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Something that really pisses me off..

2012-02-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the almost 4 month gap between updates (its not felt like 4 months).

(Personal non ranty update at the end)

Well you all know how much I like getting involved in the forum debates, I've tried to avoid posting much on them recently mainly because I don't have the time to argue and I have better things to use my energy on than random online critters however one thread has sparked my interest. Seeing as I don't have the time to argue or the energy I thought I would just air my thoughts on here instead rather than verbally argue with people I will never agree with (and they wont agree with me) so its pointless even trying but given that some folks have an interest in the inner workings of my noggin here are some of my thoughts on the subject of good photographers vs bad ones

To me a good photographer isn't necessarily the ones who shoot the images I'm personally into - they could shoot any style/model/location but in any of their images I see that they have put effort and thought into not only that image but the whole process of photography, they have learned and tweaked their craft to make it better along the way. Its not only experienced photographers either, new photographers with that passion to create and expand their craft are also considered good even if their product still needs work if they put the effort in and soak up everything they possibly can then good luck to them!

Having picked up a few bits of basic photography along the way I know one thing - its not that difficult to be ok at photography. Argghh easy for me to say but its true, or maybe it comes naturally. I don't profess to be great or even all that good but I can tell when something I've shot just doesn't look "nice" and its automatically rejected from public viewing. Why show a substandard product when you can show something worth showing?

Now for the bad photographers (this could go on for awhile) -

I just don't understand them. We have absolutely thousands of articles online at our disposal with advice/tips and tutorials so there really is no excuse other than being unable to read or see. Magazines/online imagery - you don't even have to read if you really don't want to - magazines are a fantastic source of inspiration look at the clothing/lighting/locations and figure yourself out and what you want to achieve. I've picked up a shit load of hobbies along the way in my life - knitting (FAILED), crochet (FAILED), cross stitch (FAILED), Keyboard (FAILED), Guitar (FAILED), writing a memoir book (FAILED *after about 150 pages*), nude drawing (FAILED), Painting (FAILED), making clothes (FAILED) - I think you get my point, I no longer do any of these things because even though I was reading or going to lessons I just wasn't made to do any of the above things so they were a bit of a waste of money and time. I guess if I had the same amount of passion for any of them as I do for modelling I would have been better at them but I didn't have the love in my heart enough to want to be better. Anyway I realised I was shit early on. When I see photographers with years of experience and a portfolio of awful images I wonder why they never realised? I guess we don't really need to be good at something to enjoy doing it but as I said above basic photography is not that difficult, its more difficult to be a bad photographer (in my eyes than a good one).

Picture this - Bright orange model, in a child's bedroom - teddies in the background and a cot. You see a window at the back of her... in that window you see outside to the council house across the road maybe even a reflection of the photographer and the light he is using. Model looks uncomfortable, lighting has picked up every single uneven fake tan streak she has, pose looks awful and there is shit cluttering up the badly decorated children's room. So photographer picks that image, then goes on to edit it adding a nice big chunky frame and throwing some italic lettering in as a logo then he gives it a nice gaussian blur and saturates it even though it was set on the wrong WB anyway making things more orange than they really were - but brings out the whites in her eyes and adds some fake make up to an already overdone model. Why would anyone think thats a good image? by any stretch of the imagination? I can understand maybe a first timer getting it so wrong but after years and years of experience you would hope someone would automatically just know that their concept is shit, their model doesn't look as good as she could, their editing has done nothing to enhance the image if anything he has done the impossible task of making it much worse. So imagine a portfolio full of this shit, all similar in tack. His portfolio notes say "professional/experienced" maybe a few lines about being published and having 25 years of experience in the industry, offers portfolios for new models... WHY?

Another why would be models - WHY? a tf should benefit both people, if he is going to make you look like shit should you really work with him? will it benefit you at all? will it even benefit him? its not like he is planning on getting any better so why update the portfolio bad photographer? your work is still the same bog standard as it was when you started only difference is now you have more than one hideous picture as evidence to your crimes against photography.

I know I sound horrible but it really gets to me, if anyone dares to insinuate someone with such poor standard of work is a GWC then they get pounced on for "looking down their noses" at these people or labelling them. Sorry but nobody is beyond the stage where they need to learn, especially a bad photographer. If they are not GWC's only interested in seeing a pair of tits then why don't they stop shooting naked models and start reading up on what they are supposedly there to do - which is photography like I said its actually much more difficult to be so dreadful than it is to be good.

Anyway its now 2am, I spent about 9 hours doing my house up today (technically yesterday) and I'm off out again at 7am to do it all again for a mammoth 12 hour shift.

I'm sorry if my post offended anyone, I honestly don't think I'm great.. I just wonder why people don't put the effort in or they care so little for the people they work with that they would photograph them so crudely.

Night folks xx

(this was what my post originally started like)...

Anyhow I've done very little modelling in the past few months, focused totally on my new housey. I did mean to do a "trip blog" but haven't had many images back from it so might just randomly throw the ones I have got back into a blog every now and then. House things are getting there although if I had a pound for everytime someone asked "do you regret buying it?" or "when are you moving in?" I would have enough money to afford to do everything which needs done before I can move in.

I have bruises all over my legs, the cold air then jumping into the warm air conditioned car has left me with really sore red lips (and below my lip) its horrible and sore. I had some awesome clique lip cream which worked a treat but I put it somewhere safe and can't find it so every day I'm trying different lotions and potions to try and heal the stingy'ness but usually it just results in more discomfort. I have trapped my fingers and random bits of hand between wood at least 5 times now and got into a nasty fight with a broken hoover but I'm still alive just have a few more cuts and grazes than normal.

Andrew Box :D

2011-11-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun working with Andrew Box in Castleford - must thank him again for sending me over a disk of images which were waiting for me when I got home last night!

Cxx

Abandoned near Newcastle'ish!

2011-11-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well here are a couple of my favourites from my first day out with Shepy and Rory :D

My little trip away!!

2011-11-01T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well.. as always I will start with the most commonly used phrase I have been posting so much recently "I know its been awhile" - blah blah blah.. Like a broken record I am!

Anyhow - I went on another England adventure, this time I dragged Rory with me - thankfully he wasn't kicking and screaming. The first day we met up with Shepy at an abandoned hospital in Scotland, sadly all the doors and windows were boarded up so none of us could shoot there - its a shame as Shepy had travelled all the way up to Scotland from Newcastle. Off we went in our two cars, communicating with walkie talkies incase we got lost or spotted anything interesting on the way back down South.

We kicked things off at an abandoned coal miners bath's/showers which was pretty cool, someone mentioned it looked like the set from the film SAW - which was very accurate :D. It was really rather gritty there so we shot a little shadowy set which turned out funky (decided to do separate blogs with Images).

We then somehow managed to fit through a tiny hole in a fence to get into an old abandoned tile factory which was slightly less interesting but lots of open spaces and scary noises, last location was an old tuberculosis home - We didn't shoot there though but the place looked amazing, built in a valley so accessed via walkways at either side. I did take a couple of images of the outside of the place though.

Stupidly I agreed to going into the metro centre for some food, forgetting I am the worlds worst for eating in unknown places which are full of people.. Needless to say I didn't get past the queues and ended up back in the car in a bit of a cold sweat 5 minutes later. Damn Anxiety, always gets the better of me.

