Whitby Abbey in Monochrome

Recently, while praying for the rain to stop, my friends and I drove over to Whitby for the day. 
Whitby is a picturesque town on the coast of Yorkshire, and the ruins of Whitby Abbey sit on the top of a cliff looking down to the town's harbour, giving the landscape a sense of derelict grandeur.
As luck would have it the rain stopped on our arrival, leaving behind only heavy grey clouds and the ominous threat of further downpours. The silver lining to all these clouds however was that the poor weather gave the Abbey and grounds a sense of atmospheric drama.

Whitby Abbey on the coast of Yorkshire.

Whitby Abbey, just look at how tall the windows on the first floor are - I would love to know what the Abbey looked like during it's finer days.

Whitby Abbey. I always wonder how often buildings like this suffer from a new collapse or loss of structure. How long does the Abbey have left until it is reduced to foot high walls marking the space where this past beauty once stood?

I find it amazing that the sense of the past beauty and grandeur of this building still linger in the ruins at Whitby Abbey.

Whitby Abbey as seen from the pier on the harbour. Idylic location.

The sky was blanketed in a wall of grey clouds, I loved how stark this stood against the drizzly mass.

View out to sea from the pier on Whitby harbour and a break in the clouds finally!

Shoreline of Whitby; even though the day was cold and gloomy it was very still and serene.

Tower of London

While we were in London in November I got to go to the Tower of London for the first time. It was a really interesting day and I learnt a lot that I didn't know before, what with most of my history lessons coming from things like the BBC's 'The Tudors'!

The White Tower, Tower of London, a really forbidding and impressive facade

I loved these guys! Close up of one of the many Tower of London Metal Soldiers

Another Tower of London metal soldier standing guard over the battlements

Tower of London metal soldier re-loading his crossbow

Tower of London metal soldier protecting the water gate entrance

One thing I learnt while here is that for a long time the Tower of London had an impresive Royal menagerie. This included a Polar Bear who had an iron chain cuffed to one of it's hind legs so it could swim in the water surrounding the Tower

Lions were also kept in the Tower of London's Royal Menagerie. At one time there was a Lioness called Elizabeth who died shortly before Queen Elizabeth I. The lioness' death was seen as a bad omen, which was soon to come true.

As they are famed for, apparently the monkeys kept at the Tower of London's Royal menagerie were rather mischievous and caused more than their fair share of trouble!

Have a Harrods Christmas!

November is Boyfriend's birthday, and he doesn't really like to spend his birthday at home. Last year we went to Tunisia for a week. This year our plans were scaled back slightly and we went to London for a few days. I love London, I love the bustle and noise.

I decided to drag Boyfriend over to Harrods after sunset one day to check out the window displays which are always so beautiful, he was, to say the least, not happy about it so I didn't ge to stay for long. 

This year, the windows were decorated around the theme 'The Harrods Express'. Starting off with a gorgeous sleek steam train the windows follow the perimiter of the building as train carriages, with the viewer on the street seeing into them as if they were passing along the train corridor. Inside each carriage is a window looking out into the snowy countryside as the Harrods Express rushes by. It was a beautifully designed and co-ordinated display.

Here are some images of my favourite set ups.

Harrods Express, Harrods, London. My ideal train carriage - books, snacks, vintage overtones!

Harrods Express, wouldn't you just love to be at this party?! Glamorous dresses, coctails, perfet train journey!

Harrods Express. Evening wear and champagne. Delicious!

Harrods Express for afernoon tea anyone? Any day!

Harrods Express, I loved the sense of casual decadence here.

Harrods Express, it seems many of these gifts didn't make it home for Christmas and now she's relaxing after an unwrapping frenzy!

Learning Faces

As a product photographer faces tend not to be my focus, indeed I so rarely see a model in the studio that I'm not too hot on what to do with them when I get one! Luckily when we do we hire the professionals who are already brilliant at holding themselves, looking relaxed and confident, and knowing what to do with their hands and facial expressions!
This, while really helpful during a time constrained shoot, does nothing to help me imporve in my personal work and is therefore one of the many areas I want to improve on. As luck would have it, I have a friend that wants to model. She was asked last week to pop down to a couple of agencies with a view to be added to their books. She was asked to take a few photos with her if she had them; so, on Saturday, I brought her to my studio and we took these. As the agencies wanted natual shots these have not been through much post, only skin smoothing and colour adjustments.

 

Happy Halloween!

Autumn means beautiful colours, pumpkins and of course Halloween

Autumn, in theory, is my favourite season.
In theory the colours are beautiful, the days are chillier allowing for hot water bottles, onsies and blankets and the sun is low enough in the sky that everything has a lovely golden glow.
However, I live in Leeds, in the north of England, meaning that what usually happens is it rains a lot so everything is kind of grey. BUT Autumn does have Halloween and Bonfire Night, so I feel this makes up for it!
Here are a few images I shot for Autumn promotions and web banners for work.

One small issue with bringing leaves in from outside is the bugs - they were everywhere!

 

 

 

I love the combination of colours prevalent in autumn

 

 

Walking with Autumn - shot in the studio as it's too rainy to risk the shoes out on location!

I love Halloween. In my opinion it's the most fun of the holidays, there's no other reason for Halloween except to be silly - make an outfit, paint your face, decorate your home in a ghoulish way and have fun!
This year Halloween came to work too and we had a great day in the studio creating some (hopefully!) fashionably spooky images.

 

 

This is my favourite image from the day, I love the way her arms look like they are bent back on themselves and her body is so concave, it seems as though she's struggling to keep control of herself.

 

I'd love to hear what you think.

 

 

 

 

Sculpture in Nature

So if your friend buys a new car what's the first thing that has to happen? That's right, road trip!
That's why Saturday saw three of us (plus my camera for once!) cruising on down to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It's the first time I've been and I loved it.
It was a really overcast, humid day but one that was pretty perfect for walking around outside all day, camera in hand, and seeing what I could come up with.







Obelisk left behind to mark the location of the original house





This image was taken through the centre of one of five (I think) huge stone sculptures that reminded me of hay bales






I loved this surreal bunny, 10 feet tall with human hands and flesh made from some kind of industrial  components...

As well as having so many interesting, beautiful and unique sculptures, galleries and installations the park is actually set on acres and acres of parkland, centred roughly around a lake, which is wonderful for wandering around!