Ella Rose Muse: the story: August 2013

Friday 30 August 2013

Edwardian Ladies, Bridges & Stables

I've had two more recent shoots with the ever-brilliant Karen Jones, with lots of pretty pics to show for it.

First, there was a shoot alongside the utterly beautiful Leah Axl, who is one of the nicest people I've met in this industry as well has having one of those faces that just can't be photographed badly. For that, Karen dressed up a swing seat in her back garden, and we posed as Edwardian ladies, sipping tea and balancing bird cages with lap-dog Pip (the pet extra), before heading outdoors into the on-the-doorstep countryside, dressed partly in each other's clothes, for some bohemian adventures with sheep (not in shot...).

For shoot numero two of recent sessions, Karen and I were joined by Tony Nutley, who's worked on many things, from Inspector Morse to Thomas The Tank Engine, and still hasn't decided if he's retired or not... :-) I first met him almost exactly four years ago, when the three of us had a little bash at some Lady Godiva-ing, and it was lovely to meet up again.

Tony has kindly sent me these:

... While Karen has kindly me sent me these, the first group of which were taken using the window-light of the stables:

Outdoors again:

And, now I'm nearly off for 6 days in Florence! I'm really excited! I will be checking out my good friend David while there and hopefully bagging some glorious images in the sunshine too. Ciao! ;-)

Sunday 25 August 2013

Gaia, Jetty

I have yet another collection of images to show you from photographer Jeremy Howitt today. A recent concoction of curves, bokeh, grass and reflections...

Jeremy found this beautiful location in Sussex and I had the immediate idea that I should lie down for this first close-in, abstract crop - I have no idea why, it just felt obvious when I saw the frame of the long grass in the foreground and water behind; and Jeremy got it pretty much how I'd imagined, if not better, with a slightly voyeuristic hint and beautiful focus - I love the three little dots of bokeh in the diagonal line as well! Then Jeremy played around with some reflections as I sat/stood/lay on the little wooden jetties that surrounded the lake. To finish, we did a little 'Gaia' set in the nearby field. We don't often do portraits so thought it would be a good idea, then finished with some explosive hair, naturally.

Friday 16 August 2013

Elephants

It was a pleasure to model again recently for Rayment Kirby, photography-improviser-extraordinaire (I was particularly impressed by the papier mache light, this time - Rayment is incredibly ingenious when it comes to creating equipment with which to work and produce various effects). We were working towards his latest book and created a good range of images, as shown below, with the aid of bohemian cushions, black fabric, jewellery, plastic sheeting, red rugs and rainy windows...

Life has been busy and hectic as always for me recently, with a bizarre emphasis on turning nocturnal over this last week or so, and some fun shoots in the early mornings, parties and exciting emails I don't want to 'jinx' by mentioning. I've managed to be productive too, booking flights, visas, travel insurance, updating my website, repairing my car (well, not me personally; that would be disastrous) and generally catching up on all those mundane things which keep a world spinning. Off to Norway very soon! Will update again soon after that...

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Walter De La Mare, 'The Listeners'

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses

Of the forest’s ferny floor:

And a bird flew up out of the turret,

Above the Traveller’s head:

And he smote upon the door again a second time;

‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplexed and still.

But only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,

That goes down to the empty hall,

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken

By the lonely Traveller’s call.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

’Neath the starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:—

‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,

That I kept my word,’ he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house

From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,

And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,

When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Natasha Khan/Bat for Lashes, 'Horse and I'

Got woken in the night,
by a mystic golden light.
My head soaked in river water.
I had been dressed in a coat of armor. They called
a horse out of the woodland.
"Take her there, through the desert shores."
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear.
You're the chosen one, there's no turning back now."

The smell of redwood giants.
The banquet for the shadows.
Horse and I, we're dancers in the dark.
Came upon the headdress.
It was gilded, dark and golden.
The children sang.
I was so afraid I took it to my head and prayed.
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear. You're the chosen one, there's no turning back."
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear. You're the chosen one, there's no turning back."

Mark Doty, 'A Display of Mackerel'

They lie in parallel rows,

on ice, head to tail,

each a foot of luminosity

barred with black bands,

which divide the scales’

radiant sections

like seams of lead

in a Tiffany window.

Iridescent, watery

prismatics: think abalone,

the wildly rainbowed

mirror of a soapbubble sphere,

think sun on gasoline.

Splendor, and splendor,

and not a one in any way

distinguished from the other

—nothing about them

of individuality. Instead

they’re all exact expressions

of the one soul,

each a perfect fulfilment

of heaven’s template,

mackerel essence. As if,

after a lifetime arriving

at this enameling, the jeweler’s

made uncountable examples,

each as intricate

in its oily fabulation

as the one before

Suppose we could iridesce,

like these, and lose ourselves

entirely in the universe

of shimmer—would you want

to be yourself only,

unduplicatable, doomed

to be lost? They’d prefer,

plainly, to be flashing participants,

multitudinous. Even now

they seem to be bolting

forward, heedless of stasis.

They don’t care they’re dead

and nearly frozen,

just as, presumably,

they didn’t care that they were living:

all, all for all,

the rainbowed school

and its acres of brilliant classrooms,

in which no verb is singular,

or every one is. How happy they seem,

even on ice, to be together, selfless,

which is the price of gleaming.

Kate Clanchy, 'Poem for a Man with No Sense of Smell'

This is simply to inform you:

that the thickest line in the kink of my hand
smells like the feel of an old school desk,
the deep carved names worn sleek with sweat;

that beneath the spray of my expensive scent
my armpits sound a bass note strong
as the boom of a palm on a kettle drum;

that the wet flush of my fear is sharp
as the taste of an iron pipe, midwinter,
on a child's hot tongue; and that sometimes,

in a breeze, the delicate hairs on the nape
of my neck, just where you might bend
your head, might hesitate and brush your lips,

hold a scent frail and precise as a fleet
of tiny origami ships, just setting out to sea.

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