The Gentle Fall

(Note to American readers: this post is not about autumn!)

Some new work from Collin Lyons, who was fantastic to work with; high energy and buzzing enthusiasm. He even made me halloumi salad for lunch before we started, despite my train getting in late. Collin had this enormous piece of sheer fabric, so we played on my apparent freak-ability to throw fabric wildly in the air then pose serenely within the same split-second while it fell in front of my skin. We did this over and over again, fascinated by the range of shots we were getting on the back of camera; each time the fabric did something completely different, depending how I threw it and how it felt like floating, and at what point Collin caught its fall with the click.

Rabbits

Paul Bartholomew has sent me a few more shots from our short shoot at the ruins/river/forest location near me in Oxfordshire. He's a great photographer; check out his stuff at the impressive site 1x.com, where the last portrait below has just been published.

 

I really love the light and bokeh in these, and how natural the portraits are. For the set in the blue skirt, I was imagining being in a fairytale, lost and distressed, or calling on my animal troupe to help me with some quest, so naturally began channelling rabbits and other small woodland creatures through my poses... Good to have a story in your head! :)

2012 Travel Plans,Contacts and Coral Rain Jackets

Hello everyone. Two new images from Gary Sandy, then an update on my travel/availability...

I have a very limited number of bookings available in August (over the next few days!), September and December. I'd love to hear from anyone who'd like to work with me before the year is out - get in touch ASAP to fill up my diary!

2012 

Yes, already - I'm planning ahead and getting my contacts in order!

I hope to be touring a lot of the UK and Ireland in 2012, and travelling internationally. I expect to be venturing afar for modelling trips at least once a month. If you haven't already, please do email me directly at ellarosemuse@live.co.uk (no worries if you have no specific plan in mind at this stage!). I can then send you an email when travelling to your area. 

Please email me:  

Your location (Lancaster? Cambridge? Kent? ...Dusseldorf? ...Kuala Lumpur? ...North Pole?)
+ a relevant link to your work (whether on a portfolio-hosting site or on your personal website)

+ any information about references (e.g. contact details for models or people in the industry who've worked with you before, or preferably a profile page where I can see some left by models)

+ any other information that would be helpful, such as whether you would be able to help with accommodation (entirely optional, subject to exquisite references and gratefully received!) or even a rough idea of how long you think you might like to shoot for.

... No need for rambling prose or huge levels of detail, unless you're waffly-inclined like me; just a simple contact is all I need. You will then become part of my massive, ultra-organised, world-dominating database of people I can bear in mind to get in touch with when visiting specific areas of this marvellous world, sometimes at the last minute when there is an opening in my schedule.

...Thanks!

2012 plans so far (par exemple):
March/April: Scotland & Ireland
Europe (Germany, Holland, France...).
India, Hong Kong and Japan if I'm lucky.

...Wherever you are, I can probably get there and might be going there anyway! I have a car, a discounted rail card and a passport which likes being stamped.

P.S. Tell your friends!

Running, Rivers and The Sweet Nectar of Divine Divinity

I've had such a busy, productive day today, getting lots done, but the two things I'm most pleased/excited about are:

1. I went for a run this morning. I've been meaning to go for a run for roughly a million years, but never quite worked out how to go about it. I know, I overthink things. The thoughts flittering around my mind are those such as: where would I run? Is it better to run on tarmac or grass? Will I be able to do it? By what date, exactly (and this is my ambition surfacing), would I be able to qualify for and enter a marathon? Which charity would I choose to run for? And then the more immediate concerns, such as, how do you make the transition between walking and running without looking as though you suddenly think you might be being chased? (Seriously though, I never see people begin to run - they are always already running, as though they came out of the womb doing it and haven't even stopped to consider other methods of getting about.)

And anyway, I know; who cares what you look like? I actually don't, but I am reminded of a comedy sketch I once saw about that moment when you're walking in the street and realise you need to be going in the opposite direction. Do you just immediately turn around with no apparent acknowledgement of your error, the comedian wondered, or do you slap your forehead, shake your head at yourself, rolling your eyes at passersby so that they too might acknowledge and share in your foolhardiness, admitting, by your dramatic display, that it's not the normal thing to just turn swiftly and change direction, and invalidating each and every step you've taken thitherto in the current trajectory as being wrong and misguided and wally-like? (I am very slightly mad and once, when walking to school, started pigeon-walking (you know, where you take tiny steps so that the heel of one foot touches the toes of the foot behind; no, I was rarely on time for school) then, intrigued by my new foot pattern (the alleyway was particularly monotonous), started mimicking my feet with my hands as I walked (a kind of 'air walk', if you will), before realising there was a girl innocently walking in the alley behind me, quietly bemused. I immediately resumed a more conventional walking motion, hands back down, strides at a more practical length (pigeon walking is quite wobbly when you're in a rush), and hoped she might think she'd merely imagined my non-conformist methods of getting to school... Apart from this episode in my life, I am frequently told I have a nice walk (again, 'nice walks' strike me as bizarre, but no more tangents for now), so should/could possibly, in theory, have a nice run. I also won a lot of races at school for sprinting and was always chosen to compete in the county sports day, but I'm showing off now (and it's irrelevant).

