Ross and I have always preferred doing location shoots and we both wanted to do a shoot that would help build up our portfolio and work with some models.
But we didn’t want to do the usual location shoot, we wanted to do something a little different.
Ross had seen some pictures from an urban shoot that Sky’s Angels photographer Archangel had done. So we both thought that that would be cool to try.
Basically, take some attractive girls in really nice dresses (or something similar) and then put them in a really wrong location – for example a car park, or shopping centre service yard!
We both agreed that we wanted a Redhead, Brunette and a Blonde for the shoot to give us three distinct looks. But before we could even start looking for models we needed to find some locations.
Ross discussed his idea for the shoot with Archangel, who was more than happy to give any advice. He offered to come down and assist/watch but unfortunately, due to other commitments, he was not able to at the last minute.
Shame :-( It would have been nice to have finally met him. Maybe another time.
Location Search
One of the first places that came to mind was Colchester town centre as it has lots of old buildings and little side alleys. But after about an hour or so looking round the town neither of us were actually that impressed. We agreed that it wasn’t “doing it” for us as the location.
Instead we decided to look around Braintree town centre. We’d both dismissed it originally simply because this is where we live. We go up to the town all the time and nothing has ever really stuck in our heads. But we decided to go and actually “look” at the town.
You know what it’s like when you live somewhere – it’s just a place. You know your way around, you know what’s there and you know what it all looks like …. but you don’t always actually “see” it.
One of the first places that came to mind was Colchester town centre as it has lots of old buildings and little side alleys. But after about an hour or so looking round the town neither of us were actually that impressed. We agreed that it wasn’t “doing it” for us as the location.
Instead we decided to look around Braintree town centre. We’d both dismissed it originally simply because this is where we live. We go up to the town all the time and nothing has ever really stuck in our heads. But we decided to go and actually “look” at the town.
You know what it’s like when you live somewhere – it’s just a place. You know your way around, you know what’s there and you know what it all looks like …. but you don’t always actually “see” it.
So we took a day off and just went round the town centre “looking”. We parked in the multi-story car park and one of the first things I noticed was two half circles and a full circle cut out of the wall in the car park!
We discussed shot ideas using the circle and half circles. We also thought it might be interesting to use some other parts of the car park as well, such as the lifts and stair well, etc.
Then we were off around the town. We found some nice little alleyways, some stairs and a nice fountain. After about an hour walking around the town and taking some pictures we agreed this would be our location. We also decided that if we had time we’d maybe go over to Rayne Station as well – just to be different.
Getting Permission
We thought it would be best to get permission to photograph around the town centre and the car park. The last thing we wanted was to be in the middle of a shoot and have a security guard tell us to move on (or worse, try to take our cards out of our cameras).
We contacted the George Yard Shopping Centre management to ask for permission to shoot and they were more than happy to help. They even offered to clear us with security so we could get into the service yards! A big “Thank You” to Brenda, Celia and the security team for all your help.
The car park is actually owned by Braintree District Council, so we had to contact them directly. It took a bit of time but eventually we got the response we were after – Yes, we could shoot in the car park!
Another big “Thank You”, this time to Paul Partridge, Head of Operations for Braintree District Council.
We were more than happy. If either the centre management or council had said no we would have had to find another location and go through the whole process of asking for permission all over again.
Now we needed some lovely young ladies. That should be simple enough …. shouldn’t it?
Ok. Our first Urban Fashion Shoot was all go. We had our locations, we had our permissions. We even had a rough idea of some of the shots we wanted to try.
We just needed some ladies to model for us. How hard could that be!?
We thought it would be best to get permission to photograph around the town centre and the car park. The last thing we wanted was to be in the middle of a shoot and have a security guard tell us to move on (or worse, try to take our cards out of our cameras).
We contacted the George Yard Shopping Centre management to ask for permission to shoot and they were more than happy to help. They even offered to clear us with security so we could get into the service yards! A big “Thank You” to Brenda, Celia and the security team for all your help.
The car park is actually owned by Braintree District Council, so we had to contact them directly. It took a bit of time but eventually we got the response we were after – Yes, we could shoot in the car park!
Another big “Thank You”, this time to Paul Partridge, Head of Operations for Braintree District Council.
We were more than happy. If either the centre management or council had said no we would have had to find another location and go through the whole process of asking for permission all over again.
Now we needed some lovely young ladies. That should be simple enough …. shouldn’t it?
