References for FlashingBlade

Saracen House Studio

So good to have our good friend Steve back to the studio again, this time for his shoot with Carla Monaco.

Having known Steve for many years, what I love about his shoots is the meticulous level of planning and detail he puts into creating images. His creative thinking is only outweighed by his passion for photography and I love our time in the studio bringing those passions to life together.

On top of that, he's a blooming nice bloke too.

Yoo Yoo

I had a great shoot with Steve during my first tour to Sheffield! Steve first get a shower idea with Asian culture is brilliant . We got a lot of cool stuff in the studio and the yellow door is quite interesting! Steve let me freestyle and let me do the outfit I bring . The whole shoot is amazing ! I really look forward to the photos and look forward to shooting again next time I tour here ! Highly recommended

PaigeAntonia

Steve booked me for a camera club event out on location tonight.

I have worked with Steve before and have to say what an absolute delight it is working with him.

Communication is always spot on, he is punctual and well organised.

An excellent photographer, chatty, respectful, courteous - I cannot recommend him enough.

Thank you, as before - it was a pleasure xx

The Barn Studio

It was a real pleasure to welcome Steve to the Barn Studio for the first time. Steve approaches his work in a very professional and efficient manner and had so many good ideas he probably now holds the studio record for how many very different sets can be made in 4 hours :-). It was a fun afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed having him in the studio. Thank you Steve and I look forward to seeing you working here again soon.

Jasmine High

I had my first shoot with Steve and despite the cold weather, the shoot went brilliantly! And I absolutely loved this shoot.

Steve is an absolute gem and made sure I knew all the details about our shoot beforehand. Steve is really easy to work with and I quickly felt at ease with him.

I really had a lovely first shoot and I look forward to shooting with him again in the near future :)

Steve is highly recommended!

Thank you,

Jasmine

Saracen House Studio

Always lovely having Stephen back at the studio and as always he's got a wealth of creative ideas under his hat and knows how to bring them to life in camera. He's also one of the nicest guys around, genuine and professional in his conduct, whilst being relaxed and easy to get along with in his shoot.

Highly recommended photographer and one of our longest photography friends.

Shazzaa

I worked with Stephen for the second time this week and thoroughly enjoyed shooting with him once again. As always he was extremely well organized, punctual, and takes great care in the planning and execution of his ideas. He graciously drove me to the studio in Milton Keynes and back, and was very pleasant to spend the day with. He provided a selection of beautiful vintage dresses for the shoot, with a very clear picture of the overall mood and aesthetic he wished to go with them.

Stephen is absolutely brimming with great ideas which made for an extremely fun and productive day of shooting. He has such a unique vision when it comes to producing his work and knows how to create high quality images that are outside of the box and eye catching. His genuine passion for photography truly shines through in the way he speaks and works. I would not hesitate to recommend Stephen and I am very much looking forward to the work he produces as he begins working on new future projects.

Thank you for a brilliant day Steve!

Shazzaa

It was an absolute pleasure shooting with Steve today on location in Sheffield. His pre shoot communication is impeccable, as well as his organization and attention to detail. He provided a very helpful mood board prior to the shoot detailing styling and the general mood he envisioned for the shoot, which is much appreciated.

He is punctual, friendly, easy to work with, communicates his ideas clearly and has a good sense of the shots he wants to capture. I thoroughly enjoyed shooting with him and hope to do so again very soon! Overall a joy to work with and most highly recommended :)

Rachelle Summers

It's been 9 years since my first shoot with Steve, and 7 since catching up with him last at a Christmas studio social, so it was lovely catching up with again and shooting after so long!

Steve had all his ideas prepped in advance and gave me plenty of warning for what I needed to bring :) We shot a variety of themes and from what I saw on the back of the camera got some fab images!

Highly recommended by me and hope we don't leave it as long before our next shoot!

2W Location

First time at Two Wei for Steve but he'd done his research on our port and the back catalogue of images taken here to enable him to create a complete shoot plan for his afternoon with Rachelle Summers.

