Anyway, enough excuses!
March found Iveta Niklova, Roswell Ivory (Faith) and me shooting in the south of Spain for a week with John Tisbury, Gregory Brown and John Evans. The week was hard work but it was great how well everyone got on and I came away feeling like I had made new friendships :)
Iveta (blonde), Faith (redhead) and me on Bolneuvo beach our afternoon off
We were staying at two villas in Bolneuvo, one for the photographers and one for the models. I quickly decided that this one *had* to be the models' villa!
Day 1
We were shooting art nudes for the photographers' upcoming book about the trip (more about that later!) at an abandoned two-storey monastery that still had the rotting pews inside, broken mosaics, and beautiful sand-coloured walls all lit by the sun ^^
Outside...
Inside...
I discovered I can do these kind of diagonal handstands in doorways, which was rather fun. I will definitely be bringing this new-found "skill" to future shoots! I have a vision in my head of using it to sell shoes one day, randomly enough!
© Gregory Brown
L-R: John Evans, Iveta and me in the monastery's courtyard
The weather was sunny but chill for most of the week, so by the end of the day I was freezing! The look of pain/ discomfort on my face in this photo I shot at the end is therefore mostly genuine :p
As a fan of big pants, I have to commend John on bringing these knee-length Victorian bloomers for me to wear. They even had a split around the crotch so you can go to the bathroom without having to hitch various garments up and down. Genius! (And yes, that is the official reason for the presence of the split!)
We were all impressed by the Spanish attitude towards nudity- they really don't give a toss. One or two families with kids and dogs turned up to check out the monastery while we were there (it was a weekend) and they all gave us nude models a casual wave and friendly "hola" without batting an eyelid. I wish the rest of the world could be this sensible about the human body!
© Gregory Brown
Day 2
More location joy :)
In the evening we shot on these amazing rock formations in Bolneuvo:
I love that golden light you get at sunset! <3 <3 <3
Day 3
We spent over an hour hiking up the side of a mountain to get to today's shoot, which sounds like a bind but it was such a sunny day and the views were so spectacular that I really enjoyed it. Plus, I wore my new FitFlops all the way to the top and all the way back down again and as a result had absolutely zero fat anywhere on my legs the next morning. My legs weren't actually thinner, but the entire girth had turned into muscle OO
View from near the top of the winding road we'd just taken
Tisbury's backpack attachments made me lol
I got really inspired by watching Iveta model; it's interesting that her "default" facial expression is one of vulnerability (at least, that's how I interpreted it) whereas my "default" tends to be haughty and/ or aggressive. I tried to break this down and give myself the opportunity to be vulnerable in a photo for once. It felt challenging but good!
Thank you, Iveta!
Then normal service was resumed ;)
L-R: me, Iveta, Faith
I have tons more photos from the rest of the week but will post them tomorrow to stop this post getting too insanely long ;) See you tomorrow!