We finally got to our hotel - seeing the "leisure facilities" we got our hopes up expecting a pool and the rest of it, the place was undergoing refurbishment so no pool.. Least we had the internet :D

Sunday we travelled down to York - Went in for a visit to my darling Auntie Shelias and discovered you can buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts - caramel shortcake I can highly recommend!! In the evening I went over to the Marriott Hotel in York for a shoot, we shot some lingerie and nudes!

Night-time came and Rory and I were off to the outskirts of Leeds :D
The following day we went over to Andrew Box's studio in Castleford - I had a lampshade on my head and was covered in clingfilm, who needs to pay for a special spa wrap? Rory then had an hour or so with me in this awesome studio, so many toys to play with.. He was in heaven!

After Castleford we were making our way down to Birmingham and came across a funny village called "Bosover" - We couldn't help but pop in to see what they had to offer, we visited the castle and took some sneaky fashion shots..

Tuesday came and we woke up nice and early to the rain, I was picked up by Dinah for my shoot with her and Tim in the morning. Tim took us to a wonderful garden which had gorgeous bridges and beautiful Autumnal Colours, it was lovely. I had a great morning with them both, I always enjoy working with Tim and it was nice to see Dinah again. They make a fabulous team!

In the afternoon Tim and I went over to Robs studio, I had so much fun dancing about on his bouncy floor with gold isis wings - can't wait to see the pictures of me wearing them. They looked awesome at the back of the camera.

Night time came and I got dropped off at our Hotel for the evening, the rain was coming down hard and Rory was nowhere to be seen. He went out for a shoot with a model from Birmingham, I've seen some of the shots they are looking pretty damn good!

Wednesday arrived and we took a Trip down to see Silverlight in Bournemouth (and visited the sealife centre and the beach). Was fantastic to finally meet him and his stunning wife, what a lovely couple and great company :D

We travelled up to Winchester late in the evening and I think I crashed out instantly, all the travelling really takes it out of me! When packing for this trip I took a book with me, hoping to get in some quality reading time - I managed a grand total of 5 pages.

On Thursday I worked with the awesome Man Kit Wong in Southampton, I have admired his work for years. I remember seeing his shots of Kayt Webster Brown and thought "one day I want to work with this dude" well the day finally came. Our original plan was Autumn Fashion on location, it didn't really go to plan due to the crappy weather so we ended up in a blank studio with cheesy props. We decided to throw on lots of weirdly clashing clothes and strangely they worked together. Really looking forward to seeing how bad my "fashion" actually is!!

From Southampton we travelled up to Newbury, again I maybe managed half a page of my book before I went to the land of zzzzz's...

On Friday we went over to Bracknell to see my good friend Glenn Richardson, we have chatted for years so it was a long time in the making. He took me to this awesome studio, it was massive!! He wanted to get me something different for my portfolio so we shot some beauty which is something I've not had very much experience in doing in the past. After our morning in the studio we went back to Glenns to eat Bacon sandwiches and chat nonsense for a few hours, the sun was out so we popped over to his local park as the sun was setting.. Glenn stood on dog shit then a dog pissed on his jacket - really not a good day for him but it amused me!

On Friday late in the evening we went over to our hotel which was called Eynsham hall, close to Oxford.. It was magical, seriously impressive looking building with so much history (I will go into that in the picture blog I get around to uploading). When we woke in the morning we decided to have a wander round the gardens (and have a bit of a shoot) so we left a little later than we planned so had to dash over to Wales to see Mr Alison..

So we arrived in Wales, it reminded us of Scotland so much - seriously the colours, roads and hills were the same. The only difference is all the Welsh road signs :D Hugh has a mini Zoo at his house & we both love animals so it was heaven for us. Horses, Dogs and Cats <3

On Sunday I was due to work with Ade Kestral but he came down with the flu so had to cancel which I know he really didn't want to do. So next time I'm down I will need to pop over to see him. Hugh took us to a really gorgeous location which was an old Mill then we came across a waterfall on the way home. On Saturday evening Hughs daugher and son in law were over for dinner and we had a lovely meal full of giggles. We were both made to feel so welcome and felt like part of the family! I cannot thank Hugh enough for inviting us over and we had a wonderful time in Wales thanks to him.

Monday was a fun day too - (notice a trend here?). Rory and I had free reign on Hughs land/animals/studio and cars so we experimented and played around until we had to leave in the late afternoon for our hotel in Penrith which was bloody stunning, Lake side views and a grand bed - we woke up this morning and I HAD to pose in the bed, the light was perfect.

So now its Tuesday and we are back home, I missed my cat soo much but being on the road is a pretty good feeling. Part of me never wants to stop moving but the other wants to be in our new home.

I will update when I have some more images to post up

xxx

Day 2 with Carl Grim!

2011-09-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yes i realise this is very picture heavy :D I guess we have to thank Carl for that..
I may not be going out shooting much at the moment but when I do go out I defiantly make the most of it. This was a random day when Carl and I just headed off in the car in one direction and hoped for the best that we would find some locations to shoot in - As you can see from the images we did!

The next 3 were shot at the queens view I think it was called.. Lucky it was so early in the morning before the tourists were out of their campers in the carpark :D

Also just a note to say I'm going to be in Englandshire next month from the 24th of October for 1 weeks.
I will be visiting - Leeds, Birmingham, Winchester, Reading & Nottingham. I have dates still available in Leeds and Winchester so if you are around either city and fancy showing me around your awesome scenery or have me dance about in a studio please get in touch!

Much love xxxxx

Working with others!! - Katy Cee

2011-09-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

I do have other things which I really should blog about first but I am attempting to clear my backlog of things which need blogging about so here goes!

I could put literally hundreds of images up with this post from my recent shoot with Carl Grim and Katy Cee (or Pectin depending on what neck of the woods you know her from) but I will try not to :D

Like I said in my last blog which mentioned this shoot it was a fantastic experience, I know I'm not exactly a newbie at modelling anymore (although sometimes I do feel it) I must say that to work with a model who is as experienced and talented as Katy is was an honour for me. I do tend to hide away a little up in Scotland and there are not very many models up here so duo shoots are not the "norm" for me. My new saying is "the only thing better than 1 art nude model is 2" and I believe when Katy and I came together that really was the case.

Working with other models really does make you move that little bit more, its great learning experience. You not only have to think about what your own body is doing in relation to the grand scheme of things but how it works overall with your partner, then when you are in the studio you have to be more aware of where the lighting is falling as to not shadow over the person you are posing alongside.

First up is some outside shots, in the pissing rain.
I did have a plan of action but not being able to find the "plan" in the forest kind of messed up the overall plan so we settled for doing some nymphs in the woodland which actually (and thankfully turned out well).

The deep greens worked wonderfully with Katy and I's porcelain skin - its amazing to find another model who is as pale as I am. I used to dream that my freckles would all join together to give me a wonderful tan but now I really would never want that to happen - mainly because I see now my freckles are more orange than brown and secondly because I love how light skin photographs in some of the locations I visit.

Some duo nudes -

I have to admit I was slightly nervous about working with Katy, she is a dancer and dancers poses are always elegant and bendy. I only wish I could bend around like Katy does, she makes it look effortless but having worked with her I can tell you its anything but effortless she put in so much work and like me gritted our teeth when the rain was pouring and the wind was blowing!

I have to say again on here thanks to Carl for booking Katy and I together and taking such wonderful shots of our day, I will never forget it and I hope we are both booked together in the future *hint for anyone reading*!

xxx

Yorkshire Post!!

2011-08-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

Things are still uber busy just now but had some awesome news that I was in the yorkshire posts weekend magazine a couple of weeks ago!!

Horray :D

Thanks to the lovely Claire and makepiece :D

Ouch

2011-08-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

Ok I know its been ages since I last updated..
I have had a few shoots since I last posted though so I will soon have new images to show off :D
One of my shoots was with a lovely man new to model photography called Yad. We had such a great day out and it was terrific to meet him!

I had 2 shoots this week with Mr Carl Grim, the first one was on Wednesday and I got to work alongside the beautiful Katy Pectin.. She is awesome!! Half of the day was spent in the rain posing like forest nymphs around the trees and the other half we went to a studio.

It was great working with Katy, I thought I had found every way I could of posing my body but I guess working with someone so amazing inspired me to push myself even further than normal and I was upside down on a sofa doing poses I never thought would suit my body or be humanly possible for me to do but I did :D

I have seen the shots, can't wait to get them back though. If I hadn't been involved in the sets I honestly wouldn't have thought it was me in them!

I went out yesterday with Carl again, we travelled around "winging" it in Scotland and wing it we did..
We managed about 10 different stop offs, all doing at least 3 - 5 variety of sets in each location so we got lots of images :D

My house is still falling apart, I have been living at my sisters all week with the kids and dog its a bit of madness but nice to get to hang out with my little nieces again and their lodger works in a old style pub so we are angling for a shoot in there!

We fixed a pipe yesterday at the new place, still one to fix but we need to get another piece of pipe from BnQ. I can't wait for my house to be ready to move into!! Just irritating that at the moment its down to other people to fix the shit which is wrong with it.. I hope the 2 pipes we are fixing are the only ones with holes in them or we need to rip up more floor.

Underfloor heating. new electrics. boiler and hopefully a roof getting done in the next fortnight..

Fingers crossed

xxxx

By Request! waves

2011-07-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

Ok upon request here is a blog update, I think this has been the longest I have went without updating with something. Life has pretty much been on hold this month I know what I'm waiting for its just not coming as quickly as I was hoping it would.

Last week I did actually go out and shoot (see pictures) so I have not been totally unproductive in the last month. I was going to do some self portraits last week now the flat is empty but I kind of ended up being side-tracked and ended up cleaning the floor or something instead.

I did do some photography myself this month just not of myself. Alfie is getting so grown up, he is staying at my mums until we get the new place, he has been outside having little cat adventures :D

As you can see I also dragged myself out at sunrise one morning :D I say dragged I was actually raring to go, I have noticed the sunsets being so gorgeous recently so I had to. Its amazing how peaceful standing on the tay bridge is at 4.30am during the week, apart from a couple of taxis I was totally alone watching the sunrise.. It was beautiful! I'm going to miss being such a close walk from the riverside but being in the country will have its own advantages, I just need to spend a few weeks hunting around for nice local locations!

Big thanks to John Mcnairn for the shoot last week, it was awesome to get out again and have a nice chilled out shoot :D the last one was a bit of a sneaky shot in the grounds of a beautiful country house. There was other people kicking about but this little scene was hidden by hedges and John was at the entrance so horray for this little spot!

I have a shoot next week which I'm really looking forward to :D next month will no doubt be another quiet one as we need to start doing the new house up and concentrating on that but I already have atleast 3 spots in the new place which are screaming to be photographed..

Anyhow thats all for now

Cx

ps - thanks Ciaran for reminding me that I actually have a blog :D

Another personal blog update..

2011-06-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

I know this blog is totally turning into a "diary of" rather than pictures and thoughts on things..
I guess I use this to throw out my feelings, its like the nice feeling you have when you are singing and nobody is listening!

To be honest I've not done a whole load of shooting recently, have something on this weekend but everything has been on the back burner while trying to sort out this new house. So the last update was about us budgeting our already small amount of money, well this one is basically saying we need to budget even more.

We had the nicest man out to report on the woodworm in the property earlier this week, the great thing about it was no estate agents. He picked up the keys and met us at the property, we were there for around an hour so we kind of got a better look around the place. The woodworm guy was great, not only did he look at the timbers he had a swatch at the boiler/roof and chimney. His company might even have a kitchen in a warehouse which he can give us for nothing!!!!

So I was right, there is woodworm.. and its active :( but I did kind of suspect this although I hoped it was an old infestation. Thankfully its not widespread and only noticeable in a couple of rafters in the attic space, its not caused any serious structural damage and wont set us back "that" much really.

What was discovered was the flashings on the roof need looked at urgently, he actually said "first thing you need sorted is the roof, everything else can wait". He gave us a rough cost so when we get the people into quote we know a general guide price so we wont be ripped off.

Another thing is the current boiler is basically fooked, its ancient. Never been serviced and he recommended that being the 2nd thing we need to fix. So to have hot water and heating we kinda need to do that asap, the guide price for that was a fair whack of money - infact it would eat up so much of our budget that we wouldn't have much left over. I mentioned the need for the boiler and radiators and my sister reminded me that my brother in law used to have his own underfloor heating company and he still has the equipment and enough pipes to do most of the flat and he has offered his services for nothing - although his usual rate is a packet of fags and an irn bru so providing we get the boiler replaced the heating is pretty much sorted, we will need to buy a few bits for him to do the job like new floor coverings and it will be messy but we can't turn our noses up and its awesome he has offered to do this for us :D

Chimney flashings are letting in water, another issue. Currently there is work going on outside the property and there is scaffolding up.. the issue may have been caused by the work going on outside, so ive been advised to contact the person in charge of the work to ask if they will fix it, if not we can piggy back their scaffolding and save some mollah there too!

We informed the landlady that we are moving, bought a car..
So if this deal falls through we will have to live in the car :(

Its still scary, actually owning something worth so much money.. although to others the price is pretty pathetic compared to their homes but its the most we have ever spent EVER. I think the scary thing is the settling in and work needing done, if we uncover more shit wrong with the place there is no more money there to make it right. It was a terrible idea watching "help my house is falling down" programme last week, they had woodworm/roofing issues and damp so it struck a few chords with us, thankfully their property was like a billion years old ours is only 110.

So now we wait for the bank to say yes again after getting the report on the woodworm, then we contact the solicitor to do the deal.. then we get all the savings out and wait till the 12th of July.

in the meantime I will continue packing, pacing the floors and doing online research into really silly things. I was up at 4am earlier this week watching videos on re-facing kitchens, they are a bloody fantastic way of entertaining yourself!

xxxx

Shoot with Carl Grim & New house :D

2011-06-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

Well I had a shoot with Carl Grim alongside Britalicus recently and Carl kindly sent me to all the shots he got, here are just a few of my favourites. I can't believe how much variety and settings we ended up using in such a short space of time :D

Don't get used to this sight, my backside is one of my least photographic parts of me. I know every model has something about them they dislike, usually its something which other people say "don't be silly" about. So many times on shoots people have asked to shoot me from behind, I always warn them and say photographically it just looks crap. They think thats a challenge to get a nice bum shot, most fail. A couple of people have managed to get a decent bum shoot, I still hate the way it photographs but below is a shot I don't hate with a passion so its being added.

Other good news is that the offer we put in on a property was accepted earlier this week, there is so much to organise and do though and that thought scares the shit out of me. I guess I never really want to grow up and thinking about having a mortgage is frightening for me.

Whats also frightening is the work which needs done on the place, we didn't get as much money as we hoped. We kind of thought "well it costs X amount for the place and will cost y amount to repair it".. Well the X meant putting much more savings into it and the Y well, we didn't get any Y money from the bank so we need to put all our money into it but even that still falls a few thousand off what we estimated the work would come to.

