Sort of my own website

Since I signed up to several modelling sites lately (ModelMayhem, Purestorm, Net-Model and Freshfaced), I've begun to notice the restrictions that photo-hosting websites like Flickr and DeviantArt have, especially with regard to content filtering. It can be difficult to advertise/promote yourself if the art nude or gory pictures you've taken are being blocked by those sites' nannyish "won't somebody please think of the children?!" approach. More significantly, I'd like to be able to point clients at a single site and say, "there you go, have a look at all my work", without worrying if they've got prior membership or viewing rights.

The modelling sites themselves have only a very restricted amount of space for members like me: about 7-10 pictures in total, which is the absolute minimum I'd expect to deliver to a model/client for a single shoot. I understand that they need to try and make a living, but I'm a part-timer and likely to stay that way. If I'm already paying Flickr every year, should I have to pay MM, DA, PS, et all too, just for hosting the same photos? Blehh to that.

Anyhoo, after I noticed that Sazza, the lovely model from my debut shoot, had set up her own website, I thought that'd be a decent approach; a single site, no content restrictions, and I could filter out the crud that wasn't really relevant to modelling stuff. It took a bit of wrestling with initially, but once I figured out my way around it was fairly plain sailing. Therefore, ladies and germs, I can now bring to you:

gdelargy photography at Wix.com.

Fliss and Roxy

A couple more shoots with models lately, following on from my adventures oop north. At the beginning of October I met up with Fliss82, a Purestorm model who'd contacted me requesting my services as a 'tog. It went kinda OK, but not brilliant; the weather was very changeable, neither sunny enough nor wet enough for any real drama, and the wind was a bit of a pisser. I ended up with only nine pictures I felt were good enough for her portfolio, plus a couple of out-takes that might amuse her too. Very blah.

Fast forward about ten days, and I had a slightly more eventful shoot closer to home. My collaborator (she hates the word "model") was the extremely funky MM'er Roxy Stardust, who had contacted me a month ago, looking to work together. I threw a couple of ideas her way and she loved 'em both, so after a bit of to'ing and fro'ing, we planned a meet. I'd bring the chicken wire, she'd bring claws, fangs, and some fake blood. Now this is my kinda photoshoot!

Basically, I wanted to turn her feral ~ the kind of person you meet if your wandering through a post-apocalyptic landscape in a Hollywood blockbuster ~ and then have her chew through some mesh on her way to attacking the photographer. Think Shaun of the Dead meets The Road Warrior. The whole thing went swimmingly; Roxy brought a wonderful wee bag of tricks that included her own DSLR (Nikon D40) and a fake rubber arm, which we managed to incorporate into the finale as a kind of "what happened to the shooter after she chewed her way through the fence". A real blast of a day, and some good results too. Woo-hoo for me.

Faerie in the Glen

I like to try a little bit of everything in photography, so a couple of months ago I signed up to ModelMayhem.com, a networking site for models and photographers. I made a few contacts quite quickly, but I never did anything about it until I was on holiday this week.

I decided on a whim to take a trip up to the Highlands, specifically the Moray Firth near Inverness, since it's supposedly a good place for dolphin-spotting. It also meant I could contact Zombie Sazza, an Elgin-based model and rather fetching redhead who'd joined MM about a month after me, thereby letting me combine two photo-sessions into one trip. Despite the last minute arrangement (I'd only given the poor lass two days' notice), we were able to work something out: I'd travel up the next day and scope out a good location, we'd meet up on Friday for the actual shoot, and then Saturday would be free for the sealife.

The dolphins themselves proved to be a no-show, but everything with Sazza went swimmingly. We headed for Fairy Glen, a woodland area on the outskirts of a wee village on the Black Isle called Rosemarkie. The Thursday recce had confirmed it to be a great location, aside from the small problem of it being a popular haunt with local hikers and dog-walkers. There were a few occasions when my muse had to leap from her spot and grab a bathrobe, but although one elderly lady gave Sazza a good old Puritanical glare, we mostly only had to deal with puzzled expressions and the occasional wry smile.

I'd been a bit nervous in advance--'twas my first one-on-one modelling shoot and my first nude photography too--but it worked out fantastically well. It was Sazza's first time doing a "pro" shoot too, thought you'd never have guessed since she was so relaxed and easy to work with. The water was freeeeezing, but she could still hold a pose so well that I could take 1/4-second long exposures without any problems. We took pictures in the pond, beside/in/halfway up/above three different waterfalls, and along the stream where the light was best. On the trip back, we also nipped into a freshly turned-over field just outside Inverness (there were hunners of them), and captured a few of those old nude-reclining-against-haybales classics.

There was a moment during the day when Sazza had just finished a particularly tricky pose, clambering halfway up a waterfall to stand on a ledge while the rushing water acted as a flowing backdrop. When she was back down, I showed her the images on my camera's LCD to make sure they were OK. "You know," she said happily as she looked at them, "I think this is one of the coolest things I've ever done".

What a really, really great day.