Reine Des Abeilles

The final reveal of results from my first ever shoot as the photographer, I still have a lot to learn but it was a great experience.

Photographer: Chrissie Nicholson-Wild
Model: Natasha Gatward
MUA/wig design: Zoe Della Rocca
Costumier: Zoë Van Spyk and Chrissie Nicholson-Wild



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Reine des Abeilles photo shoot 21/12/2013

So today we are doing our Reine Des Abeilles shoot at Artista studio in Brighton.

Crew as follows:

Photographer: Chrissie Nicholson-Wild

Videographer: Zoe Van Spyk

Hair/Make-up: Zoe Della Rocca

Model: Natasha Gatward

Wardrobe: Curve Couture

Mentor: Chris Bulezuik from Artista Studio

It is apparent with how the day is proceeding that the process of building the shoot is as much a part of it as the final photographs. We arrived at 10.30 to get fuelled up and set up because we have several tasks to accomplish today.

• video footage of the shoot to make into a capsule 'making of' video
• series of editorial quality beauty photo's
• series of artsy photo's telling the story of our Queen Bee.

I am writing this whilst the hair and make-up are being applied by Zoe Della Rocca and Zoe Van Spyk is doing a bit of filming. I have dressed the set and I'm happily waiting for the model to be ready to dress. Natasha Gatward, our fabulous model is patience personified as we have already stuck a foot high wig on her and proceeding to put wax on her eyebrows and paint her face white. Later on we will be covering her in bee's and lace.

We have a total of two looks to get through today in terms of outfits. An ivory transparent cage corset with skeletal panniers and a blue taffeta corset with transparent panels. This is a continuation of the development of our transparent corset series, which we are super excited about for 2014.

Zoe Della Rocca will be composing a post of her own on the make up look for the shoot, and I must point out that she single handedly designed and made the wig for this shoot. It is the first time she has made a wig (wow!), and I love the way this team works together and works creatively. I feel hugely lucky to have such fine and talented collaborators. The fact that we have worked with each other in the past successfully and harmoniously adds to the easy air of the day, especially as I feel nervous enough already.

For although I have been a party to many a shoot I have never been the photographer. As a novice photographer I found that the hardest thing for me was keeping my energy levels up by the end of the day, and this had a knock on effect in my ability to think and direct the shoot. By 6pm it was time to wrap it all up, for although I enjoyed my day I was truly spent.

You read it first: my photography escapade started here...

Learning new stuff: Photography Studio Lighting

Today I have had a full day off sewing, and spent a day at Artista photo studio studio with photographer Chris Bulezuik as his assistant.

Our beautiful model for the day was Amy White and Make Up Artist Alicia Sandeman. So, as a good assistant does, I tried very hard to learn and help as invisibly as I could without making it an extra chore to teach me.

Chris took time whilst the model was being made up to go over some studio lighting basics which made me feel loads more confident in understanding the importance of light to 'paint' the frame and the model and how to take artistic control of the shoot.

So, here is an image Chris shot:

Copyright Chris Bulezuik

Photographer: Chris Bulezuik
Model: Amy White
MUA: Alicia Sandeman
Assistant: moi

The purpose of this day, for me, was to learn more about the art of photography, how to use the studio lights and to generally get more of a grip of the relationship between iso speed, aperture and exposure.

I studied photography whilst I was doing my Fine Art degree and I would say that I definitely was a typically creative photographer who felt really involved in composition and artistic elements but a bit lacking in my willingness to tackle the technical aspects of photography. So, as part of my new  business purpose, I am brushing up my skills so I can unleash my own creativity behind the camera as well as in front of it.

I was really overjoyed to be given the opportunity to assist Chris and greatly appreciated him taking the time to teach me, as I respect him greatly as a photographer, and although there is so much to learn, it can only inform my own artistic process.

Really looking forward to my next lesson....when I actually need to know how my camera's manual functions work!

Countryphile: photo shoot preparation

For the last two evenings I have been working on test shoots for our forthcoming photo shoot of the Countryphile collection. We have a great team, as follows:

Photographer: Gareth Gregg
Hair and make up design (and all round uber organisation): Zoe Della Rocca
MUA: Zoe Della Rocca and Sarah Vickery
Models: Damola Egbeyemi, Victoria Bennis, Rebecca Bennis

I shot these on my 'point and shoot camera' on location, being there was truely magical and I am really looking forward to the forthcoming shoot, and can't wait to see what amazing shots Gareth has been taken.

Photo shoot with Andrew Roach

Today I had a great day in the studio shooting 3 corsets from my most recent collection 'Countryphile'. I originally showed these corsets as part of the Guerilla Fashion Event in Brighton in February. Since then I have unpicked a couple of those corsets and made improvements on some of the issues that were nagging me and today we got to do them propper justice.

The Crew:

Photography: Andrew Roach
Photography Assistant: Chris Bulezuik
Model: Fawnya Frolic
MUA:  Baneology
Hair: Alex Graham
Clothing: Countryphile by Curve Couture

 First and foremost I must extend my gratitude to our lovely model Fawnya for her commitment, patience and downright hard work....as well as her beautiful and bendy body for hours on end.

Andrew and I had pre discussed what kind of photographs we wanted to achieve, as well as a general overview of the feel and mood we wanted to create.We already had our wardrobe worked out and Andrew had a load of props to play with and we decided on a crop, a bull whip and a beautiful saddle.

Here's a few in the studio shots on my point and shoot, and I am very looking forward to some of the edits in time.

Photoshoot: Rachael-emily and Lisa-Marie

In the last few months I have met some amazing people whilst out and about doing fashion shows and shoots and suchlike.

When I was looking for models for my show at London Alternative Fashion catwalk show I got lots of applications...one of the ladies I picked was Lisa-Marie who I instantly thought would look amazing in my corsets. So when she asked me if she could borrow some clothes for a shoot I was happy to oblige.

Model: Lisa Marie (MM #1464691)
Photographer: Rachael-emily.com
Make-up/Hair: Betty-Lou
Clothing: Curve Couture

Results: