Trash The Dress- The shoot

Originally this Trash The Dress shoot was going to be with one of our clients. But due to having other commitments, they couldn’t do it.

Instead we decided to use a couple of models, we could also then get some raunchy shots as well :).

We asked the lovely Layla if she’d be interested in doing the Trash The Dress and she said yes straight away.

Now we just needed to find a male model.

This was not as easy as finding a female model. Firstly there are less of them and secondly alot of the so called models that are out there are, well ... lets just say they're fooling themselves.

We put casting calls on various sites and got some responses. But the guys just didn’t have the look we wanted for this shoot. We almost gave up hope of finding a male model but Layla kindly put a post up on her Facebook page.

One guy responded Brad Wendes. We looked at his work on another site and we liked his look.

So we’d got the models, location, date set, time and of course a wedding dress (which we bought from the YMCA charity shop in Harlow - £15!).

The dress looked lovely on Layla and it didn’t look to bad on me either(!) ... well I had to try it on didn’t I, LOL.

The Shoot
The date: 19th May

Luckily the weather seemed to be on our side. That’s the only downfall of shooting on location in this godawful contry - the weather!

It’s raining one minute and then blazing sunshine the next. We would have loved to have gone to some sunny location abroad, but we don't have that kind of budget :( .

The location we used was the beach at Jaywick, not far from Mortello Tower. The beach had plenty of big rocks to get our models standing or lying on.

I had to help with make-up and hair, because our MUA pulled out. I think me and Layla did a good job really considering neither of us have training. I needed the practice anyway. It’s a good skill to have, especially as finding a good MUA and Hairstylist is very difficult.

We started the shoot with doing the raunchy couple shots. For these shots we put our models in various outfits, jeans and t-shirt and later got them into swimwear.

Once we got all the raunchy shots under our belt, we then got our models changed into some bridal wear. Again I helped Layla with hair and make-up.

We were now ready to do the Trash the Dress bit of the shoot.

We didn’t want hundreds of shots, but instead we wanted a few very strong poses.

Despite Layla not feeling 100% comfortable standing on the big rocks, she gave us some really strong poses. We not only got Layla on the rocks we also got our male model on them. We got some shots of Layla on her own and some with our male model.

We later got away from the rocks and went by the sea and got some very sexy shots of our models together.

We finished the shoot by getting Layla to walk out of the sea. At this point we purposely smudged the make-up with sea water, which I thought was very effective.

To see all the pictures from this shoot go to our Facebook fan page:-

Sexy shots

Trash The Dress shots

or our Flickr page

or our Myspace page:-

Sexy shots

Trash the Dress shots.

TFCD in Cambridge

It was the 4th May and we were off to Cambridge to do a shoot with a new aspiring model called Alexie.

We arrived at Alexie's at 10:30 and spent an hour or so discussing and choosing outfits for the shoot.

Alexie had arranged for her friend Jess to come over to do her hair and make-up and I must say she did a good job.

Once our lovely model was ready we were ready to go to the first location ... which was the garden area at the back of her flat! :)

There was a beautiful cherry blossom tree outside and some of the cherry blossom had fallen to the ground, which looked very pretty. Considering Alexie had not done much modelling before and had only just met me and Ross, she was very comfortable with us and in front of the camera.

We then all jumped into our car and went to the next location .... which was just around the corner! A foot and cycle bridge over the railway tracks and me and Ross both got some shots here.

As always when I’m shooting, Ross will assist and I do the same for him when he’s shooting.

If you ever get to see us work together, you’ll see that we make a really good team.

The next location was the Mill Pond, a local park. It had some trees and even some punts. As always Ross and I used the surroundings to our advantage. At one point Alexie was brave enough to pose herself nude on a big tree trunk. I’m sure when you see the shots you will agree they're beautiful.

Jess had brought along a gorgeous ball gown, so we got Alexie to wear it and pose on a punt.

Unfortunately the boat men wouldn’t take Alexie out on the boat without payment. Oh well.

Despite this Ross got some stunning pictures.

After a lovely lunch at a local pub, we got Alexie into a swimsuit. We got her in the water by the pints and then went to the otherside of the park where the weir and main pond are.

In some of the shots you will notice my floppy summer hat. I always take my hats to these shoots (one of my other hats was used for some of the shots on the bridge as well).

We'd been at this all day and by this time it was early evening. But there was one more location we wanted to visit - an old graveyard!

We all agreed to put Alexie back in the ball gown, which is the oppsite of what you’d expect to see someone wearing in a graveyard. But it really worked a treat and we got some amazing shots.

Ross and I would like to say thank you to Jess for all her assistance on the day and obviously a big thanks to Alexie, our beautiful model.

Check out our Facebook page to see more photo’s from this shoot.

Also if you are an aspiring model and would like to book us for a portfolio shoot, check out our website.

(PLEASE NOTE : We have no TFCD slots left for 2010, unless you have some exceptional shot ideas!)

COMING SOON:-

THE LONG AWAITED TRASH THE DRESS BLOG!

WATCH THIS SPACE

Urban Fashion Shoot

The Idea
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.

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!?

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.

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 :-)

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!