Our plan of action is this..
New kitchen, Ikea is much cheaper than anywhere else we have seen plus the kitchens actually look like good quality. New bathroom - a cheap take away one, Ideally I wanted to move the bathroom or extend it but theres not enough money in the budget for that because of a supporting wall needing to be moved so its staying as a dark small pokey bathroom for the time being. The roof has some slates missing so thats getting fixed straight away, a section of the roof leaked through into the livingroom so a chunk of the ceiling in there has to come down an be replaced. The radiators all need replaced, we wont know if the boiler works until everything is switched on so thats another thing which needs sorted out straight away. All flooring needs done.. Aye we need to buy a car also and sort out and pay for all the insurance stuff.

We own a tv and a laptop, a couple of cheap storage things so we have to buy the basics like a sofa/bed/table.. washing machine.. which reminds me in my initial list I forgot microwave and little kitchen things - the amount we need to spend is going up everytime I remember something else. I did buy a toaster when I was on tour with the girls so atleast I have one of them!!

Ok so all that work needs done, we get the keys next month - around the 8th...
We should be leaving this flat we are in at the start of August so that gives us 23 days to make it liveable but I have a few things on during that time so make it 20 days. I'm getting in a family friend to help with things like kitchen/bathroom/ceiling and light fittings but other than that I think I'm on my own. Chances are Rory will just need to drop me off in the morning at the new place and leave me with a pain brush until he finishes work!

So thats the 6 month plan...
After 6 months we can release money and get down to fixing other things -

There is old evidence of woodworm - we are getting a specialist around to check it out - Gutters and chimney need seeing too. Maybe get some insulating sorted out in the loft.. If there is any money left over (i would need lots) then I want to get planning permission to make the attic space into two bedrooms - currently 1 is a bedroom without permission and the other half of it is a basic attic space I would kind of like them to stay pretty similar but just do it all officially. There is beautiful skylights up in the loft, the light that gets in there is gorgeous! Infact its one of the things I liked most about the place, seeing a pool of light coming from above always impresses me!

So yeah, scary - exhausting times ahead!
I'm sure oodles of fun will be had along the way :D

xxx

and a few more...

2011-06-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well we were planning on going out for the sunset but the grey sky just got darker so it wasn't "ideal" shooting weather so i went for a bath and shouted Rory through..

I have a couple of other shots I wanted to post up from my shoot with Mr Steve Gabbett with Rachael Lyon and myself, I actually had trouble selecting which ones from that shoot I liked and I have tried not uploading all of them to my various portfolios but my blog is unrestricted so here they all are :D

i actually think I look like a half decent fashion model in these shots.. i guess its better late than never.
I'm trying to do more fashion and things just now because well time is never on anyones side and I want to do it well before im too old to do it :D

Next blog I MUST post up is from my shoot with Carl Grim :D I also have a couple from Mike Niccoll from our recent shoot..

xxx

a few more :D

2011-06-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Our weekend with our future camera :D

2011-06-12T05:04:00.000-07:00

Well Rory had a little borrow of a friends camera this weekend so we had a play around last night, i know they are similar but I love them all.. He still has more to edit, if he doesn't edit them by sunset then he can forget me going out with him this evening to shoot more :D

xx

Not at all related to model things..

2011-06-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a cancellation for this week, I was trying to fill it..
I'm really rather glad I didn't.

I found out my little cat died this morning, its sad really that an animal passing away can result in me crying hysterically for 4 hours. I guess when people say cats are a very big part of a family are right. So this little blog entry is for my special little boy Pinkey!

Although Pinkey and I have not lived together for over a year now (and the time I lived in Glasgow) he was always closeby. In my parents house there was a rule that the cats were not allowed up the stairs, everynight while I lived there I would sneaky him up.. I actually used to use him as a pillow most nights :D He was a good age, and had the nicest temperament ever - I think he bit me once and It was when we introduced him to spongebob teddy, for some reason Pinkey hated the thing. It was the only time I seen him go mad for a toy trying to attack it. Pinkey pretty much slept, stole peoples seats, hung about under the diningroom table waiting for me to pass him under some turkey.

I have a rubbish long term memory but I actually remember the day we got him, I had just got home from school and there in the livingroom was two tiny little black and white kittens. My sister went for the usual one, the one who everyone would say looked like a nice cat - just like felix the cat (she got called felix and ran away a few weeks later). I was glad that the one I picked had funny markings and quirky looks, he was a little fatty too which made him even more cute. We called him Pinkey - daft name for a boy cat though but I didn't think so at the time!

Anyway theres not much I can say now, I just wish I had the chance to give him one last hug but he's not suffering and I will never forget my special little boy.

Mumma will always love you stinks

xxx

Some other things :D

2011-06-04T04:04:00.000-07:00

Well I'm enjoying the sunshine, had a look at another massive property which again needs so much work done to it.. Taking a nice family friend back to view it with me to tell me how bad its going to sting us to put right. Here is a list of things which need doing -

New heaters for the central heating (they all burst over winter)
Kitchen
Bathroom needs moved
Complete decoration..

Things that need done but not urgently -
Apply for permission to legally convert the attic space, its half been done so one side is an attic and the other is a cute little bedroom.
Doors need moved because the layout is weird.

It's a nice place, in the loft there is skylights which I bloody love and the side which still looks like an attic would be perfect for shooting in. The hallway is pretty big both width wise and length so it would work as a pretty decently sized studio space. I really hope the work needing done doesn't cost too much though. Will be nice to have a project to do :D

First shot above is a self portrait I done a couple of weeks back, same as always though that I'm lazy when it comes to editing..

Rory and I went out yesterday evening, it was a rush to find the light if I'm honest so its not exactly what we were going for but I did ask for lensflare and to me it does have that "summer" feeling to it which is what I wanted..

Pureple dress again :D by Rory

From a shoot I had with my mate Simon on Monday while we were on our travels :D

another purple dress shot which I edited :D

This week is a quiet one, wish I had lots of bookings in but afraid I don't.. I hope this isn't the start of me drying up.

x

Mike Nicoll

2011-06-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well its been a quiet week so far, I went out with Simon & Rory on Monday.. We ended up as always going about 200 miles but we did get a couple of shots which is the most important thing. I totally hadn't realised it has been a year since Si and I worked together, we have went out and took random snaps but not actually done a nude shoot... Madness I tell you.. Well next time we wont leave it so long. I should get the shots back from Simon soon so keep checking back.

I got a nice little e-mail with some pictures attached this afternoon :D nothing beats that sort of e-mail.
I know photographers don't HAVE to send you images back from shoots so I'm always dead pleased when they do, I guess its because I care. Pictures might not always end up on my portfolio but I do genuinely always want to see how things turned out. I loved working with Mike, I know he's not a photographer or atleast he doesn't call himself one but I really love the tones in the white shirt pictures he shot of me!

I really cannot wait to see how his paintings of me turn out. It's a pleasure having someone want to spend their time photographing me but to spend the time in actually putting paint on a canvass is really something special. I have worked with a couple of other artists in the past but never got to see their final photographs or paintings.. I might end up seeing them in a gallery a few years down the line though

Anyhow theres my dinner been served so time to go!

Mucho's love'as!

x

Temptation!

2011-05-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well some of you might remember a couple of months ago I shot a short fashion video with a wonderful videographer called Ian Gamester from from Cheshire..