Anyway, yep, I went for a run. I ran up and down hills; mostly up, in hindsight; on grass and on tarmac, and on a lot of mud. It was fun! I was terrible (I'm flexible, strong, but lung power has room for improvement), but I'm promised by my younger brother that this is an inevitable and temporary affliction of beginner adult runners. I'm wondering now whether my body will change shape, if I keep this up, and how strange that would be, considering I haven't changed body shape since the age of 15/16. We shall (literally) see, I imagine.

2. The second thing I am unbelievably, perhaps unreasonably excited by, is the fact that I've FINALLY mastered making masala chai like I used to drink in India. Being prone to foul moods whenever I remember and think of the lack of it in my life, this is a massive cause for celebration. Now I know exactly how to do it I can whip up a brew whenever I fancy one. This makes me incredibly happy. (I still need to go to India ASAP though, even just for the Thalis.) ...Pestle & mortar-crushed spices (cloves, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, cardamom, dry-roasted ginger), a tablespoon of indian tea, milk and water in a pan boiled up, sugar..... luscious frothy, sweet heaven in a glass.

Oh, and I have some new photos from Drew Smith, taken in Oxfordshire recently. Thanks Drew! :)

Studio Invention

I love working outside on location, playing off the environment and getting inspiration from new places, but sometimes it's fun to work in a studio, using props, blocks, wind machines, gel lights, flash and all that jazz to make good shapes and cover a lot of ground (more metaphorically so than when out on location).

I really enjoyed a recent shoot with Manuel Odabashian at Adrian Pini Studios in London and have some cool results to show. Thanks must also go to Andy Milne, who helped out on the day.

I'm showing off some core strength in these first few, hanging out in my favourite yoga pose... :)

A portrait and nude study...

...Then I'm zooming around with my veils. I love the moment captured in this last shot!

Maiden

This is one of my favourite recent images, taken by Birmingham-based photographer Paul Bartholomew.

The location was a ruined hall in Oxfordshire, which sits by a river and small forest, in which this particular shot was taken. (I hope to show more images from the 2-hour shoot later and have already seen a couple more which I like very much.) The headdress I'm wearing here was kindly donated to me by the styling team at Chanticleer Brides, whose 2011 collection 'back to nature' I modelled for last year. I thought it was so sweet they let me keep it, and I've been waiting all this time to make the most of it. Below is also a softer make up look than I usually do; warmer hues and almost no mascara, with an emphasis on porcelain/creamy skin which this shot brings out really well, I think!

Please click on the image to enlarge it...

Just a little interlude from one of the most exciting days of my life...

Yesterday I went up TWICE in a glider in exchange for performing a dance gig at a gliding competition event. If you've never been gliding before, I would massively recommend it - I was surprised to find out how affordable it is too (we checked the rates for if we ever want to go back!).

The first glider I went in was a very modern, sleek one. Each of us dancers took a turn to ride sitting directly in front of the pilot, strapped in with a parachute on our backs. The 'run up' on the ground is very short - only 5 metres or so, then you're in the air, ascending with such incredible speed and gradient that you're 1200 feet within a few seconds. It's a scary, whooshing feeling, being catapulted up into the sky like that, and amazing to watch from the ground!! When you're up and flying high, the pilot releases the steel winch cord; there's a bit of a 'bang', which the instructor remembered to tell me about it one instant before it happened(!) but from then on it's just pure peace and gliding, searching for thermal pockets. It's so quiet up there, not like in a helicopter where you have to press buttons to be able to communicate with the pilot right next to you. The gliders themselves are tiny, and light enough to catch the air under their wings even when sitting on the ground (hence a picture below of me swizzling one around by the wing, lining it up for the winch).

 

We were only supposed to get one flight each, but the members of the Shenington Gliding Club were so generous (and we were all so enamoured by this 60-year-old red glider), we were offered another flight in that one! No parachute this time!! It was an open cockpit, which made all the whooshing on the ascent even more fun, and for me (claustraphobe) even more enjoyable, having nothing clamped close around your head. It's such a beautiful glider - definitely my favourite. Once up in the air, I was allowed to take control and managed to steer us about a bit and dip and rise. So cool. I also really liked the fact that you sit side-by-side with the instructor in this one; easier for him to point and tell you stuff!

(Yes, I have alphabet leggings.)

After all the hanging out a thousand or two feet up in the air, my bellydance troupe performed two successful sets for the club members. Here are some snaps from 'back stage' (a little caravan we were provided with as a dressing room):

 (Mmmm, baklava...)

After this rather wonderful day and evening, I was then dropped off back in Oxford and managed to meet up with some friends for cocktails. I highly recommend pear & cardomom. :)

Red & White

Some gentle, romantic/bridal lingerie for a Saturday morning. These were taken by John Colson, who is lovely and who I'll be working with again very soon. We had fun creating these - I love the dreamy style and the vibrant reds.

Gotta run... Off to ride in a glider!!! Eeek!! (I'm performing a dance gig at a national gliding competition this evening and we get a quick flight each as part of the payment!!). Will try to take lots of photos. Hopefully I'll live to tell the tale so I can go out partying later this evening... A fun day ahead!! :) :) :)

The Windowsill

Windows can be so interesting in photographs - the shape, symbolism and aesthetic as well as the natural light they let in.

David Amphlett recently sent me a couple more from a shoot we had earlier this year. I love these. No post work (except borders); developed from film: