References for Melanie Bond (Butler)

Simon Bond Photography

This model has been on my radar for some time as I have been very impressed with her portfolio or work. Seeing that she was one of the models on a Witches Coven themed group shoot I took the opportunity to book the event and was not disappointed.

Mel was a joy to work with, friendly, easy-going and happy to be directed when required. She has a lovely personality and poses really well. She had a variety of outfits to match the theme of the shoot and I have come away with some amazing shots. I would highly recommend this talented model.

Glyn Skinner

I have had many shoots with Melanie, this time we decided to shoot in Broadway village for 3 hours with a few changes of cloths.

As always Melanie is great with pre shoot comms,and was on time ready to shoot.

As always Melanie is great fun, easy -going and very happy to take direction if needed. The time went to fast, I came away with a lot of great shots from the day.

As before I have no hesitation in recommending any one to work with Melanie. Great model .

ktungportraitphotography

I had my second shoot with Melanie Bond, this time at Bartfords Arboretum in Gloucestershire. Really had a fabulous time with Melanie from start until the end. She is such a fun model to work with! Her bubbly character makes the shoot very fun! We manage to get a lot of great photos together. Great outfits selection as well as we were looking more for Autumn vibe feels.

Time really flew by through our four hour shoot. We walked around finding a lot of good spots for photos. Melanie requires very little or no direction and she is natural in front of the camera! Another natural thing about her is her beautiful smile! That alone makes your day!

Will highly recommend Melanie as always to both photographers and other models! Thank you for such a great day!

Steve Upton

Had my 3rd shoot with Mel this year and as always an absolute joy to work with this stunning model.

This time the shoot was at far forest studio and the themes were dresses and portrait.

We did some sitting down and standing with different dress changes, and we got some good shots for all.

I might be able to work with Mel again this year hopefully as we seem to be able to get into the routine immediately and get on well always chatting plenty of laughs. As normal Mel with pose away without direction but is always willing to listen and try any ideas within her limits.

I can't recommend Mel highly enough, just to say don't miss out on working with her.

Here's to the next time.

Steve

Alan Bruce

I had a studio shoot for 2 hours at Far Forest just over a week ago with Mel. I’ve had many shoots with Mel but this was a first at this studio. Quite a few of our shoots have been tethered - Mel in a studio and me at home - so it was really good to see her in the flesh, face-to-face. We had a really enjoyable time doing the shoot and chatted many times during it and at coffee breaks (I had to have several of those, hehe).

We worked through the different outfits that Mell had brought to the shoot. Her outfits looked lovely and I was really pleased to shoot her in as many as we had time for. We also tried out some simple studio flash set ups and also the Rotolight (continuous light) that I’d brought to try out.

There were many times that we looked at the back of camera, we were really pleased with the results so we made a list of images liked - I’ll do my best to prepare edits as soon as time permits.

Mel works really well, individually and with groups… so what more can I say, I thoroughly recommend Mel for you to have an enjoyable shooting time.

Thanks again Mel for this Far Forest Studio session.

Garry Williamson

Had the pleasure of working with Melanie too for the first time today at Far forest studio. The shoot went great Melanie is a professional and friendly person, the shoot just flowed and the time went fast. I have spoken to her about working together again in the future. I have many ideas for a future shoot with Melanie. Highly recommended and will definitely work with her again soon

Steve Mitchell

I had a great shoot with Melanie at the Boardroom in Derby. We had planned this shoot some time ago as Melanie wanted to shoot at this unique location and I was excited to see what we good create together there. As with previous shoots Mel pre-shoot preparation was meticulous, with a great deal of attention given as to how she could get the most out of this venue. We have worked together enough times now, to understand how to structure the shoot to get the most out of it while having fun along the way. An outstanding shoot and I look forward to processing the images we captured and planning future shoots. Very highly recommended.

Jon Taylor

Always a joy to work with Melanie. Today we had chosen Hidcote gardens in the beautiful North Cotswolds. Busier than we’d anticipated, but Melanie is undaunted by location shoots in public, bringing her wealth of experience to bear.

As always pre-shoot comms were excellent, Melanie was beautifully prepared, and by now I feel that our working relationship is now such that it was a very relaxed shoot with mutual trust evident.

Melanie’s professionalism on shoot is of the highest standard, her commitment to achieving great images unmistakeable. As I have remarked in previous references, Melanie has keen insight into the creative process, which always makes for sharing of ideas, great on-shoot conversation and a genuinely collaborative shoot.

Melanie’s beauty, ability, work ethic and her elegance all combine to make working with this talented and creative woman a total pleasure.

As before, I have no hesitation in highly recommending working with Melanie. My next shoot with her is already booked.

J9 Studios

Mel graced our studios once more, and was here for a shoot with travelling Phox Photography (Alan).

Sadly I was unavailable, but my trustees Paul and John opened and closed up respectively for them both. Paul made himself scarce once everyone was comfortable and ready to shoot, but enjoyed catching up with Mel who he'd shot with in the past, and the same goes for John once their shoot was finished for the day. From my trustee's perspective, they couldn't have asked for more, everyone was on time, friendly, respectful of the studio and it's props, and left it in the state they found it.

Highly recommended of course.

Terry Onslow Photography

After a rain cancellation due to our beautiful summer this year!! we finally got to do the sunflower shoot we had been planning for some time.

Mel was very keen to do it as she had not shot in sunflowers before.

Mel arrived with a couple of suitable outfits although we only used one.

As always Mel posed very naturally and made shooting easy. She is brilliant and very enthusiastic.

We shot for over an hour at various locations and from the initial download the images look great.

Mel is a true professional and I strongly encourage all levels of photographers work with her.

Highly recommended.

Ridefree 68

Hi Melanie,

Firstly my apologies for being so long in doing a reference, I THOUGHT I had done one two weeks ago, looking below this box I may have pressed cancel instead of add.

To anyone considering working with Melanie DO IT!! book a shoot with her! she's lively with a great sense of humour and she KNOWS what she's doing, totally.

I've worked with her a lot since our first shoot together in June 2020 and she's never failed to impress, either with her outfits, work ethic or the way she can pull a location out of her hat! Our latest shoot showed this, we've worked around her home a lot but when I asked for somewhere different she came up with another stunning location. Unfortunately due to health reasons I'm cutting down on shooting, Melanie is a very considerate and kind lady who has helped me no end so I'd love to hear that she's kept busy.

As always thoroughly recommended, book a shoot, you won't be disappointed!

Havelock

Mel was terrific, a true pro, super easy to get on with, worked with me taking direction really well and offering options and thoughts throughout. Slightly unusual shoot that we did, involved lots of standing very still and holding poses for long periods, but Mel was brilliant! No a word of complaint, she worked hard throughout, and we got some terrific shots out of it. Very happy photographer, and wouldn't hesitate to book Mel again!

ktungportraitphotography

Melanie is such a pleasure to work with! Pres coms were excellent! We went to 2 different location shoots. I met Melanie first at the Lavender's field. We got along really easily! Melanie is such a lovely, wonderful model to work with! And requires very little or no direction as well and she made me feel ease to work. We took some lovely shots of her around the Lavender and other flowers in the field. Melanie is very patient as well while I was working switching lens and playing around the setting of my camera to great the best composition and lighting. :)

We proceeded onto the second location, a National Trust property not too far. We took a few portraits and lifestyle shots during our lunch break. We shot around the flower gardens at the site. We really got some good shots. Melanie knows how to pose very well and have such a wonderful natural smile. I enjoyed taking pictures of her until my SD card became full and my battery almost ran out by the end of the wonderful 4 hour shoot.

Melanie really made me feel confident about shooting with her and it also help me built my confidence not only in working with her in the future but with other people/models as well.

It was a really fun, good shoot. Melanie made my day!

I would absolutely recommend Melanie to other photographers! I will definitely want to shoot with Melanie again! She is such a wonderful, talented model and real down to earth person to work with!

Thank you again Melanie for a wonderful shoot and day!