Well here it is -

Click here for video!!

and here is a picture of me in my new dress by Rory :D

xxxx

A little day out..

2011-05-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

With Nige NW!

I have worked with Nige a couple of times in the past - Once last year in Glencoe and again a short shoot while I was in Stockport. Its always a pleasure working with him and I love his laid back approach to shooting :D We had no real planning of locations, the evening before the shoot we just decided which direction we would be heading off in and this is the spots we found on our travels.

We headed North/West this time, previously we went West. The morning of the shoot the sun was shining in the window and I had high hopes the weather was going to stay warm (although a bit less sun would have been better for photography purposes). I guess we can't have it all our own way all the time can we.

We started off at this location which was by the side of the road, after 5 minutes of shooting I heard a noise coming from behind me.. We had watchers standing on the bridge which is behind me in this picture, I wasn't sure how long they had been there for until Nige and I reviewed the pictures.. Never mind we got some pictures and headed off to somewhere else!

We then headed off and spotted a little bridge, So got some very minimal "chrissies" on the bridge. So minimal that unless its a massive print you might not see me in them so I wont bother posting them.. I also don't have a clear favourite from that set. Then we done some more "minimal" sort of stuff further down the road.

Nige said "Should we stop here" while looking up a hill to our right hand side.. I was looking to the left and spotted this scene which was just begging for a model to be stood in. I thought it would work a shot with my skirt on too.. but you can't keep a nude model clothed for long!

We then came across the most wonderful dam in the middle of nowhere and that was such a great way to end the day. It was an awesome location and I could have posted most of the pictures from that set as there was so many I loved!

Thanks Nige for such a lovely day!

Chrissie x

Christ.. I talk a lot of Shite!

2011-05-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

Is what I just said to Rory after having a quick browse of my recent blog updates.

Anyhow - house hunting side of things went tits up. We put in an offer for the property which was going to auction on the morning of the auction.. It was rejected and 10 minutes after our rejection someone else has trumped us and it was sold a short while later. I guess if we had viewed that property weeks ago we might have had more time to secure a better mortgage and not rush about. We only got a solicitor 30 minutes before putting in our offer. Now we just have to wait for something with character - 2 bedrooms and loads of space which costs the same as a shed to come up on the market again (what it might happen). Until then we are just staying put. We do love where we live, just wish it was less expensive and not so restrictive on what we can do. I want to paint a wall black or something mad like that but we are not allowed to do crazy things like that..

Heres some pictures to accompany my random chatter, first one is by Andy Haworth from last weekend :D

xxxx

Part 3 Britalicus!!

2011-05-20T07:27:00.000-07:00

I have been totally spoiled by Britalicus - Seriously, I don't think I have ever had so many shots back from a half day shoot before. I guess we used our time very wisely :D

Shoot with Kate Bradley :D :D

2011-05-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well last week I had a lovely shoot with Kate, Just done some stuff at my place. So here I am in my communal hallway and theres one of me in front of one of my livingroom windows!

This week has been pretty chilled out, we have actually started house hunting.
Rory is trusting me to go visit a property next week along with his mum, then the auction..
He said "I trust you".. My reply was "your bloody nuts, I would have put an offer in for the first place we seen that I thought was nice if they had accepted a little under what was advertised".

House hunting is so difficult though, what do we want? ideally..

One part of us want - A house /garden to chill in / room for pets to run about... Plenty of scope for changing things about.. more space.. prob cheaper heating that our other option which is an old property - a flat with nice features.

Rorys job went tits up a few months ago so we can't get as high a mortgage as we would have last year which is a bummer but my little income has boosted the loan amount we can get together and our budgets not that bad really. Just means we either get a shitty 1 bedroomed flat in the centre or a 2/3 bedroomed house out in the country. I love living in the city centre at the moment but I won't miss the noise at the weekend and I do really like country living.

Anyhow..

Heres some pictures yesss
:-)

Self portraits aye?

2011-05-16T05:09:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I hate editing pictures.. like seriously so half of these are maybe half arsed - badly edited or just not edited very much at all..

But it doesn't matter, im still chuffed!

Weekend in Aberdeen - By Shep

2011-05-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

I know I could possibly work on a better layout for these shots but i wouldn't know how to do it!

These are the shots Shepy took when we all went up to Aberdeen for some camping fun recently :D

I couldn't really pick my favourites so here are a selection of them!

xxxx

Steve Gabbett = pt 1!

2011-05-16T04:51:00.000-07:00

Well I worked with Steve while I was down in Leeds, I had such a wicked time with him. He is pretty awesome even if he does take awhile to edit pictures they are worth waiting for..

There are shots from my favourite set we done to come, I have been so excited to see the edits of - it was a joint shoot with Rachael Lyon and I can't wait to see them!!

Arrrrrhh

Hair and makeup for this shoot was done by Jade & Beth Hutton who were fantastic

<3 <3 <3

After the rain comes the sunshine :D

2011-05-16T04:46:00.000-07:00

I always start by saying its been awhile..
;-)

Trying to remember where I left off and what I have been doing since..

Ok I got it!
Britalicus and Carl Grim..
Here are a few more images from Britalicus from our day together. I'm chuffed with how they turned out and I love them. Just wish I had more locations as good as that up my sleeve.

On Friday the 6th I worked with the wonderful artist - Mike Nicoll. I had planned to take him to an abandoned hotel that I knew would be perfect for the type of stuff he was after - interesting colours and textures but sadly when I arrived there was a massive padlock on the door which hadn't been there the previous week so we ended up in the less good hotel which thankfully turned out to be even better, although the shooting opportunities in the other hotel were much less (because of the light and boarded up windows) we managed to find a little spot of sunlight and it worked out fantastically. We got our sets we were after just before Mikes camera died, cameras shouldn't rattle... should they??.. no eeek!

It was so nice to work with Mike, he is a very nice man and a fantastic artist and I cannot wait to see his paintings of me :D

I had a quick catch up with Rachael Lyon on Tuesday too which was nice, even got to meet her mum who was a total darling! Much love to my roadtrip girls who I think about daily, I think we formed some mad bond together and I miss them so much..

I had a shoot with purestorm member Nijnte during the week too, he was awesome!

Rory had a shoot with the lovely model Gemma Chan on Wednesday, she was such a little star. I managed to play the assistant part really well though when we went out on location!

Ok so now we are up to the weekend..

Andy Haworth and Kate came up to visit on Saturday, Kate shot me for a little while on Saturday afternoon infront of the window then some shots out on the landing. Can't wait to see the pictures, I even managed to wear my new dress which I picked up in a sale so yey!

In the evening Andy shot me using a beauty dish (which he left behind for rory and I to play with). I love Andys headshots so I'm glad we got some of them before I started trying to go sleazy glamour (its totally not my style which is why I find it so amusing every time I do it).

Last night I done some self portraits with the beauty dish..

Today I have done everything which needs to be done -apart from edit pictures dohh..

My parents are off on holiday this week and Rory and I have official rule of her house and have to go feed the kitties in the evening.

Tomorrow is Drs, I'm having a bit of a quiet week but have a couple of shoots next week. One which will involve a little trip over to Edinburgh and the other is a location nude shoot with Nige so got a few things to look forward too..

Must blog again in a second with some Shots I have got back from various people!

xxxxx

Britalicus

2011-05-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well...

Its very rare I post on the evening (or technically very early the next morning) of a shoot - unless its Rory who has been shooting me but that doesn't really count because I'm usually by his side badgering him to edit quicker so I can post the pictures up.

