A fresh coat of paint and more neon signs! Studio Hire for just £20ph for several locations & styles!

NSFW

WE'RE BACK!

And better than ever!  Strap in, this is gonna be a long one!  Anyways, you may not have thought we went anywhere, but I've spent a week doing maintenance, which means aside from the boring stuff that you probably wont notice that has been improved, there's other stuff you will; as hinted in the title and which I'll briefly list below.

(L-R the hallway, the Front room, and the (old) neon wall.)

As always, studio hire is just £20ph for all our advertised areas!  Yes, that includes the pool, and no that doesn't mean £20 for the pool, and then £20 for another area - all our areas are included in the hire fee.  Crazy I know, if we were in a city we could probably double our prices with what we have to offer, and maybe quadruple them if it were in London, but the price you pay for being opposite the beach and surrounded by mountains in North Wales means I have to be cheap!

We are affectionately referred to as the Aladdin's cave or the Tardis by just about everyone who comes through our doors, so I promise you probably wont be able to squeeze it all in in a day!

The *NEW* neon wall
From the studio that bought you the original neon wall that you all know and love!  We may have stole the concept from Gods Own Junkyard after they wanted to charge me £600 for a half day 10+ years ago to use their neon warehouse, which is now a cafe I believe, but other studios have since popped up with our neon wall trend, so I's gotta keep is fresh!

Since it's inception, we've just continually added to it over the years to keep it growing, but every now and then a piece pops up at the right price that you can't resist, so to accommodate that, we've had a slight switch around of the signs.  Regular users of the wall will probably notice the differences (aside from said major piece), but I wasn't satisfied leaving it there, so I have now made a mobile neon wall to compliment it.  The premise behind the mobile wall is that the two rack towers on wheels can be used separate or together.  The two pieces can then be used against the static neon wall to create and 'L' shaped set, or even a corridor vibe.  It'll give more flexibility and creativity to the process.  

It's also my intention to eventually cover the back of the racks with black and white removeable fabric so they can double up as 'v-flats' for you harden portraiters who like to flag/bounce/absorb light when getting down to details.

Go on, book us -  I need to buy more signs and renew my insurance next month #cryemoji

Our infinity curve has had a fresh lick of paint!

I like to get it repainted quarterly, but I have been holding off for a maintenance week so I could do loads of other little jobs too while scuffing the floor with ladders.  This does mean we need you to take off your shoes when you shoot, but it also means you'll be spending less time in photoshop and enjoying its fresh whitey goodness.  We do have shoe covers and slippers provided if you have feet issues, as I appreciate some do and the floor gets pretty cold in the winter as it's solid concrete.  Of course, model's outfit shoes are fine, we're still a practical space, I just want to everyone to be considerate of others spending their time in post cleaning dirty floors and scuffs.. or of me with the rollers out!  After all, if you hire the studio, it's every bodies space, including yours to get the most out of, so the more we all maintain it, the better for everyone.  We're quite a personal studio and community, so you may meet my family, friends and (extended) pets when we're looking after them; so it's all good vibes.

(L-R the 'free-floating' steps in the studio, the boudoir with added colour, and the pool)

Other

The curtains

We added curtains a month or so ago along the balcony, which can cut off 1/3 of the room.  These curtains are both black and sheer.  The black curtains can be used similar to a v-flat and reduce light on the left when using the back drop papers.  When used together, the sheer and back curtains can make a fake window drape depending on how you light it to get some studio boudoir.  Or the black curtains can simply be used as a backdrop themselves to offer more texture, which is especially obvious when you light them as drapes because of the shadows that are cast on the opposite side - try throwing gels up either side to get some funky colour effects.

360 video Booth

This isn't included in studio hire unfortunately, but it can be hired for £25ph at the studio, or for local events for a different fee.  It was the inspiration behind the curtains as I wanted a clutter free booth room. Here, the curtains have a net lighting over them as you can see in the gifs above.  Aside from being amazingly fun at events, it has practical uses too.  How about you show potential clients your seasonal wardrobe, or just do hauls for social media content.  It's especially fun in sloooomooo, and we may be one of the few places you'll have access to one outside of a formal event / wedding.

Making the most of your time

If you intend on using the several areas we offer in a days hire, I suggest starting in the studio, before moving on to the house areas (hall, front room & boudoir), and then finishing up in the pool.  My insight for you in to this would be because the studio is where our lighting is housed, and while we use it through out other areas, it'll take time moving the gear between locations and setting up again.  If you were to zigzag between the two, this will eat in to your time and get steps in while carrying gear, or more importantly, get my steps in while helping move gear :)  Seriously though, if make-up looks and other practicalities require you to zigzag, that's perfectly fine too, it's just a less affective use of time should you have no variants chastising your movement.  Finishing in the pool is somewhat self explanatory, because if you're getting your model wet, that will cause problems with hair and make-up, and it'll cost you time if your subject is reapplying/doing it.  The pool is also heated, so your lenses will need time to acclimatise to the room.  Moving them between hot and cold locations regularly will emphasis this moreso, and eat in to that time.  Equally, you as the photographer (assuming you're not in the water) may get a little hot and bothered -  the room is about 30 degrees when the cover comes off, and you'll not have too much fun spending then next few hours in sweaty clothes.  In the summer, we can open doors and let in fresh air with notice, otherwise the room is climate controlled and doors and windows need to be kept closed.

In the case of studio days, the pool is always used last for wet work, but may be used during the day without getting the model wet above the neck.  It may also transpire that the lighting is not housed in the studio as it may have been moved by a previous photographer to the house areas, in which case, just reverse the above advice by using the house first and then studio second :)

As mentioned, lighting from the studio can be used through-out all locations.  These are Bowens (I have other cheaper strobes too if you want a monster set up, but the Bowens are consistent work horses) and with many Bowens s-fit mods - big octo boxes, med boxes, strip boxes of all sizes, a beauty dish, reflector dishes, backdrop reflectors, a gobo, gels and probably more.  The Bowens are full manual control (that's kinda the point of studio photography, to be in full manual control) and will slave off of a light with a receiver signal from the trigger - our trigger is one of the most simple you can buy and should work on any hotshoe (/camera brand) with a centre metal pin.  There's also a few continuous light options for use with the neons (or you could drag the shutter and get creative), and there's some nice natural light to be had (weather dependant) in the front room, boudoir and shooting down on to the chesterfield in the hall.  Again, both strobes and continuous lights can be used in all these spaces too.  You are also welcome to bring your own lighting if you're more comfortable/familiar with it, or want to use through the lens metering / semi auto exposure settings if you're not fully comfortable in manual.  Our pool area also has natural light, but we also have battery lights for use in there too as there's no power sockets.  Again, feel free to bring speedlites or battery lights of your own.  Back to an earlier point, if you're comfortable with lighting in general, bringing yours to be used in one area but having ours already in the studio could speed up your work flow, but ultimately ours is here to be used, so don't feel obliged.

 
(L-R 'dragging the shutter' with the neon wall / infinity curve, the MUA desk, which can be used as a set too, and the boudoir without coloured light - I promise not everything is pink, I just like colour )

I've probably missed stuff, so if you have any questions and such, drop us a message.  I'm also always on hand to help move gear around, so please do ask while here too.  I'd prefer you didn't take liberties and just gave me a shout, that's my job, to be on hand if you need me.  I may even make you a cup of tea or seven.