Ok. Our first Urban Fashion Shoot was all go. We had our locations, we had our permissions. We even had a rough idea of some of the shots we wanted to try.
We just needed some ladies to model for us. How hard could that be!?
The Models
Ross put a call out on Model Mayhem and Sky Angels, as well as a few other sites (including our Facebook Page). We got a few responses from some girls that were not at all suitable. But eventually a few came in that looked very promising.
One of the first models to approach us was the lovely Layla Jeffery, who is dark haired and stunning. Ross and I both loved her look so we decided we definitely wanted her as our Brunette.
The next model we picked was Jessica Fisher. A truly stunning and beautiful woman with years of experience and who is also a qualified make up artist. At the time she was sporting lovely red hair. She doesn’t often do TFCD so we were totally chuffed and really looking forward to working with someone so experienced – not to mention gorgeous.
So … now all we needed was a blonde. Why is it when you want a blonde you can’t find one!?
A few more girls approached us and we umm’d and ahh’d until eventually a model called Chloe Alexandra approached us. A beautiful young lady with a great look.
So … these were our 3 beauties. It took longer than you would think to find the right girls but we now had them……..or so we thought.
Ross put a call out on Model Mayhem and Sky Angels, as well as a few other sites (including our Facebook Page). We got a few responses from some girls that were not at all suitable. But eventually a few came in that looked very promising.
One of the first models to approach us was the lovely Layla Jeffery, who is dark haired and stunning. Ross and I both loved her look so we decided we definitely wanted her as our Brunette.
The next model we picked was Jessica Fisher. A truly stunning and beautiful woman with years of experience and who is also a qualified make up artist. At the time she was sporting lovely red hair. She doesn’t often do TFCD so we were totally chuffed and really looking forward to working with someone so experienced – not to mention gorgeous.
So … now all we needed was a blonde. Why is it when you want a blonde you can’t find one!?
A few more girls approached us and we umm’d and ahh’d until eventually a model called Chloe Alexandra approached us. A beautiful young lady with a great look.
So … these were our 3 beauties. It took longer than you would think to find the right girls but we now had them……..or so we thought.
Bugger!
Layla 21, Chloe 21. Jessica … 35. She is beautiful, gorgeous and has a fantastic look, but unfortunately Jessica decided that the pictures would not look right with her next to the two younger ladies. While we agreed with her decision to pull out, it was a real shame not to get to work with this lovely woman.
But we still had 2 weeks to find another lady.
Once again we put a call out for a redhead, but none of the models that came back to us had the look we wanted. Oh well, we’d just have to work with 2 models instead of 3.
Completely unrelated, Samantha Coe approached us via Facebook about doing a shoot. Another brunette, but we thought “what the heck”.
So we asked if she’d be interested in the Urban Shoot and she was more than happy to join in. Brilliant! Back to 3 models. 2 dark haired and one blonde …. that would work.
The shoot date was now fast approaching. Thrusday, 15th April 2010. On the Friday before the shoot, Ross emailed all the models with the schedule for the day and asked them to all confirm.
By Monday we’d heard nothing. We managed to get hold of Layla and Samantha, both had replied but we’d not got the messages. Oh well – they were both still on for the shoot and everything was ok. But no response from Chloe….
Tuesday morning we went to the town centre and planned the shoot. We discussed ideas for posses and shots. Ross even took notes and sketched some pictures in a note pad. We took some pictures with our point and click camera and we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve from the shoot. Remember we planned all the shots based on using 3 models…
Tuesday night we got a reply from Chloe. All ok. Phew! All ready to go. Relax on Wednesday and be ready for Thursday morning.
6pm Wednesday evening we received a message from Chloe. Yep, you guessed it, she had to drop out. Her grandmother had had a stroke and she was rushing over to Norwich and didn’t think she’d be back for the shoot.
Bugger!!
Ross frantically contacted Sky’s Angels and directly contacted as many models in our area as we knew hoping that someone could step in.
He also put a call out on the usually sites – but unfortunately not one person responded. Not even a “sorry, I’m not free”, or “too short notice”.
Oh well, we’d just do the shoot using the 2 models rather than 3, that’s all we could do. Ross and I were getting very stressed out by this point. Ross spent the remainder of Wednesday night replanning all the shots to work with just 2 models.
Thursday. The morning of the shoot arrived. A lovely sunny day. After an average nights sleep we’d both decided this was going to be a good shoot and we were ready to get to work.
With all the gear packed, the shots planned and the kettle on for that last cup of coffee, the phone rang at around 8:30am!? It was Samantha, one of our brunettes.
