Self portraits - moan and Publication

Well I will start off with the good things which is 2 of my own self portraits (above and below). I hurt my back at the weekend pretty badly, had to leave work and was in a hell of alot of pain, it happened suddenly but thankfully the pain has eased off a little now. I have been doing more self portraits, this time I used the flash. Only played about for 20 minutes, I was getting frustrated and its difficult to focus on a white wall and see what the composition is going to be like when there is nothing to see in the view finder so it was a bit of trial and error but I'm pleased with how they turned out especially the first one, I love the space and the body just coming into shot... Wasn't really intended but glad that it by mistake happened!

Next up is one from Rory.. I kinda think its a little bit pretty!
Lastly (and before my moan) is an image of Rory and I's which was recently printed in the LANZA summer newsletter, we are submitting the images from this shoot into a magazine soon so fingers crossed they get accepted. Even if It doesn't make it into print I will still be super chuffed that we all came together and created a set of images we are all equally proud of.

Now I will end with my moan which is maybe slightly more controversial than my last blog but its something I really can't hold in any longer. I'm a social butterfly, I speak to many people which includes models/photographers and muas. I have heard way too many bad stories about one photographer in particular not just recently but even when I started I was told to avoid him like the plague - even if I was not told to avoid him I would have anyway because I'm not a fan of his work but his name keeps coming up in conversations (usually with other models) and they have all experienced the same problems but at the time thought he was a well respected photographer and that any negative comments would reflect badly on the model rather than him. It makes me feel sick hearing model after model tell me about him, I'm not a violent person but I would make an exception just for him.

Sometimes I feel like screaming at the models just because I know they are the only people who can actually speak out about him, they are the ones who can make a difference. I can type till im blue in the face but it makes no difference they have to air their experiences so that people like him wont be accepted on internet modelling websites.

If there is any models reading this - be it Scottish/English it doesn't matter just be honest with references because it helps protect other models from being in a similar situation to what you were in. Don't let these creepy perverts get away with it.

Although I'm only talking about one Scottish photographer here the same story can be said about many of them, they think being a photographer can get them a quickie with some young slightly silly model and the sad thing is that some models are flattered for the attention and don't realise its not special treatment its the way he works with most models. Please please please be careful girls

xxxxx