bubbles with enthusiasm and suggestions to improve the shoot, and our 2 hour session today flew by. I'm thrilled with the pictures and already want to work with her again.'

'I have wanted to work with Holly for quite some time & finally got my chance yesturday. Wow! Holly is quite simply the 'Best of the Best'. You have the basis of an idea, vague & she completes it without being condesending. 'We could try this' or 'yes I know what you want/mean would this work with that?'...
Thank you Thank you. I cannot recommend this young lady highly enough.'

I've already got some dates booked in with the owner Jim, when I'm coming back to the North West for a sort trip in late June. Can't wait! Thank you to everyone who booked and for being so kind to let me show the pictures :-)

Richard Spurdens

Jonathon Frings

Paul Fuller

Dave Atkinson

North West Results Part 1

I had such a fun working trip up to the North West a couple of weeks ago, the 4 days of work were so enjoyable, due to all the people I met being absolute pleasures to work with and everything going so smoothly. The days were pretty full on, with a couple of extra last minute bookings in the evenings too, but being booked into a great value b&b I got to chill out and recharge after work. And weirdly, without a computer around I probably get more rest and sleep than I do when I'm at home! Have a nice shower, give myself a pedicure, watch tv in bed. So I actually really like my mini trips :-)

I have more images to post soon but here are some results from a full day modelling at Tally Ho Studio, based in Wigan, where I worked with two photographers in the morning, and a group of about 8 photographers in the afternoon. Everyone was really friendly and it was a fab, bubbly atmosphere. In the afternoon session, lighting set-ups were changed every hour, with the photographers taking 5-10 mins each to take turns in photographing with me 1-to-1. It kept everyone on their toes but wasn't so fast and fleeting that you couldn't build a decent raport with each other. I probably wouldn't like every one of my shoots to be that format, but for every now and again, I find that the fast pace can be quite energising, and enjoyed altering my expressions and accessories for each photographer so everyone got slightly different and unique images. Here are a selection of the range of the results! Some utterly brilliant shots, and so much variation from the photographers in their shooting style and editing. Thank you so much everyone for sharing your images with me and to Sharon for hosting the day :-)
More shots to share soon from my work at the awesome Hallam Mill Studio in Stockport as well as other stuff!

© Garry Harris

© Lee Bold

© Kwame Asiaw

© Anthony Dudley

© Rob W

© MJ Photohobby

© Gary Hill

Giant!

After being pretty busy with work, travel and my massage course studies the last couple of weeks, when I got a bit of a cold / cough and headachey thing come on recently it really made me feel pretty rotten, and so unfortunately I didn't end up going along to the Focus Show at the Birmingham NEC like I'd wanted to, but I did get someone to take photos of my big face being printed out GIANT size on some hugenormous Canon printers! The pictures were shot by Andy @ Gothic Image a couple of months ago at WhiteSpaceStudios, and I was so excited to know they would be used to show off the the quality of the printing and ink at the show. Coool!! :-)

Garden Belle

Here are some gorgeous headshots taken from a shoot at the end of January, another from my weekend trip to Birmingham, taken by the lovely Raluca S Photography at the Botanic Gardens, with cute flower accessories by Lilly Belle... and more will hopefully be in a magazine article soon!
On my way to this shoot, I actually had a blowout on the motorway, but still managed to make it to the location, albeit an hour late, whereas the make-up artist who lives in Birmingham - no-showed!! Tsk. But hell we did just fine. So the make-up is by me :-)

Work & Play

Here is a really cool shot taken by Rob Southall at his studio, when I was over in Birmingham for a few days at the end of January; it was a really enjoyable shoot. I love the angles and reflection he captured, with all the resulting geometric shapes picked out in bold contrast to the dark shadows.

Wowee I have so many images to post from over the last month or so, I've been lucky to receive a few images from most of my shoots, I can hardly keep with them, but it's great! I've been a busy bee so far this year, and where on earth did February go? I know it's a few days shorter but already the year is whizzing by. It's March already!

