Lara, Sidmouth, 2008

Happy New Year everyone.

I read that it is a blue moon this NYE. For some reason I think that there should be some superstition surrounding this convergence of events — particularly as this is the end of a decade as well.

I can’t find anything, but as such superstitions have no basis in fact, let’s make one up. How about… ‘a blue moon on NYE ushers in a decade of inner peace and prosperity’ ?

I’d settle for that.

Oh and perhaps something about getting rich and moving to California to live by the Pacific Ocean with a beautiful wife.

Twisted Mermaid, Bristol, 2008

Thunderstorms are forecast for the weekend. I like a nice thunderstorm. Clears the air.

I love a hot summer but a nice cool, rainy day in July or August makes me feel so very calm and relaxed.

Twisted Mermaid, Sidmouth, 2008

An outtake/alternate image from the mermaid shoot in Sidmouth.

I know this isn’t as posed or ‘designed’ as the previous one, but I think it’s more representative of my own style of portrait. Ok, so maybe my regular style doesn’t include mermaid tails…

Twisted Mermaid, Bristol, 2008

Another bank holiday today, I forgot how many there are around this time of year.

I spent a couple of days in London at the end of last week. I spent some time with old friends, had a meeting with new ones and generally mooched about old stomping grounds.

I do like the place, although being there again was a good reminder of why I didn’t want to live there full time. Perhaps in the future I’ll find a way of visiting it more often.

Twisted Mermaid, Sidmouth, 2008

I have to admit I found this shoot a struggle. At the back of my mind was the fact that the subject could so easily fall into my ‘cliché’ category. Having seen the outfit, and knowing what Ms. Mermaid was capable of, however, I knew it was was possible to make it work.

I think what makes it work for me is the fact that although yes, it’s a mermaid, it still seems real somehow. As if this is what mermaids would look like and what they’d do if they really existed in 2008 with all the cultural influences abound.

I think we pulled it off. When people say, as they often have done, that they “have always thought mermaid pictures were cheesy, but this is cool” I think they are reacting to that element of realism in the image, and it makes me rather pleased.

What do you think?

Twisted Mermaid, Sidmouth, 2008

Another from the vintage series I shot with Ms. Mermaid on Christmas Eve.

There’s a few more of these I still need to work on…

Twisted Mermaid, Sidmouth, 2008

Happy Easter, if you celebrate that kind of thing. Happy Sunday if you don’t.

Here’s an image taken during the last religious holiday, Christmas (Christmas Eve actually).

My my, how time flies…

Twisted Mermaid, Bristol, 2008

Happy Easter everyone. Enjoy the big long weekend.

Twisted Mermaid, Bristol, 2008

Generally speaking, I don’t like to do much to my images in post-production.

I’ll tweak the tones and contrast and white balance of course, but those are things that existed prior to the digital age, and that I used to do in the darkroom. I also perform things like skin-retouching and perhaps minor reshaping here and there.

What I’m uncomfortable with is the fancy-pants stuff that people add to images after that. It’s not that I subscribe to any dogma about keeping the image ‘true’ or somesuch — it’s just that 9 out of 10 times it looks craptastic.

I want to create an impact with the subject of the image, not wow the limited audience of Photoshop users with my technical ability. Doing this can only detract from the subject, so that’s why it’s not my thing.

Above is an image which proves that there’s an exception to every rule (and that I’m allowed to change my mind whenever I want). The post-production here (actually quite a simple white balance shift) gave the image an intensity that I think serves to highlight Ms. Mermaid’s shape and expression, and it’s one of my favourites from our shoots so far.

Twisted Mermaid, Bristol, 2008

Photography is very subjective, and I find it hard to distance myself from images I’ve taken. This is someone else you’ll probably be seeing a lot of, the wonderful Twisted Mermaid.

I fell in love with this shot as soon as I flipped it around while editing it. I love the tone and the shape and the symmetry, and also the slight kink in the right eye which breaks the clean ‘perfection’ of the shot.

Ms. Mermaid wasn’t so enamoured, however. Of course, models bring their own, different, subjectivity to the images when they look at them so I didn’t question her reaction.

I still love it though.