Photography Blog by Duncan Holmes
Makeup
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Duncan: Posted on 04 May 2013 08:42
Well, after the success of last week's Zombie Wedding, I had a busy week of just going along to things and shooting photographs for the fun of it.  The big event on Tuesday night was Nightwalk SS2013. Glasgow's biggest and best catwalk show did not disappoint, showing some old and new names and their latest collections. I like Nightwalk, it provides a window into the more established designers, whilst also giving a chance for some of the newer ones to show what they can do. This means that it can veer between classic couture and offbeat student whackiness from one collection to the next. Wannabe princesses seem to be coming into vogue this summer with the collections from NLM Design and Obscure Couture, but there were plenty of other options there (though not for the male of the species).    Wednesday night was a much more modest affair. A local charity show for the town twinning assosciation in Largs. I attended because my wife had been invited to walk in the show. So I was there as regular audience and just took a snap or two with a point and click camera, just like any other audience member. It felt quite strange not being stuck behind the wheel of an SLR camera. Thursday was a night at home, working on the photos from Nightwalk and generally vegetating. Friday I dived up to Hampden and the Clydebank college makeup show. Another catalogue of the beauty, the bizarre and the downright macabre. Some very talented makeup artists showing their stage/movie makeup skills to the wider world. So that's May started then. A wee ceremony only wedding this morning, leaving me an afternoon free to catch up on Iron Man at the cinema |
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Duncan: Posted on 15 April 2013 09:19
As if Dundee, designers and DOJ-CON weren't enough, I was up bright and early again for a trip to Lanark. This time to help out a trio of makeup artists with some photographs for their graded units. Makeup artists have to show their skills both at college and in coursework, so this was a chance for them to play. They'd borrowed a house with all mode cons and a huge lounge that was perfectly appointed for the styles of the shoots involved. This picture is of Lauren, one of the models, in makeup, but before she was dressed in her outfit and had her hair done. It's quite worrying when a simple lighting test works out this well, the pressure's always on for the final piece. The makeup artist in this case was Deirdre Flannigan. |
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Duncan: Posted on 03 April 2013 06:47
Following cancellation of another shoot, I had a Tuesday going spare. With a few more grey hairs I managed to throw together a replacement photoshoot, which due to some last minute shuffling resulted in the makeup artist and one of the models only being confirmed the night before. So, the weekend before the shoot, I'd popped into the Lounge in Largs and had received permission to shoot there from the owner, Stephen. It's a nice restaurant venue with boutique styling and being a local I'd been there to eat, as well as covering a wedding there. I was given the grand tour and was introduced to the two floors above, derelict but providing a wonderful backdrop for some additional shots.  The day dawned brightly and following the arrival of Helen, our makeup artist and Maxine, our hair stylist, Lauren and Mariel, the two models and finally Ailsa, of AJR Designs we were ready to shoot. We started off in and around the restaurant, making the most of the quiet time before the venue opened to the public. We then spent a last hour upstairs playing in the attic. I had some technological hiccoughs and had to improvise with a backup flash, but the results have been turning out fabulously so far.  Both models were perfectly suited to the great looks that Helen and Maxine had come up with and were well suited to Ailsa's dresses. A great morning's shooting!  And I'll end this piece by wishing Ailsa the best of luck, beauty and good fortune for her own wedding this Saturday! |
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Duncan: Posted on 04 March 2013 15:29
In another case of photoshoots veering off the original plan, but somehow still working out, I dived into the studio again on Sunday afternoon. This time shooting with Head Strong Solutions (hair) and Helen Mcewan (makeup) and some of the corsets from Crikey Aphrodite. Our model for the day was Lynne Jefferies, an actor by trade, who also dabbles at the edge of modelling and other performance. I'd seen her at the GUM magazine launch earlier this year, involved in one of Brian Chan's performance pieces. The original plan will still be going ahead (for a change), providing we can reschedule with the second model. Anyway, we ended up with a shoot inspired by Lesley from Head Strong's ideas for a Western showgirl. Shooting a Dreghorn Photography's studio, I was one of the first people to benefit from his new arrangements with a local props warehouse to provide some additional colour to our shoot. A few nick nacks from my cupboard and from Lynne and we had a fully dressed set for the shoot. It was also a chance to play with face lace. I'd come across this product a month or so back and had been desperate to try out a shoot with it. In the end we just used some under the model's eyes, but it made for an unusual and eye catching (if you'll pardon the pun) effect.  The shoot went surprisingly smoothly, considering mirrors were involved and I'm quite pleased with my initial review of the results. Lynne was very comfortable in front of the camera, give or take the inability to bend at the waist in the corsets! She also quite enjoyed the chance to be a blonde, thanks to the fab wigs and hairpieces that Lesley had arranged for the day.  Anyway, a successful weekend was had, and thanks to thinking to check before setting off in the car, I am not sitting at the Arches waiting for the GSA show that in fact happens tomorrow! |