She was running late because she had had a blow out on the M11 and was now sitting waiting for the AA. She was shaken up, but still wanted to do the shoot.
The AA had said it would be 1½ hrs before they even got to her. So and we asked her text us and let us know what was happening when they got there. Next we sent a text to Layla to explain what was happening and that the shoot was delayed.
At around 10:30am we asked Layla to start making her way to ours. We’d not heard back from Samantha for a while but wanted to get moving. By 11:15ish we chased up Samantha. The car was apparently off the road. The blow out had ripped up the wheel arch and buggered the steering. She was still shaken so we decided that it would be best for her to go home rather than try to get to us.
So from 3, to 2, to 1. Ross threw his note book away and we just winged it. That’s what we’re good at anyway :-)
Layla 21, Chloe 21. Jessica … 35. She is beautiful, gorgeous and has a fantastic look, but unfortunately Jessica decided that the pictures would not look right with her next to the two younger ladies. While we agreed with her decision to pull out, it was a real shame not to get to work with this lovely woman.
But we still had 2 weeks to find another lady.
Once again we put a call out for a redhead, but none of the models that came back to us had the look we wanted. Oh well, we’d just have to work with 2 models instead of 3.
Completely unrelated, Samantha Coe approached us via Facebook about doing a shoot. Another brunette, but we thought “what the heck”.
So we asked if she’d be interested in the Urban Shoot and she was more than happy to join in. Brilliant! Back to 3 models. 2 dark haired and one blonde …. that would work.
The shoot date was now fast approaching. Thrusday, 15th April 2010. On the Friday before the shoot, Ross emailed all the models with the schedule for the day and asked them to all confirm.
By Monday we’d heard nothing. We managed to get hold of Layla and Samantha, both had replied but we’d not got the messages. Oh well – they were both still on for the shoot and everything was ok. But no response from Chloe….
Tuesday morning we went to the town centre and planned the shoot. We discussed ideas for posses and shots. Ross even took notes and sketched some pictures in a note pad. We took some pictures with our point and click camera and we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve from the shoot. Remember we planned all the shots based on using 3 models…
Tuesday night we got a reply from Chloe. All ok. Phew! All ready to go. Relax on Wednesday and be ready for Thursday morning.
6pm Wednesday evening we received a message from Chloe. Yep, you guessed it, she had to drop out. Her grandmother had had a stroke and she was rushing over to Norwich and didn’t think she’d be back for the shoot.
Bugger!!
Ross frantically contacted Sky’s Angels and directly contacted as many models in our area as we knew hoping that someone could step in.
He also put a call out on the usually sites – but unfortunately not one person responded. Not even a “sorry, I’m not free”, or “too short notice”.
Oh well, we’d just do the shoot using the 2 models rather than 3, that’s all we could do. Ross and I were getting very stressed out by this point. Ross spent the remainder of Wednesday night replanning all the shots to work with just 2 models.
Thursday. The morning of the shoot arrived. A lovely sunny day. After an average nights sleep we’d both decided this was going to be a good shoot and we were ready to get to work.
With all the gear packed, the shots planned and the kettle on for that last cup of coffee, the phone rang at around 8:30am!? It was Samantha, one of our brunettes.
She was running late because she had had a blow out on the M11 and was now sitting waiting for the AA. She was shaken up, but still wanted to do the shoot.
The AA had said it would be 1½ hrs before they even got to her. So and we asked her text us and let us know what was happening when they got there. Next we sent a text to Layla to explain what was happening and that the shoot was delayed.
At around 10:30am we asked Layla to start making her way to ours. We’d not heard back from Samantha for a while but wanted to get moving. By 11:15ish we chased up Samantha. The car was apparently off the road. The blow out had ripped up the wheel arch and buggered the steering. She was still shaken so we decided that it would be best for her to go home rather than try to get to us.
So from 3, to 2, to 1. Ross threw his note book away and we just winged it. That’s what we’re good at anyway :-)
We took just the lovely Layla, made it up as we went along and got some great shots. You can see a selection on Sky’s Angels and the full collection on the Campbell Photographic Fan Page on Facebook.
Layla did a fanstatic job and she is a real pleasure to work with. We highly recommend her to any other photographers.
The Shoot
Layla showed us all the different outfits, shoes and jewellery she’d brought with her and between the three of us we came up with 3 different looks. She changed into the first outfit, a long blue summer dress and then we were off to the car park for the start of our shoot.
