Last week I travelled up to Fife in Scotland to host another one of our Shoot Days alongside our special guest, Claire Fleck. I’ve long been an admirer of Claire’s work – she has an extraordinary eye for detail and is highly skilled in creating narratives. So I was really looking forward to seeing her images from our day together. Cambo House is so big that we didn’t see the other group on the day so we didn’t see what each other shot.
It’s always fascinating to see what another photographer does with a scene and I’ll admit, it often makes me want to throw my own camera in the bin. I love what Claire has done with this incredible set created by the wonderful team at Gloam. I feel that sometimes, the models and the sets can be shot as separate entities at these portfolio shoots. I like to merge the two together and make it all one story.
When it was my turn to shoot this set up, I placed Melissa in front of the table but I prefer Claire’s positioning – I think this makes her more involved in the scene. These days are hectic, we cram a lot in for the attendees so it’s important that we find the headspace to consider our shots and make the best of everyone’s hard work.
Our next one of these is the 7th of July with guest host Esme Whiteside. I’ll get my camera out of the bin then.
Nikon D810 | Nikon 35mm 1.4 | f2.5 | 1/200| ISO 160
OWN PRESET
What Clare Said…
“The Gloam team had set up an incredible dinner table for our portfolio day at Cambo and towards the end of the hour we had in this set up I realised I’d only really looked up close at the details on the table and not at the whole scene from this angle. Taking a step back I noticed how beautifully the light was falling across the room and how it mimicked the dramatic light in the paintings on the wall behind. I knew that I wanted to really showcase the beautiful surroundings of the house as well as Gloam’s styling and this felt like the perfect opportunity to create something big and striking.
I got Melissa to sit down with one hand resting on her chin and look out towards the window light as I didn’t want the shot to feel too formal. She was amazing and just relaxed into the scene, making it her own.
When editing I removed a couple of plug sockets to give it a timeless feel and pulled out some of the details in the paintings behind and the flowers to the left.”