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Duncan: Posted on 03 February 2013 20:02
January was a quiet month, but I managed to squeeze in a couple of shoots with very different flavours to them.  The first was in the studio at Dreghorn Photography. I'd roped in the help of Hannah Strickland on makeup and Kelly Horsburgh for hair styling. Unusually for a shoot with a female model, I was raiding my viking wardrobe (and that of a friend) to dress Julieanne, our model for the day. A few banners, some chainmail, some other odds and ends, and hey presto, the Queen of Winter was born. Julieanne was a real trooper, bearing the weight of the chainmail for almost 4 hours for the shoot, more than I'd usually manage!  The second shoot was one of those where I was just required to turn up and shoot. This makes my life a lot easier, as I can just get a brief, sit having tea while the makeup is being done, then panic as I take photos of strangers! Nicci.n had come up with a new collection of designs and dresses and I'd volunteered to come over to Edinburgh and shoot it, with the 5 models she'd selected. Nicola had loaned me dresses in the past for some of my shoots, so I was more than happy to return the favour. We were fighting winter in a big way as the day was bitterly cold and we were chased into a greenhouse by the torrential rain. All in all though, the models were excellent and braved the elements and my momentary lapses. The models were Ivanda, Karen, Jennifer, Hannah and JaydeThe makeup on the day was by Miss Taarna and Nicola chipped in with some of the hair styling. We were also helped out by Christine Watson, a fellow designer and her daughter, Louise. |
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Duncan: Posted on 22 November 2012 20:27
An empty day in the schedule and a desire to return to the studio again, saw me booking a few hours at Dreghorn Photography's studio again.  I'd seen Kay up on the catwalk at the recent Nightwalk fashion show (it ran much better once they kept the lights on) so was very pleased when she said she was interested in shooting together. We completed the set with the makeup artist, Cassie Todd. We were going for a cool winter look, sort of high key (white on white, bright, and then some cool blue tones) and I wanted to try a few different things. We had a nice little afternoon in the studio, nice and stress free and even finished up with time to spare. |
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Duncan: Posted on 31 October 2012 15:29
My photography sometimes takes me far and wide whether it be weddings far afield or random photoshoots scattered along the Central belt. So, as I work on editing the pictures from the Radisson killer androids shoot, I'm jumping in a car this Saturday to shoot hair and makeup shots in Dalkeith, followed by North Berwick the weekend after. I'm also nipping to Inverkip in between to go over final design details for a wedding album order. Just as well the car just passed the MOT! |
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Duncan: Posted on 23 July 2012 15:35
In a busy week, mostly of my own making, I had arranged two back to back studio shoots on Sunday. No plan survives the first battle, so the original idea for the morning shoot for a sci-fi themed piece was kyboshed by a sick model. Luckily the model who was due in that afternoon was able to come in earlier. Then whilst travelling the length of Glasgow in search of a blacklight, I got another text that my makeup artist for the afternoon’s shoot was also cancelling due to illness. Cancellations are one of the tribulations of shoots, especially casual time for print type shoots, rather than formal paid work, but I was almost in tears and panicking a little as I wandered B&Q in search of blacklights they did not have. Over time one does learn who to rely on for important shoots, especially the paid work, but time for prints or other barter arrangements can be a good way to test shoot with folk and see what they can and can’t do, without the pressure of a brief from a client. But, all was not lost, the morning MUA, June Long was willing to stay a little later (4 hours later in the end as we did not finish until 5pm), the designer, AJR Designs, who had been going to provide a Barbarella style costume for the morning shoot was able to improvise something completely different and a blacklight was found at Maplin’s on Gt Western Road by yours truly. This all meant that we were able to start at the studio with only a 30-40 minute delay. This does not of course mean that we shot straight away. Hair and makeup have their own laws of time and space and one always has to factor into the studio hire time, the time required to render the attention to the model that the shoot requires. It’s something you often find with folk who book a studio for the first time, they don’t factor in the time required for setup and pack down, for hair and makeup, nor for simple experimentation with lighting. Experience has taught me to plan for such things, though this time I had forgotten to bring my book, so I just interrupted the studio owner for a gossip now and then, much to his despair! June provided a wonderful hairdo for our model, Tuma as well as some beautiful makeup to compliment the glorious skirt that AJR Designs had provided for us. The addition of a carnival mask was just icing on the cake! So the first session went smoothly and helped everybody relax into the day.  Just after 12, the second designer turned up, frozen stovies and Tron style dresses in hand. Alison from Psychomoda is a force of nature, so not even a broken ankle held her back from coming along for the shoot to show off her latest creations. Any regular readers of my blog will know that she has been kind enough to loan some of her designs for my shoots in the past, so this was a chance to return the favour a little.  