Ross and I always work as a team, so he’ll get a few shots with me as assistant, then I’ll jump in and he’ll assist me. This has always worked well for us because we see things differently and have different ideas – but our shots always complement each others.
I also took the odd picture with our point ‘n’ click camera for this blog - just showing behind the scenes stuff.
Layla took direction really which meant we moved from shot to shot quite quickly. Also, because she’s so down to earth and up for a laugh she didn’t mind doing any of the posses we got her to do. Even when Ross suggested climbing in with the rubbish in the service yard!
Before we knew it, it was time for a late lunch and an outfit change. We were all having so much fun that the time had flown by. We all seemed to work well as a team, but most importantly we got some really stunning and creative shots.
Over lunch we discussed how we thought the shoot was going. Layla said she was having lots of fun and liked what we were getting. We always let our models look at the pictures we get while we’re with them and Ross and I encourage anyone we work with to share any ideas for shots they may have.
After lunch Layla got changed in to a new outfit and I put her hair up. This was only the second time I had done someone else’s hair on a shoot. I think it looked ok and Layla and Ross seemed happy with it.
Layla changed her make-up to some sparkly dark eye make-up, which got a bit messy! But between us we managed to sort it out :-)
It was now mid afternoon, which meant there were more people around the town. But we carried on with the shoot despite it being busy.
Unfortunately the new outfit was causing a bit of a stir. I don’t know what it is with the guys in Braintree, but the reactions we were getting from them were a bit childish.
They were either staring at Layla with their tongues hanging out or yelling out things like “ ‘ello darlin’, cor you’re a bit of alright”, etc. You’d think they’d never seen a girl before!
Over lunch we discussed how we thought the shoot was going. Layla said she was having lots of fun and liked what we were getting. We always let our models look at the pictures we get while we’re with them and Ross and I encourage anyone we work with to share any ideas for shots they may have.
After lunch Layla got changed in to a new outfit and I put her hair up. This was only the second time I had done someone else’s hair on a shoot. I think it looked ok and Layla and Ross seemed happy with it.
Layla changed her make-up to some sparkly dark eye make-up, which got a bit messy! But between us we managed to sort it out :-)
It was now mid afternoon, which meant there were more people around the town. But we carried on with the shoot despite it being busy.
Unfortunately the new outfit was causing a bit of a stir. I don’t know what it is with the guys in Braintree, but the reactions we were getting from them were a bit childish.
They were either staring at Layla with their tongues hanging out or yelling out things like “ ‘ello darlin’, cor you’re a bit of alright”, etc. You’d think they’d never seen a girl before!
The girls weren’t any better. Staring daggers at Layla. How DARE she be pretty!?
None of us were impressed with these childish people and we carried on with the shoot.
Once we had got a great selection of images from the town centre, we decided it was time to drive over to Rayne Station and get a few shots.
Unfortunately the toilets at the station were awful and completely unsuitable for Layla to get changed in. They were tiny as well.
But always the professional, Layla said “It’s not a problem; I’ll get changed in the car”. Which she promptly did … I made Ross turn his back – he was not happy.
The station was very busy. They have a little café there and it always seems to be full of children and parents. So after a few quick shots we called it a day.
We went back to our house had a quick look through all the pictures on the computer with Layla and had a good giggle over some of the outtake shots.
Despite a nightmare setting it up, this was a great shoot. We had a fun day with a lovely young lady and got some amazing images. Well worth the stress.
To any other photographers reading this, we highly recommend Layla Jeffery. She’s lovely to work with, funny, beautiful and if you do work with her we guarantee you’ll get some stunning pictures.
You can find Layla on Sky’s Angels, Pure Storm and Model Mayhem.
To see more pictures from this shoot go to our Sky’s Angels page and the Campbell Photographic Fan Page on Facebook.
A small selection of behind the scenes pictures can also be seen here.
Bye for now,
Samantha & Ross
Despite a nightmare setting it up, this was a great shoot. We had a fun day with a lovely young lady and got some amazing images. Well worth the stress.
To any other photographers reading this, we highly recommend Layla Jeffery. She’s lovely to work with, funny, beautiful and if you do work with her we guarantee you’ll get some stunning pictures.
You can find Layla on Sky’s Angels, Pure Storm and Model Mayhem.
To see more pictures from this shoot go to our Sky’s Angels page and the Campbell Photographic Fan Page on Facebook.
A small selection of behind the scenes pictures can also be seen here.
Bye for now,
Samantha & Ross