I've been working lots but I've also done some fun stuff in my spare time. Last weekend I had the Sunday off and I drove with my boyfriend to Wimpole Farm, near Cambridge, to see their little baby piglets - awwwwww!!! I have serious affection for any animal with a snout, and piglets especially have a lot of love from me. Maybe it's from loving cute little Piglet from Winnie the Pooh when I was young. There were some giant rare breeds too, huge boars, a bit scary. The white piglets were just a week old, and so sweet, bouncing around like puppies in the yard, or snuggling under the heat lamp inside. There was a little pink runt who was really tiny - he had to clamber over the others to get a look in at feeding time - utterly adorable. It was cuteness heaven!!! ♥ They were so curious and came up to the side of the pen to stick their snouts through and snuffle your hand. There was a week old calf and little curly haired goats too. And I had green tea with lemon and scones with clotted cream in the cafe. So yeh that all made me very happy!!

I also had a lovely day in London last week... caught the train in, watched the world go by, read my book, went to a casting, then headed to the Natural History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition which I always try and visit. I had to queue a while because it was the school half term and all the kids were going to see the Dinosaur exhibition. But it was sunny weather and the bumblebees were buzzing in the flowerbeds so I didn't mind waiting and the show was so worth it. Awe-inspiring and as moving as always. Incredible images of this planet we are on and the creatures we share it with. So thankful these committed photographers capture it for us to see. Amazing nature. You forget how incredible it is, it floors you everytime! I love reading all the text, especially in the endangered and photojournalism categories, and the memorable experiences of the photographers, plus all the technical infomation - it made me wanna buy a new camera! :-)

These were my favourites...

Olivier Puccia - Sunset Moment

Category: Urban Wildlife

Squeezed out of their forest homes by deforestation and the spread of human habitation, overlooking Ramtek in Maharashtra, western India, Hanuman Langurs find the highest point from which to admire the sunset.

Sandra Bartocha - The Magical Forest
Category: Creative Visions of Nature

Gespensterwald (ghostly forest) is an old beech forest near Nienhagen, Germany. It is buffeted by winds from the Baltic Sea, and these have contributed to the lack of ground cover and the forest's reputation as a spooky place. For Sandra, however, the forest is 'utterly beautiful'. After a heavy snowfall in January, she spent the day alone in the forest. 'It was so silent,' she says, 'that I could hear my heart pounding.' But it was only when it started to get dark and the snow began to fall again that she had the chance to create the surreal composition she hoped for, with the trees disappearing into snow and a curtain of large, magical flakes falling in the foreground.

Floris van Breugel - Death Valley Dunes
Category: Wild Places

Sunrise bathes the Mesquite Sand Dunes in California's Death Valley National Park in pinks and oranges and creates the shadows that emphasize the wind-whipped dunescapes. To avoid any detail and a sense of scale, Floris stationed himself a good distance away, overlooking the valley, and used a telephoto lens. 'The sensual forms and ever-changing nature of sand dunes fascinate me more than any other landscape'.

Florian Schulz - Flight of the Rays
Category: Behaviour

This astonishing aerial view of a massive congregation of Munk's Devil Rays was taken over the Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico. It's not unusual to see these smaller relatives of the manta ray somersault out of the water - locals call them tortillas because of the way they slap down into the water. 'When I first saw this wildlife phenomenon from the distance,' says Florian, 'I was not sure what I was looking at. The ocean was boiling. It was hard to tell how many rays there were, because the shoal must have been as thick as it was wide.' No one knows why the rays gather like this, whether to mate, herd prey or migrate or just for the sheer joy of being together.

Frédéric Demeuse - Ephemeral gGift
Category: In Praise of Plants

'I made the tiniest toadstool the subject of the composition, positioning it so that its shape was echoed by the central big one behind - a projection of what the little one would look like very soon. A gift from nature.'


So after buying, of course, some beloved postcards from the shop, I went and caught the tube to my job at Adrian Pini's Studio in Brent Cross. But it still felt more like play than work, as the shoot was with amazing textile artist Catherine Burrows, who takes photographs and then works on delicate fabrics like silk and japanese paper to create amazing images with evocative, ethereal feelings of memory. Here are some examples of her work... I look forward to seeing more from this lady! :-)