Back to the studio, and about time too.

It’s been a while since I posted actual session images. Lots of reasons. A lot of my sessions late last year were for Xmas gifts, so couldn’t be shared before then, and I had several very shy women who didn’t want images shared, and of course, I respect that decision completely.

One of the main reasons was the actual studio. I love it to bits, it’s cosy, intimate and versatile, but the incredible wallpaper on one wall was NOT as you have seen in the final images. It was damaged, had tears, holes and black paint on it, and because of the beautiful damask pattern, was an absolute PITA to retouch.

I made a decision that I would replace it with paint, something super flat, beautifully luxe coloured and a complete contrast to the other existing side.

But while I was trying to choose that paint (a LOT harder than I thought), there absolutely WERE beautiful sessions going on with amazing women. So let me share one with you.

Karina

This is the second time I have shot the beautiful Karina who is a part time model. I was so very fortunate to meet her at a Shoot for a Cause event earlier in the year, and my favourite images are those that we worked together on.

Karina is newly engaged, congratulations! And wanted something amazing for her Fiance for Xmas, so we put our heads together for a boudoir session. We went for a range of emotions, as she is often asked to do straight beauty and glamour because of her amazing looks, but we wanted to show her range as a model, as well as create incredible images for her personal use. I can’t begin to explain how thrilled I was that she approached me to work with her on these images. Models of Karina’s calibre work with incredible teams of photographers and stylists and make up artists, so this was a dream come true for my little home studio.

We really thought outside the box for this session, and a lot of the images came from inspiration pictures that Karina had fallen in love with while looking around the internet, something that I highly recommend you spend some time doing yourself, if you are considering a photo session of any sort.

Of course, once we started looking around, it was surprising how versatile my cosy little studio really is, although I could see that it wouldn’t only be wallpaper that was going to be renovated, but more on that later.

We used a mix of studio wardrobe and Karina’s own outfits for this shoot, and she absolutely LOVED the “Casino Royale” stilettos from Poison Apple Shoe Art, you can see how they all came together perfectly for all of the poses and moods that we wanted to create. Hair and makeup was done by yours truly, and what a delight it was to work with this beautiful hair and amazing cheekbones and eyes!

Being a portfolio session, we tried as many different post production styles as we both liked, so as to give us both a range of looks that we could choose from. Normally I would only use one black and white style in a session, and the colour images would all be either vibrant and clean, or fashionably matted.

There will definitely be more of Karina on the blog in upcoming months. She is an absolute delight to work with, so very versatile and full of expression, I think that if I could choose just one person as a muse, it would probably be her.