Viv2

Excellent communications before the shoot, as usual, and this shoot was as enjoyable as all the previous ones we have done. Mel brought the clothing I had asked for and was ready on time, as always. We had a great time in Bourton and Stow, although there were a lot of tourists in Bourton which did cause some problems in getting the shots we wanted. Mel had a few ideas for shots, and location, which I was happy to take advantage of, and she took direction and posed independently, which is always appreciated. I am very happy to recommend her again.

63Oxonboy

Had lovely second shoot with Mel, we had agreed shoot in the Lavender fields in Cotswolds.

Great comms as we had to adjust plans due to weather, we found areas of field less populated and shot various poses.

Mel is A+ model can strike poses with ease and certainly helps with the shots.

We have a good laugh and talk non stop.

I've really enjoyed experience and will arrange autumn shoot. Highly recommend Mel to each and everyone..

Decadent Images

My first shoot with Mel. We had agreed to a location shoot which went well despite the best efforts of the weather! Pre-comma were good with Mel providing all of the information I needed in a professional and timely manner. She arrived on time where we had agreed to meet and we were soon at our chosen location. The onset of a short, sharp shower meant that we had the opportunity for a chat and a coffee before making our way outside into the gardens where we were shooting.

The location wasn't quite as wheelchair friendly as we had hoped but it was still accessible and not a problem. There were more visitors to the gardens than might have been expected, but again not a problem and Mell was very patient when we had to pause to allow other people to pass.

Mel is a beautiful and talented model, very professional, a lovely, friendly person and a pleasure to shoot with. I would highly recommend her to all photographers.

Alan Bruce

I have just recently had a long awaited face-to-face shoot with the lovely Mel. I have done a couple of shoots over the last few months, as good as they were, they were tethered shoots but not face-to-face. For this shoot we chose to shoot in a National Trust Stately Home (it needed a lick of paint :) ) reasonably close to Mel’s home. She chose a great place to shoot as the home has lots of great character and nooks and crannies. As usual, with Mel, as well as shooting we chatted a lot and she made many suggestions for ‘posing places’ - stairs, tapestries and many other great places.

The time passed so quickly that we didn’t get chance to photograph in the gardens, which are quite extensive. We did manage to get a few shots, had to finish the shoot on my iPhone (the camera battery, although showing 30% charge left, decided to ‘give up the ghost’ and shut down :( ) but we did get some great photos of Mel enjoying the short time we had left.

Mel is a friendly and fun young lady to be with, she worked ‘the camera’ really well for me, especially as it was quite a hot day. It was much better to have done the shoot together, rather than as our previous tethered shoots. Having said that I would recommend her for the tethered shoots to get great images. So I highly recommend Mel for Amateur or Pro phot shoots. Thanks again Mel for our friendly and fun shoots.

Neil Tinson

Had my second shoot today with Mel in a lavender field and just like the first one was a great shoot and already planning a third

Relaxing and friendly as always and we chatted non stop

Directing Mel is not neccessary as she is more than able to free pose and is happy to help with any ideas or poses you have

Mel is always keen to see the images on the back of the camera and will always point out if she likes a certain image or discuss what we can do to improve or change in a good way Which is good and welcomed

I have worked with many models over the years and can honestly say Mel ranks up there with the best without a doubt and the high praise in her references well they speak for themselves

If anyone out there is thinking of shooting with Mel then please do not hesitate booking her You won't be disappointed with the results

I can highly recomend working with her and as i have already mentioned we are already talking a third

100% professional

Thank you

Terry Onslow Photography

I recent had a very pleasant group shoot with Melanie doing a hot rod shoot in a specialist workshop. Mel is very into this sport and has the connections to be able to arrange private shoots.

Mel brought lots of pin up style outfits and some lovely lingerie to the shoot. She poses beautifully and very naturally. Mel is fun to work with and is very experienced in modelling , making shoots very easy and enjoyable. We created some great images.

We have already planned our next shoot

Highly recommended

richneil

My first shoot with Melanie. after many years of admiring her work we finally got to work together.

Mel was a joy to work with. We went to Croome (NT property), discussed beforehand plans for the shoot and Mel brought outfits & accessories to suitable for the ideas and location.

Spent 4 hours of relaxed shooting which went in the blink of an eye. Fantastic images.

Definitely want to shoot with her again.