Smoke on your daughter (Apologies to Deep Purple)

In February I put my big pants on and took a trip up into the big city of Birmingham to meet up with the cool ladies at FPS Fitness in Yardley Wood.

Such a warm welcome by Lisa and Azar who helped me lug the portable studio into the excellent room and thrust cups of tea at me while the build took place.

Azar had been at a previous Smoke Pole Shoot I had created and had a queue of lovely ladies wanting to recreate the same experience in their studio.

The space was excellent and I was able to hitch up 2 backdrops side by side, clamp six flash units with coloured gells at key locations and fire up the smoke machine ready for a day full of serious pole work and giggles.

Lisa was so supportive of her ladies and encouraged them to be the best they could in their 30 minutes segments. “Bob more smoke” was her enthusiastic cry as every lady took the stage and executed their series of shapes with control.

Every time I work with ladies (mostly) who perform this fitness skill I am in awe of their flexibility and strength as they gracefully climb the pole and twist, grip, turn, grip and roll into the splits with minimal effort displayed on their face. All the time remembering to point their toes.

I recently did a shoot with a male assistant who thought that after watching a couple of performers on a hoop, that climbing up was as easy as it looked. He lasted all of 30 seconds and his feet only just left the floor before collapsing red faced, full of a whole new respect.

Folks this skill is tough and the upper body and core strength you build up training and performing is not to be underestimated.

Anyway, here’s a short video to celebrate the ladies and the day.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and I look forward to our next get together.

PS: Thanks to Azar and Nat for the BTS images

I Can See Your House From Here

Unedited image taken at Aerial Inspirations Worcester

This last 12 months I have been working taking pictures and videos in various Pole and Aerial Studios around the area and my respect and admiration for the sheer strength, skill and lets face it, bravery of these ladies (mostly) grows with every visit and I hope some of my images do just that.

It is very easy to look at these images and think, ‘yeah that’s nice’ without actually understanding the heavy breathing and effort which goes into physically pulling yourself off the ground to a good height and then holding yourself there, all the time with a serene look on your face and controlled poise in your body.

This shoot with Orly came about after seeing her perform in a social media video, hanging from a metal tripod over the concrete floor much to the crowds delight. (No safety net!) We discussed ideas and agreed to meet at Aerial Inspirations in Worcester, where she teaches and had just a couple of hours to capture part of some shapes she uses in her routine.

When performers are moving between shapes and holds, the momentum and flow of their routine allows certain muscles to rest, even for a few moments before changing to the next shape. I’m not saying this is easy, however when you are trying to capture an image, these holds aren’t flowing. They have to be as static as possible. The performer has to hold them for many seconds while the lighting and angle is assessed for the shot.

Some of these shapes I’m told are easier to hold than others. I wouldn’t know as I’m scared of heights, which makes my respect for these individuals event greater. Combined this with their flexibility, to not only hold the shape, (point the toes) but balance their body, turn the head to the camera (or light), rotate the silk either left or right at my command really is amazing.

Yes I can climb a rope and I’m happy climbing mountains. But get me to the height of a roof with nothing but a thin soft mat underneath while holding my entire body weight with a piece of flimsy fabric and a whole new me will emerge screaming ‘get me down’.

Fullest respect to Orly for the grace which she displays when doing this. On the ground she is a slim every day girl, not the muscle bound circus performer you might expect. Thanks once again to her for sharing these moves with me and to Imogen Gunter Zak who let us use the studio. Aerial Inspirations is in an epic old railway building in the heart of Worcester. If you want to try Pole, Silks, Contortion, Hoop or any of the other mind boggling things a body can do, then go and check them out. Nice people and very supportive no matter what level you’re at.

My feet are staying firmly on the ground thanks :)

Photo notes: I now have a fully portable lighting rig which runs from heavy duty portable batteries. Used in this shoot were 2 Octaboxes using a split lighting technique and balanced with natural light.

“I can see your house from here” - is a music pun from the album of the same name by Camel (Yeah it’s an old hippy thing)

Win a private dance photoshoot

The dull chilled grey weather of the first month of the year seems to encourage everyone to hibernate and hide away.

However we all know that within a few weeks the grass will be greener, the sun will be brighter and here for longer and we will naturally shed our thicker jumpers to reveal bright t-shirts at the first hint of warmth.

Something to look forward to, but what about this?

Why not reward yourself for all those days, months and years you have put into dance training. The pains you have been through for flexibility, the blisters on your feet, the early mornings and late nights training with the ultimate personal celebration. Your own free professional photoshoot?