Steve came well prepared with props and worked extremely well with Rachelle, together managing to get through all of his planned sets.

It was a real pleasure to host Steve; he's very polite, easy to get along with and respectful of property and we can recommend him to other studios and models alike without reservation.

Saracen House Studio

Another excellent shoot with Steve, as always he arrived with a great plan as to what he wanted to create and as ever Steve is a lovely guy and it was great to catch up and natter after lockdown!

A long and great friend of the studio and of course welcome anytime.

Lulu Lockhart

Had a lovely time working with Steve for the first time at Saracen House, it was lovely to finally shoot after having to reschedule due to Covid. Steve's pre-shoot communications were excellent he very clearly discussed the concepts he wanted to shoot and discussed prop items with me.

On the day of the shoot Steve was bang on time, from the offset he was very clear on what he wanted to shoot and communicated his ideas well with me. Steve was able to move effortlessly between different sets that required very different kinds of lighting and style. We managed to achieve a huge array of very different sets in a relatively short space of time, it was a very productive shoot :)

Steve was very polite and friendly, I had a very lovely time working with him and am very excited to see the results. I fully recommend him :)

Artemis Fauna

Steve and I had our first remote shoot a few days ago (but not our first shoot)

Steve had a list of ideas that could have filled an entire day for our shoot so we, together, whittled it down to 4 strong ideas to work on in the three hours we had. We managed to get it all done with plenty of time to chat too! Yay! Leaving some ideas for another time.

As has been said all along, remote shoots are not a replacement for 'in person shoots' but, as has been proved now over and over- they are a fabulous and creative alternative while we are unable to shoot face to face.

The time really flew by and I am very happy with the results. We went from moody drinker, to ice queen to 70's hippy!! AND a few in between!

Thanks Steve- I hope we can do it again one day :)

Ariel Taylor

First shoot with Steve on a crisp morning in city centre Sheffield :)! I had the pleasure of shooting with Steve and his friend Laura. We also had Rob on hand to help out with anything we needed (which was absolutely brilliant).

As other models have pointed out, Steve is mega organised!! Full on plan, timings of the shoot down to the smallest detail, fully scouted-out locations. It was absolutely fantastic! Apart from some travel troubles on my end, the shoot went absolutely swimmingly :)

We shot ballet poses and jumps from the train station to the peace gardens. Steve was great with direction but also allowed me to free flow through poses. I knew Steve was happy with what we were getting as he was quite quiet (which is a good sign hehe) ;) And I have to say, looking on the back of the camera the shots looked amazing :)! The 4 hours honestly zoomed by and was such an enjoyable shoot.

I look forward to seeing the final product and I hope we get to work together again :)

Thanks Steve!

Highly recommended

Keira Lavelle

I worked with Steve a couple of times yearrrrrsss ago! On some organised event/group shoot type sessions; so when he got in touch expressing an interest in working together one-to-one on location - I was thrilled as it gave us the chance to not only catch up after so long, but also enjoy a proactive independent rapport-building flow for a half day of our own. And it was massively proactive, and subsequently productive too! :D What a shoot!!

Steve's communications were completely on-point from the very beginning of shoot discussions. He covered everything very in-depth and detailed to ensure that we were both on the same page and knew exactly what we were doing in-order of shooting sets/locations plus where to meet and back up plans... Everything! I don't think I've ever shot with a photographer so organised at the speed he was. :D It made life so much easier for me because I had quite a busy week with shoots at different locations so being able to just log in to our message thread and literally everything I needed to know was there was a pure godsend! We also chatted about safety amid the current pandemic and did a risk assessment for the shoot - Steve was very vigilant and understanding so we were both like-minded to the point of being aware of all the government guidelines etc. which was important for me to be able to continue running my modelling business consistently and securely during a very testing time for all.