As I mentioned in my last post I was working with Nick this week alongside Carl Grim, the weather was miserable so we headed to one of my favourite locations because its a bit more kind than some of my other spots - it doesn't sit on a hill and isn't totally exposed to all the elements.

I had a terrific day, it was nice working with a photographer who is actually based in Scotland (Carl isn't but thats not the point). I often feel like I'm slightly overlooked by my fellow country men, of course there are some wonderful photographers up here who I have worked with a few times but the majority of my work comes from those further afield. I have to admit it does get me down sometimes, I would love to work with more Scottish photographers and show them my special locations and be featured in their work but its a great compliment that most of the people I have the pleasure of working with do travel hundreds of miles to come and shoot with me - for that I am eternally grateful and I this year so far is proving to be my best yet. The tour was amazing, I have worked with some bloody awesome people and the summer is looking to be great too!

Last year it almost felt like modelling was coming to an end for me, I guess being "out of action" for 2 months during the summer really put me off my stride and it took me a little while to properly get back into it. My confidence did take a knock and I personally felt like what I was producing was weaker than the previous years work. I feel like the past 4 months has been more productive and pushed me, my confidence is up and better yet I still love what I am doing, in fact I might love it more now than I ever have. I have been doing new levels, working in different formats and just been having such a good time..

Anyway enough of the emotional soppy drivel!!

I have attached some of the shots from today which Nick has sent me :D So pleased with them and I'm glad he got straight home and got to work on them. I love working with enthusiastic photographers who can't wait to sort through their images!

To see more of Nicks work please visit his website -

www.britalicus.com

Now it really is bedtime for me!
Might have a little read of my book

xxxx

I'm back!

2011-05-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

Not back from any physical place, my blog was taken down for a couple of days. I almost cried (seriously). As I said in the past I have been pretty busy recently. Wanted to share a few pictures with you lot :D

The first shoot is by JayBanks, We spent the day together just before my trip down south. We had a lovely day, although the weather was pretty miserable we managed to get some really nice shots.

Below - with the tree is by purestorm member - scarecrow, we had a lovely sunny afternoon together in Perthshire. We went to a location I rarely visit and it was perfect for what he was after.

Next up is a shot by Gazhilla which was taken while I was down south.

Then one by Edd Firminger.

The last 2 are by my lovely other half - Rory. We had a random evening with nothing to do this weekend so I decided to make my hair pretty and do some pictures. Perfect way to kill some time!

I have lots of fun projects coming up, working with some brilliant photographers ... One of which has been on my "i want to work with this dude" list for years - literally but the time and place has never worked out. I will keep my fingers crossed that this time it all works out right.

I was sent over proofs from a shoot which really excited me when I was down south, I am even more thrilled than I thought I would be. Although I love seeing results from everything I do the images from that shoot really do show I am able to do more than stand around with no clothes on and nowadays it does take something really special to get me excited. To be honest I came back from England on a bit of a downer, doubting my abilities but this happens to everyone from time to time. We all feel inadequate and shitty about what we are doing. Ofcourse its all subjective, I am my own worst enemy sometimes..

But hey ho, I'm back to my usual self. I had a few good shoots last week with Tim and we had beautiful weather and this week I'm working with the awesome Brittalicus and Carl Grim as well as the wonderful artist Mike Nicoll so I have lots to look forward too :D

Ohh and that fashion video I featured in a about a month and a half ago was 95% complete on Friday and I have been promised it at the start of this week so i expect to blog on that when I find out where to find it. The last short video we done has had over 10k views which is mental - just over a month and that many people have seen me dancing about in a forest.

Anyhow goodbye - goodnight and love to you all

xxxx

Weekend - By Rory!!

2011-04-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

Well we had an eventful weekend, On Friday Rory and I went up North with the awesome Tim Pile and Dinah - also got to work with the talented artist Rikki O'Neil which was great!

On Sunday we went back up north to do some Urban Exploring with Shep and Garrie, also met up with the lovely Zombie Sazza and Mike.

Went to a whole host of awesome places and got lots of shots..

Here are some of my favourites..

As always I have loads to post about but these shots are here ready to be shown so here you all go!

Off out with Tim again tomorrow and have a few really exciting shoots next week lined up :D

Chrissie xxx

England Trip with Sarah & Rachael!

2011-04-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

Well Sarah has already covered the weeks activities on her blog -

http://valentinavelvet.blogspot.com/

So there is not much call for me to re-say everything. I had a wicked week :-D
Was great to be away with 2 awesome girlies.

Not actually seen many shots from my time away to be honest so here is my favoutire by Christian Scott..

& a nice one of me and the girls by Edd.

looking forward to seeing the shots from my shoot on Tuesday, fingers crossed I wont be disappointed in them... My happiness relies on them turning out good.

Have other things to blog on - camping weekends and the likes, have a killer cold now and have 2 days to better myself..

*cough cough*

x

I'm surprised you don't feel like shit everyday.... (moan)

2011-04-19T05:16:00.000-07:00

I do hate the sound of myself moaning but I can't help myself - grrrr!!!

As a model I have had heaps of comments from strangers before and I will have even more in the future. Most thankfully are nice comments, or at least constructive even if I have not been looking for a critique there will always be someone there to offer their expert knowledge (which is mainly ignored - If I upload something I need no other opinion on it unless I ask). I wouldn't go onto a photographers facebook page and leave a comment criticising the image - If I don't like an image then unless asked I don't tend to air my feelings on it. Just like I wouldn't go onto a models page and say "no offence but lay off the junk food you look fat" - Why don't I do that? well because its not my place to comment on someones body shape, if someone is showing off their body then they are happy with how they look it really is fuck all to do with me what a model chooses to eat or how a photographer lights an image.. Especially if I wont ever work with them anyway.

So yeah, I uploaded a shot recently there was a shadow on the image which made me look a couple of inches smaller in waist than I actually am. People felt the need to jump on me and tell me I was too skinny/unhealthy/ill - whatever. If I was overweight would "fat" comments be as easy for them to throw around? its not ok to call someone a fatty but its cool to say someone looks too skinny?

I have visible ribs, always have.. Even when I was 3 stone heavier than I am now. I have never been obsessed with my weight, infact other than a 1 day diet which I couldn't stick to I have never watched what I eat. I have never worked out in a gym or went jogging just to tone up or loose weight. If anything I have spent more time trying to stay the weight I am rather than loose it. When my anxiety takes a nose dive I constantly feel sick, I force myself too eat through such spells despite food being the last thing on my mind.

I used to always think the perfect weight is the one which I am happy & healthy with, not that its anything to go by but I played on the wii fit thing a few weeks ago at mums and on the scale of - underweight-obese I fit in perfectly to the "normal" section. My BMI could be better but I can work on that :D.

So I am happy with my body, I like my ribs showing, My hip bones, my chunky thighs and my almost hourglass figure. My body is ME and I LOVE IT!! I don't need some random internet idiot telling me they are surprised I don't feel like shit everyday due to not eating enough - the only time I feel slightly shit is when I have little tw@ts being rude to me for no good reason.

Signed -

The holocaust survivor
the anorexic on her death bed
and the girl who should feel like shit every day because she is so skinny..

(Not really)

Signed -

Chrissie - the curvy lass who loves her body and will continue sharing it to everyone who wants to view it..

