File:Looking Over My Shoulder.jpg

Today I decided to spend some time working with model Helen and another photographer named Derwood. Once more I was at Studland House, the same place I worked at recently with Katie, but today we were blessed with beautiful morning sunshine. I had worked with Helen before, over three years ago, and a lot has changed in the time since. My style of photography, for one thing, has changed so much and I wondered what kind of images I would be able to take of her this time.

I'll be honest, we were both a little nervous before the shoot. We had fallen out a little after our last shoot due to me misdirecting a "rant" in her direction on my blog. It was unfair of me to do so and was written at a point when my love of people photography was hanging by a thread. When there is animosity between photographer and model, there is little connection and the resulting images are often flat and false. Standing in the kitchen at Studland House, we discussed this and began to clear the air. As we started to shoot, we started to talk more and we realised that we actually got on really well. We had a lot in common, and conversation flowed quickly and easily. Helen has a glint in her eye that is mischievous and naughty, she is constantly summing you up and wondering just how far she can push you. She wants to cause trouble, in the nicest of ways and she wants to have fun. She is the kind of person who has been on the edge, come back again and wants to push herself back there once more. She is a devil :). But she is a devil that I really like. She has the naughtiest laugh I have ever heard, with undertones that shout "trouble-maker." She makes fun of you, flirts with you, pushes you to your limit and wants you to push her to hers. She loves to laugh, loves to smile and loves to challenger herself.

The sun was beaming in through the downstairs windows of Studland House and we began working in this beautiful living room. The room was decked out in French, 18th century style furniture and the room was pale and colourless. Turning this to my advantage, I tried to create some really nude images, ones where colour caused no distraction from shape and tone. My usual style of image, the one I enjoy creating most, is a soft, innocent portrait. One that doesn't exactly look like it is of a model, more of a girl next door. Helen doesn't suit this style of image as well as some, her look is simply too powerful. This is by far her strongest ability, to absolutely dominate the frame. She cannot help it, she is simply to strong in her modelling. Whereas others can sometimes blend into the background, Helen dominates the scene and whilst this is kudos to her modelling ability, it doesn't suit my style of photography so much. However, I do not always like taking images where the model blends in. Some of the images I got of Helen today are some of my all time favourites, with her powerful stare taking over and turning the image into something resembling a movie scene.