On the day; we were very fortunate to have good weather and get away with all the fabulous outdoor scenes we had hoped to visit: it literally only threatened us with a sprinkling of rain towards the end of the day. :P So from woodland walks to waterfalls, rocky crags plus views to kill for, outdoorsy portraits to city fashion - even bendy shapes and water features! This just gives you a mere idea of the brilliant yield we enjoyed on the shoot, and how Steve's epic planning saw us make use of a variety of spectacular scenes! It goes without saying that Steve's camera was bursting with killer images by the time we parted - though that doesn't just come from luck and a few nice locations: he operated with a lot of care to perfect aspects which go towards putting the "oomf" in a photo... He showed immaculate patience with the light, tackled all the right angles that needed to be tackled, had epic ideas for the various places and just injected so much into the shoot as a photographer and creative. I have lots of praise for Steve, for his drive and commitment to his photography and getting the best possible results from a day are utterly 5 star. :)

To add on from the rest; it was just a terrific day out and about, doing what I love at fantastic locations around the South Yorkshire and Derbyshire countrysides! Steve was great fun to hang out with and we gelled really easily: his nature is that of someone very down to earth, gentle and courteous. I felt completely happy working with him as he shows a lot of respectful professionalism to put models at ease. All-in-all; Steve is a truly delightful human with a big heart and positive nature who I wouldn't hesitate to recommend for a minute. :) I believe that we had fun during our shoot on top of the rest also, did plenty of chatting and just hit it off really well to be honest.

Thank you so much for shooting with me Steve, and I hope we can do it again in the future!

Keira

Arabella

Here's to another successful shoot! This was a 1-2-1 at my home!...

Steve had spoken about his ideas previously and gave me some moodboards so I could really get a feel for the sort of things he wanted to create!

During the shoot he even brought a book to help with influences and ideas!

The shoot flew by and we worked through some different ideas successfully around the theme!

Steve is really great to work with, friendly, chatty and we always have a good giggle!...

The shots from this shoot were awesome!!

As always recommended!

And thanks again Steve!

Arabella X

Arabella

Another awesome shoot with Steve!... I have worked with him a few times both 1-2-1 and during workshops & groups. I would recommend him in any of those situations.

His comms were fabulous, I had to change timings and locations a little and he was more than flexible with that, so a big thank you for that!

Worked really well in the group, was courteous towards others and respected the space he was working in.... he threw himself right into the theme and worked well within a space that was new to him!

Steve got some lovely images and had great input! Highly recommended!

Genuinely lovely person and talented photographer!

Thanks again Steve! Hopefully see you for another shoot in the future!

Arabella X

Miss mae_

Had my first shot with steve recently and it was awesome. He knew exactly what he wanted and gave me clear instructions on the makeup ideas etc.

Highly recommend.

Tann x

Scarlett Fox

I fricken love working with Steve!

Seems far too long since our last shoot together, and unfortunately could be awhile again before the next one now that I’ve moved down to Cambridge but we will get something sorted!

This time Steve kindly thought of me for an evening group shoot working with a few local photographers in Chesterfield, it’s always refreshing working with photographers brand new to model photography as they are so happy to learn and understand tings from the models perspective. Steve and I kick started the day an hour early so we could get some shots together before the group as he would be helping the others out later.

We spent the evening shooting in the grounds of a beautiful stately home out in the Peak District where I was busy laying in borders, standing looking wistfully at a lake, and of course climbing trees!

Steve had a great group on people, all willing to learn and of course have fun too, the time just flew by. Shooting with Steve was a breeze as usual, we had a wicked catch up and took some awesome shots, and man I can’t wait for the next one!

Always highly recommended and looking forward to the next time :)

Scarlett x

Theblondeone

Steve kindly booked me for a fashion shoot with his camera club on an outdoor location.

It was a fantastic evening and great to meet Steve. Everyone was incredibly friendly and they all I hope captured some lovely shots.

Steve himself got some fabulous ones too from what I could see from the back of the camera.

Highly recommended. Such a pleasure working with him.