Quickie

2011-04-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well I went out yesterday with Rory and John Mcnairn!
Was a bit of a wild tour around Scotland, we had heavy rain and beautiful sunshine.. Bitter winds and beautiful clouds - I like a bit of variety :D

Here are some of my favourites so far by Rory :D

I realise 2 and 3 are very similar.. One was my favourite and the other was Rorys but the more I look at Rorys favourite the more I am drawn towards it!! eeek

Have a lovely photographer coming up tomorrow so better get the spare room all nice and ready for his arrival!

Adiosss

xx

Part twa!!

2011-03-31T01:59:00.000-07:00

I had a sunrise shoot with Rory at the weekend, our body clocks went a bit mental with the changing of the time and because we had slept nearly all day on Saturday (lazy shits I know). One minute we were drifting off to sleep at 1am thinking we were doing good by having an early night the next thing we know Saturday has almost been and gone, we woke up at 4pm... Confused and disorientated and feeling that horrible way you feel when you know you have slept for too long!! So yes, Sunday morning we were awake and I knew the sun was going to rise in the next hour so I suggested we go out... Anytime I have made that suggestion in the past its turned out to be a waste of time, it was so misty we couldn't see the buildings across the road but we went out anyway.

We headed up to Kinoull Hill, we have a nice view of it from our livingroom window and I knew roughly where the sun was going to come up.. We climbed, still surrounded by thick fog then just ahead we seen the most gorgeous sight - the sun breaking through the fog and lighting up this beautiful scene...

We walked a little further up the hill and this was the view, usually there is a motorway and river down there.. We were pretty high up, I have never seen it like that before. Infact it was almost like we were in the clouds. We just sat on a bench and took silly pictures then eventually doddered back home again. I always say as long as there is one picture you are happy with then thats the main this...

I was in Glasgow earlier this week, had such a nice time.. Got myself a new jumper and other bits and pieces! Only thing I didn't do was take some pictures, I did have the camera but was scared to take it out the bag. Since we got this new lens I have been afraid of dropping the damn thing, I know it cost more than a months rent and thats a scary thought for me!!

Anyway, i feel like I have been typing for hours. Must get some housework done, I really need to make my apartment look as perfect as it was when I moved in..

Ohh while typing my goodbye I just got a gorgeous dress i asked for from makepiece, its bloody beautiful!!

Cant wait to put it on :D

xxxx

Pheww deep breath!!

2011-03-31T01:20:00.000-07:00

You know everytime I open up the text editor section of my blog I automatically open up "view blog" in another page so I can check what I posted the last time I was here. Now that I have re-capped I can officially say I have been up to loads since then :D

This might be my last update for a few weeks though, as some will know I'm off down South soon and have a pretty solid diary the week before and after my trip so I might not get much time to blog (I say that now but Im sure one morning at 3am I will not be able to resist the urge).

*posts come filler to break up all the chatter*
http://vimeo.com/21500419

Not sure how to embed videos onto blogspot so there is a link, its from the fashion video shoot I recently had with the awesomely talented Ian Gamester - You can see some more of his work on his website which is.

HERE HERE CLICK HERE!!

Seeing as I have time and knowing this is going to be a bit of a long blog I will chatter about my shoot with Ian. He said to me before coming up to Scotland that ideally he wanted some mist, when he said that I instantly thought *you would be lucky if its not pissing down of rain..no chance you will get mist*. He crashed at our place the night before the shoot and we went out in the morning and it was misty, I think he was praying to god before he went to sleep or something :D As always my feet got a little bit cold but by the afternoon the weather was gorgeous, we ended up out on a beach throwing the contents of a pillowcase around.. It was good fun. I really can't wait to see the "proper" video we shot, that one I just posted was just a short one for the sake of it and because Ian wanted to use 10 cameras, sadly 4 died so we were left with 6.

I'm really rather pleased with it, I usually hate myself on motion camera. If Ian is to believed I'm apparently not to bad at it! I enjoyed doing something different even if I end up squirming when I see the proper video..

Anyway next up (that I can remember) was my shoot with Shepy, I was very much looking forward to this one. I first talked to Shepy years ago when I was trying to figure out how to get into an abandoned place I had seen pictures of online (he specialises in that type of thing).. Anyway we have kinda chatted since then and he came up from Newcastle for a shoot a couple of weeks back, we all ended up in the pub the night before the shoot though so Rory and Shep may have been slightly hungover... How very professional ayee!!

Here is some of the stuff we got up to :D Mixed it up a little - fashion, a little bit glamour *ohh err* and some artnudes on location! Shep is coming back up again at the end of April and we are all going on adventures together so very much looking forward to that!!

The home of Shepy!!

Ok this blog is looking mighty massive so I'm going to end this one and start a new one...
(I always find breaking things up makes it easier to read..)
x

A couple of other.. Seeing as I am here :D

2011-03-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well the first is a self portrait I shot last week, I was up early and decided it would be a good idea to shoot something including myself again.. Something more interesting than a white wall.. I know its only slightly more interesting than a white wall but I did use natural light :D

Here are a couple from last week at somepoint (although Im not sure what day it was).
Just a little 10 minute set with Rory in my new gold dress!!

Now thats all....

I think :D:D

xxxx

A day out in Glencoe :D

2011-03-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well Rory and I had a little free day and transportation so we decided on Friday evening that we would get up nice and early and head off somewhere, I scoured online trying to find somewhere cool to shoot in. I was thinking an abandoned location but in the morning we both kind of decided to head off in one direction so off we went to the west coast and Glencoe- Etive was our destination.

I love being over there, seriously its my favourite landscape backdrop to shoot in! It was pretty windy and cold but I won't complain too much about that - my complaint is cutting my foot open (in the location this next shot was in). There was a pile of deer poo under my feet, obviously I don't mind about standing in animal shit if I have to (as long as its not dog poo or cat poo.. somehow I see them as human) Anyhow the deer to gave birth to that particular poo must have had a very bad diet indeed because I felt this horrible pain and looked down and had a thick bit of glass sticking out my foot. First reaction was to freak out - Blood/pain is not really a favourite past time of mines. Once getting rid of the glass we went back to the car with me hobbling along minus my shoes.

When I got back to the car the baby wipes came out, I always thought I was kinda lucky in that I have never really properly hurt myself on a shoot before - not that I am overly careful but my foot was proper dripping with blood and I was frightened I had not managed to get rid of all the glass... Ahhhh!

Well its now 3 days on, the first night was painful. I went for a nice soak when I got home and the cut opened up again and started bleeding.. I honestly never thought it was going to stop and because of its location it seemed to open up everytime I walked.

Plasters and savlon have made the past couple of days bearable - Lesson this week is watch where you are putting your feet and don't stand in shit!!

I recovered enough to shoot another couple of locations but it wasn't easy having to mop my blood up before the pictures were taken and walking from the car to the locations wasn't exactly easy either but we done it. I do really like the first shot I posted and my red hair looks fab beside the dark green trees and rugged landscape!

And just because it was there I took a picture of a deer :D

Chrissie xxxx

Pictures for Makepiece :D

2011-03-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well I did mention before about my recent shoot for eco knitwear company based in Todmorden, England. Here are some of the shots from the day :D Was an honour shooting for their Autumn/Winter collection 2011. They do have some beautiful clothes and I have to admit they really do make you feel beautiful while wearing them, they went on like a dream and it was defiantly much warmer wearing these than I am usually :D

You know I always go on about my trusty jumper which I take to pretty much every shoot I go to, well I think others would be wise to seek their own "naked jumper" over on the makepiece website.

www.makepiece.com

Found this online, which is a picture from the Exhibition they had at London Fashion week...
So technically I might not have been in London but I was there .. On the wall anyway :D

Right off to bed for me now, I have a shoot in the morning..