The first outfit this time was a skirt and corset combination, using blue EL Wire to provide the contouring. June provided some fluorescent makeup on the face and Alison acted as blacklight holder to provide the necessary glow. This was always going to be a shoot with a lot of experimentation with the lighting. A model with dark skin, against a dark background, lit at long exposures to allow the effects of the EL Wire and fluorescence to show. It took a while to nail down, and in the end the shoot did run over by an hour as June was let loose on Tuma’s back for the second outfit, that was backless. This dress used pink EL Wire. The backless dress gave June a canvas for a surrealist combination of cogs and circuits, trimmed with fluorescent yellow grid work that matched the earlier makeup to the face.  Somehow we managed to squeeze in a few shots at the end with a white wig as well! We’d been hosted for the day by Dreghorn Photography Studio and in earlier conversations he had said he would be willing to extend our booking beyond his usual opening hours, but it was still kind of him to extend an hour, on a day when he could otherwise have been spending quality time with his other half. As thanks for his hospitality, I walked off with the quick release plate from his tripod, I blame the effects of the cold and too many lemsips. I can now take a breather for a few days before the flurry of July/August work commences, with 4 weddings in 5 weeks, my Venus shoots (more on that in your shell like later) and a small band shoot in a launderette. September is planned to be quiet, so that I can prepare for my exhibition in October and catch up on any backlog that might have built up in the meantime, just a few weddings to keep me ticking over and from getting rusty. |
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Duncan: Posted on 11 June 2012 06:52
Sometimes things happen, outwith your control and somehow a miracle occurs and everything works out to perfection. I'd arranged this shoot sometime ago, tweaking and perfecting as I went until we had two talented makeup artists, Jillian Elizabeth and Aileen Wallace, two models and clothes from HandmadeinPartick. So I collected the first of our models, Hazel Martin (who I'd had the pleasure of working with before at the ten30 shoot last year) from Ardrossan South Beach station, then we went to the Waterside, who had kindly granted us access to a table on their patio for makeup and theirr toilets for changing. The designer had kindly volunteered to pick up our other model at the station in Glasgow, but the model was a no show, not a whisper of why she wasn' there. So, Hazel and I drowned our sorrows in coffee and Rocky Road chocolate biscuits, trying to work out how we would get two makeup artists gainfully employed on one model. Aileen and Jillian turned up quite soon after and we sat in the developing sun, drinking coffee, hot chocolates and tea and awaiting the now delayed Lorna, with her designs. Makeup then ensued with the two ladies working together on Hazel to create a warrior woman, with a wound or two to show she'd been in the wars. A little gentle persuasion and I now had three models, as they both gamely agreed to step in front of the lens. Once Hazel’s makeup was done and she was looking suitably fierce, Lorna dressed her in one of her outfits and Hazel and I drove up the beach a bit to start shooting. (Given that the Waterside had been such congenial and understanding hosts, it would have been churlish to then set off a bunch of smoke effects right in front of their patio). Hazel was such a joy to shoot, getting right into her role of warrior woman as she donned a broadsword and scabbard to complete her look. We shot for a little while, before being distracted by a nearby ice cream van. A cone and a nougat later and the other ladies managed to find us and join us. Lorna’s pop up (but impossible to pop down, as we found out later) wind break acted as a shelter for bits and bobs and changing area for Jillian and Aileen. Not being models themselves, it took Jillian and Aileen a little longer to warm into their roles, but they were soon swinging swords and posing alongside Hazel with true style and grace. We shot for a while at the shoreline and paddling in the sea, before finally breaking out the smoke effects, much to Lorna’s delight as she was placed in charge of the BBQ lighter, pellets and powders. We got some very dramatic effects with the addition of the smoke and some of the shots are looking great. Though, I had to shoot quick and often due to the short duration of the smoke and the general unpredictability of chaotic motion. So, except for some very unexpected sunburn (we’d all thought we’d be needing thermals, not factor 50) we had a very successful day. A coffee at the waterside to bid farewell to Aileen and Jillian, before chips in Largs for the rest of us. And so the editing marathon begins. |
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Duncan: Posted on 03 June 2012 10:44
I had a couple of things on during the week, one was taking pictures at a PR event for House of Fraser. A new thing for me and a valuable learning experience. Plus I got to meet the ladies of the Astrid String Quartet who played exquisitely all evening, exchange a few words with a very nice nail technician and watch a cosmetic procedure being performed, which only left me feeling slightly queasy. Thursday night saw me returning to the Tontine Hotel in Greenock. Not for a wedding this time, but for a shoot for the makeup artist, Katie Ford. Katie has helped me out on several shoots in the past and needed some pics for her graded unit. We stepped back in time slightly with an 18th century/victorian couple. The models were fellow students from the James Watt College and my wife was also along (promise of dinner at the Tontine) along with Katie's interpreter. We managed to rattle through some nice pics in the main function room and up on the famous staircase. |
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