Last of Carla!

This is the last of the shots I took of Carla Monaco at her home studio. It wasn’t planned or structured. We were just stood there chatting and I thought she looked lovely so just took a few snaps, this was the result.

I’ve been lucky enough to work with some brilliant models and when you’re with these people, shots just ping out of everywhere. In fact, sometimes, I’m sure you could just take any bunch of frames and get amazing results. They really are professional, know what they’re doing and work very hard to achieve a natural, relaxed look. Probably much like actors and actresses, it takes time, effort and a huge amount of skill to look this natural in front of a lens.

Disagree? How many times have you pointed a camera at someone and they either immediately stiffen up and look awkward or they produce the ‘selfie’ look time after time.

My hat is suitably doffed to all you professional models out there. Of course, it also takes an awesome photographer to do them justice eh? Eh?

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Tasty!

I had no doubts about this shot. It was always going to involve a close up beauty shot with something sweet and tasty dripping from the model’s mouth! On the day, treacle and jam were discarded as honey was the perfect oozing substance.

It is inspired by the song Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. I fell in love with it not long after it was released. It’s just a gorgeous, rich melody with brilliant vocals and amazing acoustic guitar. It’s made even better with the You Tube video of them playing it live, outdoors in a teeming rain storm. How they didn’t get totally frazzled I’ll never know, some good sound engineers I reckon! However, the atmosphere that creates added to the song produces one of those rare moments you watch and really wish you’d been there at the time.

I loved this song so much we used to play it in the band I was in, we all loved playing it but the audience were never too sure as it isn’t brilliantly well known and isn’t a dancer due to its unusual rhythm. We played it regardless.

Model: Carla Monaco

Carla Monaco

At long last I’ve managed to get round to doing some processing for me!

I’ve long been an admirer of Carla’s work and if truth be told, I was really waiting until I had a great idea so that I could see if she’d work with me. After much deliberation I settled on three lyric project shots I wanted to try and thought she’d be perfect for.

She lives and has a studio close by so I emailed her with the ideas and asked if she’d be interested. She responded quickly and much to my delight, said she’d be keen to have a go. We settled on a date and time and I sent her more details…

I set off on the day a little unsure how things were going to go, Carla is a model of great repute and some of her portfolio is quite simply, stunning. I arrived, was offered a cuppa and chatted with Carla about how I saw the shoot going. She is a creative and highly professional model and was willing to try the ideas out. I realise after some time of this type of shooting that my ideas aren’t too run of the mill (but not that whacky!) for a working model.

I think the difference is I ask them to act a part and get into a different persona for the shots I’m after. I’m quite chuffed also that every lovely model I’ve had the pleasure of working with seems to really quite enjoy it and are quite prepared to ‘go the extra mile’ to get what we need.

Carla was no different and when I finally suggested that the last pic I was after was one involving a close-up face beauty shot with the twist being she had to pour honey onto her mouth she never batted an eye (she did have the foresight to change into an old top though)!

This photograph was taken in between the ‘main’ events and was really a grab. The dress Carla was wearing was for another image but standing chatting together I decided it would be a waste of a great sorta fashion opportunity if I didn’t just try to get a lovely shot of her looking, well, like Carla looks!

The ‘real’ shots are coming shortly!