I came across Deena Cara-Michelle on Model Mayhem (she's MM# 738670), and liked her idea for a shoot where the emphasis was on the shapes and the forms of yoga, more than on the model. 

We aimed for a date in September, hoping that there would be some sunshine, and as it turned out it was indeed one of the nicest days of the year!  It was, however, very windy, and I did get clonked on the head by a flash attached to a large softbox.  I'm still not sure I'm up for carrying large sandbags across Hyde Park (which is where we did the shoot), but nevertheless I'm going to be more careful in future!  (The flash was fine, in case you're worried ;).

Ably assisted by Emma Alexa (who made sure the large umbrella didn't follow the softbox!), we shot in a number of locations around the park.  I was particularly interested by the way Deena seemed to float in a few of the poses... so much so that I gave her a bit of a hand (via photoshop) in the second photo you can see here :) 

Deena was great to work with, and I think Emma enjoyed a break from being in front of the camera(!)  This set wasn't fetish by any means, but it's an exploration of the form of the body in a particular context, and so it does have quite a bit of meaning for me. 

I hope you enjoy it!

Emma (Tallulah) has loved this location ever since she went horse riding here when she was younger.  We came up with the idea of using my old viola to create a sense of someone almost haunting the site... or coming back in the future to recreate its magic. I've been experimenting with balancing flash and ambient light too, and the result is almost as if the musician is weaving magic with her instrument.  Hence "conjuring the storm"...

Lighting this was an interesting challenge - many thanks to Emma's friend V who provided invaluable help :)  For those who are interested, I originally used 2 SB800 flashes and a 600... the SB800s firing into a softbox and an umbrella, and the 600 with a red gel firing up into the dome of the building. But it was too windy for the brolly, and with the softbox, the flash wasn't really powerful enough to let me dial down the ambient exposure as much as I wanted.

I couldn't get the softbox very close to her because I was using a wide-angle lens).  So in the end, the shot under the dome uses the softbox (and yes I did have to photoshop it out!); the external ones use two bare SB800s, one to the left held by an assistant, and one to the right on a stand.  I'm increasingly interested in exploring this kind of image; I hope you enjoy the result!

This year's Montreal Fetish Weekend was a real treat - we spent a week in Canada, seeing friends and partying hard.  After a week of going out pretty much every night, we returned to the UK just in time for the Rubber Ball and another weekend of fun - so it was something of a marathon!  Tallulah performed on stage with the rock band on Saturday night, too, so there was creativity as well as partying.  I also have a photoshoot from inside the main hotel that I'll post once I have time to process.

We've made many good friends in the Canadian scene, from Eric Paradis, who organises the event, to the lovely Oiszo, Nathalie, Mario (whose Polymorphe factory was the subject of an awful arson attack just before the Weekend), Bianca and Martin, Mike and Tsenta, The Richard, Jean and Kinky Sarah, Gil and his wife, and of course the puppies ;)  There were many more besides - thank you very, very much indeed to everyone who made us feel so welcome.  (Everyone in Montreal seems to have a hottub, and I have to say that's where most everything interesting seems to happen!).

The Montreal Fetish Weekend also attracts a huge international crowd.  We were very happy to be there with Kim from Club Rub and her photographer (and entrepreneur) friend Pete - great to hang out with you guys!  A special mention to Michelle & Brett and Heather and Joe for the Panini break, and a whole range of friendly alternative people from all round the world.  I look forward very much to next year!

I've just come across a very cool site called Wordle that creates a tag cloud based the text you give it, or a URL (among other things).   This is the cloud for the site you're on right now.  I'm not quite sure why Unless is so significant, but I rather liked the rest of it!

Tallulah and I took part in Kinkfest - a London based event that is one part fetish fair, one part conference with different seminars going on all day, and one part stage show.  Tallulah was appearing in the fashion show, and armed with a photopass, my new D3 (woo hoo!) and a rented 70-200mm f2.8 zoom that you could melt down to build a battleship, I too was ready to take part in the proceedings. 

The resulting images are up in the gallery, but here are a few of my favourites for your delectation.  I have to say that I'm very happy with how they turned out.  The D3 is capable of some amazing low-light photography.  While the other photographers were hugging the stage and using flash, I was able to sit up in the gallery and capture wonderfully creamy images using just the available light. 

They say, of course, that no camera or lens can make up for poor photography (and the D3 does take a bit of driving)... but having the best tools can free one up to do new things, and that's exactly what I think this new beastie will do.  I adore my D300, but the film-like texture of the new camera has won both me and Tallulah over.  I hope you'll see the difference in the coming months...

While at Kinkfest I had the pleasure of photographing Esinem's new bondage show.  Called "Red Tape", and featuring another friend of mine as "Britannia" (ironically, she's French!), it was a powerful piece of work.  Bruce walks on stage dressed in a civil servant's suit.  To a soundtrack of clips from newscasts, government statements and John Hurt from the film "V": "I want everyone to remember *why* they need us!", he ties and gags Britannia in red tape.  (Well, actually it's pink, but I'm sure there's a good reason for that!).  She is left on the ground and covered in a large cloth that says "CENSORED". 

I'm certainly in tune with the sentiment of this piece, though perhaps not coming from the direction one might think.  As someone who runs a business, I'm very aware of the red tape this government has imposed on people like me.  I have a particular dislike of the Chancellor...