Hetty, lipstick
I wanted a portrait that spoke to Hetty’s personality. She is a great fan of pink lipstick so I directed the shoot so I captured this application. The windows and reflector have worked well together to create a soft light on the skin yet highlight the lips and lipstick well.
I feel that this portrait is the most successful of this series as I think it feels pensive yet intimate too.
Hetty, rollers
My friend assisted me on the shoot and in several frames the silver reflector was in the shot. It was hard to ensure this was always out of frame due to working in a small room with a 50mm lens and a large reflector. I liked the effect of this so decided to position Hetty so the reflector both was used to fill shadows and act as background.
Hetty, mirror
I initially started to shoot her reflection in her mirror to help get an overall sense of her workspace for make-up. I liked the idea but felt that a cleaner composition may help create a more intimate feel.
For my final series of portraits I shot this in my friend Hetty’s house. She is a make-up artist and I thought it would be interesting to capture some aspect of this in her portrait.
I used a silver reflector to help bounce even more natural light through her window and used this a fill to lessen the amount of shadows falling on her face.
Scamper, in the grass
My dog is at his happiest when soaking wet and running in the woods through the long grass. This is his natural environment and I believe the following image represents an environmental portrait.
The trees above dappled the light so it was much softer quality of light falling on the dog and the long grass also helped with this too.
I feel that this portrait is the most successful of this series as the character of the dog is being communicated in a very natural environment.
Scamper, umbrella as flag
As a was already using an umbrella, I thought I’d take advantage of this prop and use it as a flag. I like the effect of the dark umbrella and dark dog contrasted with the bright green grass.
Scamper, building as flag
I used the side of a building to act as a flag. I used my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens to be able to sufficiently de-focus the background, yet retain a sense of urbanity.
When I returned to Glasgow, I reviewed the portraits of the dogs but thought they were a little posed so I wanted to re-shoot in a different setting to a garden.
I used my own dog Scamper for this series of portraits. Like most dogs it was difficult to get him to ‘pose’ the way I had in mind! Out the back of my house is grass and a wooded area along with an urban building. I used this location as this is Scamper’s natural environment.
These were shot on a day with light drizzle so the light was much softer than with the previous dog’s shoot.
Rudie, Springer Spaniel
Rudey and Hayley, Boxers