It’s a simple to enter competition open to ballet and street dancers, who if they win, will receive 12 beautiful high quality digital images which capture your grace, elegance and explosive expressive moves in a studio or on location.

I have various locations you could choose from if you win this shoot. Everything from a clean, warm photo studio to a grungy old railway yard. Maybe a beautiful victorian manor house or a classic Cotswold building.

Please see the competition page and check out my Instagram account to enter. You can enter others there who might be interested too.

There’s no hidden charges and no catch. Just the pure excitement of planning and preparing for your own portfolio shoot to record your skills and artistry at the beginning of 2019.

Please check out the competition page for all the details.

Good luck :)

I’m pleased to announce that the winner of the photo competition is the fabulously named Ziggy Starlett! With a name like that, the shoot is bound to be creative. Watch this space :)

There's no Smoke without a Pole!

At the end of November 2018 on a typical dull autumnal day I set off to Bridgenorth in Shropshire on what was to become a very unique photoshoot at the Pole Squirrels studio.

Disguised very cleverly as a village hall, it had all the perks one would expect, plenty of space, loads of parking with gallons of tea and coffee on tap and a warm welcome.

You may have seen that most studio shoots until now have been traditional ‘clean’ backgrounds. Either coloured paper with or without shafts of light which do give a lovely ‘technical’ look and feel. 

However on discussion with head Pole lady Daisy we felt that we could make this a little more unique atmospheric by incorporating the lighting style from ‘The Greatest Showman’, but maybe with a lots more vibrant coloured smoke.

And so it began. The ladies all were well prepared over the two days with their 6 moves and various costume changes, which were naturally all colour coded to suit the prepared lighting gels. This sped the days along nicely. 

I used strip box rim lighting with 4 additional remote coloured gel lights to bring out the tints around the body shapes. The previews were checked the same day and numbers confirmed thus everyone went away buzzing with excitement after seeing what we achieved together.

At the end of the session, even more emphasis was placed on theatrical lighting, so I altered the shoot to one single spotlight and Daisy and a few others pulled some wonderful dramatic shapes to bring the ‘set’ alive.

Less than four weeks later all the coloured images were delivered to each individual client, some of whom sent me really touching notes of thanks.

As you can see from the video, the shoot and the final edited images were the result of a lot of post production work. This exercise proves that with a little preparation and planning, drama and lighting can be mixed to create a unique style and feel for any studio shoot.

Please use my contact page to get in touch if you have similar projects you might like to discuss.

Dita Von Tease meets the Matrix

I’ve recently been booked to video and photograph a Burlesque studio and their students early in 2019. By all accounts a great bunch of ladies and the whole process should be creative and productive for personal and promotional use.

The last time I specifically took on this challenge was a few years back when the creative team consisted of model Leah Axl and make up artist Sam Day, both based in Glos.

We met up over coffee and a storyboard and kicked a few ideas about when one of us said ‘wouldn’t it be cool if we could shoot two completely diverse looks on the same day?’ Now THAT would be a challenge!

Leah has a classic timeless beauty in both her figure and face. The perfect platform for Sam to get creative and go for extremes. Soft classic lines and palettes of the 1940’s and then something much harder and more contemporary.

On top of it all we decided to video the whole process and this began the first in a series of BTS videos which I’ll be releasing over time. 

To be honest I was shattered at the end of the day as there was so much to construct, in the lighting and props to create the two distinctly opposing vibes we were looking to achieve. The studio required two complete re-builds during makeup however we all managed to achieve something we were proud of. I couldn’t have managed it without the assistance of fellow photographer Rob Golding. More hands make light work.

Sam recalls, “the movie shoot with Bob was fantastic, he was an inspiring artist to work with from start to finish.  Seeing our ideas come to life was fantastic and Bob captured the most amazing footage which showed off all our artistic work to a professional standard.”

“The idea behind it was brilliant demonstrating the transition from a beautiful burlesque Dita von Teese to a futuristic Matrix. It was so much fun to create and an absolute pleasure to work with such talented people. “

Leah too worked her sock off during the day. “This has to be one of my very favourite shoots. I am incredibly proud of the video and it definitely helped to show the model/photography world how well I could pose and adapt to different styles which helped further my career.”

“Bob is a talented photographer and creative and a wonderful person to finish the package! His planning and visions helped the shoot to take shape and Sam’s make up artist skills were perfect. The day flew past way too fast but thanks to the video and pictures it’s one I’ll never forget!”

Leah Axl on modelling website - Sam Day MUA on Social Media

Please use my contact page to get in touch if you have similar projects you might like to discuss.