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

Campbell Photographic – Your Image Is Our Business

Websites where you can find Campbell Photographic

Catch Campbell Photographic on the following websites:

The UK’s No 1 profile & networking website
http://skysangels.com/index.php?dll=profile&sub=overview&item_id=4222

http://www.modelmayhem.com/1575353

http://www.net-portfolio.co.uk/noclue

http://www.net-model.com/Portfolios/PhotographerPortfolio.asp?UserID=120654&IID=1112440&cmd=&linking=

http://www.purestorm.com/profile.aspx?id=slayer

http://www.famode.com/display_portfolio.php?id=2416

We suggest any models sign up with the above websites.





Check out our Facebook page and become a fan
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Braintree-United-Kingdom/Campbell-Photographic/46955024031

Check out our myspace page
http://www.myspace.com/475816161

You can follow us on twitter
http://twitter.com/CPEssex

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ross-and-samantha-campbell/1b/b1b/714

http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=183910

Check out some of our work here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34261602@N08/


Check out our blog and Samantha Campbell’s poems
http://campbellphotographic.wordpress.com/

And also at
http://campbellphotographic.blogspot.com/

Lisa's TFCD Shoot

As some of you know, we sometimes do TFCD shoots with new/aspiring models.

On Tuesday 16th March 2010, we were lucky enough to work with a young lady called Lisa Murray.
Lisa is completely new to modelling, with no experience at all - yet she took to the shoot like a natural.

We started at bridge end gardens in Saffron Walden. We had contacted the head gardener a few weeks before to get permission to photograph in the gardens and he was more than happy to help us out. (big THANK YOU to Mark Robkins (head gardener) for giving us permission).


Ross did a test shoot, with me as the model :-), in the gardens a few weeks before.

For this shoot we had managed to get in a MUA (Jemma).

When we first arrived at the gardens we asked Jemma to give Lisa quite a natural look, which we thought would fit in nicely with the surroundings.



I think we must have spent about a 1½ - 2hrs in the gardens. Ross started the shoot with some head shots and more natural posses to get Lisa eased into the shoot. He then got more fashion/model posses/shots, which Lisa pulled of really well, considering this was all new to her.

There were a few outfit changes which I advised on and some hair style changes from Jemma.

After we had finished at the gardens, we went to get some lunch. This gave us an opportunity to chat. Before we knew it, it was time to get to the studio (which is actually called THE PHOTO STUDIO). This is the same studio we used a few weeks before for the shoot Ross did with me.

While Ross was setting up lights and backgrounds, we ladies went into the kitchen, which doubles up as a dressing room. Jemma changed Lisa's make-up to be a bit more Glam. Lisa had also brought some fake lashes with her and asked Jemma to put them on for her.

When you see some of the pics I’m sure you’ll agree the fake lashes work really well.


We started the shoot using a white background and a simple lighting setup. We started with fully clothed shots. Again I advised on outfits - we even ended up using one of my scarfs! First around lisa neck and then around her waist.

Unfortunately Jemma wasn’t able to stay for the whole shoot, which was something Ross and I had not foreseen. This meant no more make-up changes or touch ups; fortunately the look Jemma had given Lisa was versatile enough for rest of the shoot.

I ended up doing a couple of hair style changes, which I actually enjoyed doing .... especially when I put Lisa’s hair into pig tails!

Again there were several different outfit changes and, like before, I advised on the changes.
Here’s just a quick list of some of the outfit changes:

T-shirt vest, jeans and pink scarf
Glitter dress
Underwear
White shirt, with underwear and shorts
Topless with French knickers

Ross changed the background to a blue one which he wanted to use for an umbrella shot and a lollypop shot.

For the lollypop shots I put Lisa's hair into pig tails and got her into a white shirt, white cotton shorts and, of course, some sexy underwear. For the umbrella shot Ross asked Lisa to wear some very colourful wellies and just some French knickers (no top). I wonder what goes on in his head sometimes.






The good thing about THE PHOTO STUDIO is that they have different sets as well as different backgrounds.

On this occasion we decided to use the living room set. Ross grabbed a red satin sheet from the bedroom set and I grabbed a fur rug from the props room.

We got Lisa to lie on the fur rug and cover herself up a bit with the red satin sheet. We adjusted the sheet a few times, just to show a bit of flesh in certain areas. For these shots Ross got up high on some stepladders and got some fantastic shots of Lisa looking up at him and some with her eyes closed.



Finally we ended with a shot that Lisa specifically asked for. She'd seen similar shots on other websites and wanted to giive this a go. The image speaks for itself and shows the beauty of photoshop - she was actually still wearing her panties.



This was the last shots of a very long, but a very successful, day. We got some stunning images and got to work with such a lovely young lady.

And, of course, we all had fun!

If you are an aspiring model/new model, are in the Essex area and would like the opportunity to work with me and Ross, then contact us to see if we have any TFCD slots left.

All our details can be found on our website; http://www.campbellphotograpic.co.uk/
You can also join us on Facebook and Flickr, plus the UKs No1 Profile Networking site for the Modeling Industry: Skys Angels

We would also like to hear from any MUA's in Essex. We want to work with as many different people as possible. Ideally you would have had some experience of working on photo shoots.


Before I go Ross and I would like to thank Jemma (the MUA), Mark Robkins at Bridge End Gardens and, of course, the lovely Lisa - Hope we get to work together again.

TFCD taster shots

Here's just a taster of some of the shots we got at our lastest TFCD shoot, with the lovely lisa.