David.1

The past month (September 2024) has been the month from hell.

My beautiful friend Belle (https://purpleport.com/portfolio/bellamodelling21/) has passed away and the world feels like a much darker place. I spent her last weekend with her in Stockholm, spent time with loved ones in vigil in hospital with her, and I was 1 of 4 people who lowered her coffin into her final resting place. I will never look at the world in the same way again. I have discovered some wonderful people during this process, and I have also discovered things that have made me feel sick about how people can prey on those who are in pain.

Over the last year before her death she became my muse. She challenged me to improve myself to be able to better capture her unique beauty. The great shame for me is that I did not improve earlier, and that I could have spent more time with her. I do take some joy in the knowledge that everybody who knew her told me how much she loved to shoot with me. 

Her passing has taught me to appreciate the beauty in life, and that I need to stop overthinking things. I do not apologise for generally looking towards trying to find the beauty in life, because it is infinitely precious.

When I joined I said I wanted to improve my photographic ability, and I think that has been happening. I still have areas to improve in, but I have come a long way.

In regards to what I would like to reach for when working with a model... I think that the word that encapsulates it right now (and probably will always generally be) is "femininity". That is not to say that I won't get into punchier shots at times, but what I love doing is to explore the core femininity of a model. Whether that be fashion, cosplay, swimsuit or boudoir, I simply delight in trying to uncover elegance and femininity.

For me, this all starts with the face. The face is our window to the world. It provides so many non-verbal signals, and I want to work with models to explore that. I also love things like great skin, light summer dresses, big floppy sun hats, well cut gowns, glasses, stockings and lace, and I will tend to use these a lot during my shoots (depending on the focus of the shoot obviously).

Some of the more mundane things:-

• I have a car (well, it's a Peugeot 107, but it pretends to be a car...), so I can get around pretty easily.

 

• If a model would be happier to have a chaperone for a shoot, then I am generally fine with this. In fact, for new models, I would normally prefer to have a chaperone especially for boudoir. Please advise me about this during the pre-comms.
  
  Chaperones give a degree of protection to both model and photographer. A chaperone can help a model relax during our time together, which in turn has to improve any images and make for a more pleasant time together generally. They can also help in keeping an eye open for people not involved in the shoot, helping with things like reflectors, and also maybe help with the coffee!! :D
  
  However I reserve the right to cut the shoot short if the chaperone poisons the shoot or otherwise adversely distracts the model during the shoot.
  
  
• Also, I do have a life outside this which I need to juggle. I am a bit of a photogeek and I do simply love the whole creative process, but I won't be going berserk trying to catch up with all the years I've missed whilst not being here. At the moment I aim to be in one or maybe two shoots a month for the foreseeable future.

If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch!

David

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