Had a bloody awesome shoot earlier today.. Very different to my usual style - was a fashion type short video we were filming.. Really can't wait to see how it turned out, we also tried a couple of other slightly experimental filming and photographing so it will be something totally different to what I have done before!! EEEEEEEEKKKK...

Right sleep time so I am all rested for tomorrow :D

fingers crossed the weather is nice

xxxx

Here are some recent out-takes :D

2011-03-12T00:13:00.000-08:00

Well I'm awake early, its snowing outside ( or a tleast its looking pretty slushy).
On Monday at this time I will be freaking out about my dental appointment so thats not something I'm looking forward too, but there is a little happiness in the horizon in the form of doing a video shoot with some stills on Wednesday. The videographers work is bloody out of this world so looking forward to having him stay over on the Tuesday evening so we can go through ideas in more detail although I think I have the jist of it.

On Thursday Rory and I had Shep over, we ended up at the pub which was nice as I rarely go out to pubs. I think we spent too much on the silly quiz machine but we won £1.30 (obviously fired it straight back in and lost it).

As models who Rory and I have worked with before will know I tend to be the "light test" model, here I am in my finest get-up modelling a lantern on a shoot we had last weekend with the awesome Maz :D

Ok I seem to be working in a very strange order but who cares.. Try to keep up :-)

Here is some shots Rory got yesterday while I was shooting with Shep, the amazing thing is that the location we had in mind (but none of us had ever ventured into) was bloody huge, an old abandoned hotel... Sadly only a few of the rooms had any light in them at all and they were at the end of a long corridor with very very bad rotten wood and none of us felt like falling through the floor just to end up in a plain white bedroom. We did scout through the large halls, although they were all in total darkness I know if you had a shit load of lights in there something good could come of it but with one flashgun it wasn't going to work, I got some pictures with my little snapshot camera (mainly using the flash as a torch to avoid holes in the floor) none of them looked very good and I'm not sure where the wire for that camera is just now but it wont be worth the effort to find it just for some badly lit images of a big room.

Anyhow, god was obviously on our side today. While on the way to the original location we passed by another abandoned hotel and took mental note of dropping in to have a look on our way back to Perth if we had time, we had lots of time so thats where we ended up.. A little sliding through a fence and we were in, although there was not as much space in the 2nd hotel and we couldn't get up the stairs (wet/rot) or into many of the downstairs rooms the 3 rooms we could get into had enough light and were pretty photogenic so we could finally start some shooting!! Here are some of Rorys shots of the location.

Ok so 2 locations down, 1 a complete failure ... the other was much better.

We decided on some fashion over at a castle which was also on our way back home :D

Again Rory was on official out-take duties, he's actually pretty good at it!

Just spotted one I done a quick edit on which I have fallen in love with <3

Anyways after all the fun of that we all came home and had pizza, then lived happily ever after...

Not really, Shepy and I had another shoot indoors..

Rory and I had soo much fun having Shepy over for the evening and spending the day with him, we are a little bit scardy cats when it comes to going into dark old places so it was nice having a professional urban explorer leading the way with a face full of piercings to scare away any locals :D

Can't wait to hang out with him again..

I do have more out-takes from the Makepiece shoot I had last month down in Leeds but I think I have said more than enough for one morning so I will leave them for another day as well as some of the shots which I have been meaning to post!

Adios

xxxx

Some Selfportraits..

2011-03-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

Ok have to admit the first 2 images posted were not self portraits, just ones Rory shot the same evening which I rather liked so thought I would include them in this blog (Don't say I'm not good to you).

I managed to figure out how to use the tripod (its only taken me like 2 years to learn) but to be fair to myself the old one wasn't working so always sat on a wonky slant. I find it really difficult shooting myself, I had to use a big bit of cardboard so I knew where the focus point was then had to switch to manual focus and try to stay in the same position as the cardboard was, another problem was the tripod wouldn't go high enough to get me in so I had to "erm" make myself shorter by no tip toes and bending my knees a fair bit which isn't the most attractive of positions when viewed further out. Plus I am so used to making myself as long and tall as I possibly can so having to do the opposite with my lower half was strange.

Its pretty cool though being in complete control, moving the lights when I wanted to and the camera although was a pain in the backside running back and forth to press the shutter, tell you what it was a good work out though so I'm not complaining too much :-)

In other random news I have lots of exciting projects coming up soon including shooting a video with someone in a few weeks time who is a fantastic videographer/photographer, will be something a little bit different for me. I've also started going through my dental treatment, I broke a little bit of one of my teeth about 2 months ago and after 6 years of being afraid of the dentist I managed to go in for a checkup. Sadly I think the dentist knows I was only desperate to get the annoying visable tooth fixed so she has started filling the other ones first. I hate being out of control of bodily functions its one of the things which excels my anxiety - I was physically shaking for the first half an hour and refused to get the injection (then quickly changed my mind after 5 minutes of drilling). Anyway I was a brave girl and managed to get 2 fillings. Now I'm not so scared of the 6 I still have to get, although there is also an extraction on the cards which I'm going to avoid like the plague! Next appointment is in 2 weeks so I have my fingers crossed she can fix my broken tooth so I can smile properly again :D

Time for bed, work in the morning ahhhhh

xxxxx

Sleeping pattern is a wonky again!

2011-02-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

Everytime I have trouble sleeping I see it as a perfect opportunity to post on my blog, I suppose its because at 4am-5am during the week every body else is asleep and its often when I feel the need to talk the most, maybe its because I feel like it wont be live listening as I type so its almost like nobody is listening.. Who knows?

I spotted another few comments recently on some of my images, thankfully this time the posters didn't feel the need to say I looked like a holocaust survivor they just said I looked horrible and anorexic. I used to respond politely telling them that for my height my weight is average but I have given up trying to educate rude little idiots who feel the need to sprout bullshit whenever they feel like it. My new reply to them is "fuck/piss off", if that makes me seem like a bit of a bitch then so be it :-P I eat like a horse, I have a fine body which I am finally happy with.. I'm not going to start putting on unnecessary weight just to please a few chubby chasers :D

Anyway thats my little rant out of the way - feel better for it already!

Last weekend I had my old chum Billy over AKA Monkey Twizzle, I honestly can't remember how many shoots we have had now but I know this one was well overdue - it had been over a year since we worked together and I bloody missed his shenanigans. Nobody else would turn up to my flat with an ikea lamp/ about 5 really old cameras/ bits of ribbon / shreaded pieces of cardboard and leave with a charity shop £20 wedding dress! (We went for a spot of shopping).

I always have trouble when selecting images from shoots with Billy, often they are pretty "abstract/different" to my norm, half of the time I can't even make out what is in the image but look at the overall shape. we spent more time mesmerised by the shadows I was creating on the wall than taking pictures- When working with Billy I let myself go into some mad trance - like a dance, all my guards are let down and I just go with the flow of whatever we are aiming to get.. Sometimes there is no aim. On shoots there are times when I have to hold back and not get too carried away in the moment and end up doing a pose or expression which I would hate to see on someones portfolio but with Billy there are no limits. Always an incense smoking in the background and some weird music accompanying the shoot.

I hate the fact I am getting older, that i'm closer to 30 than 20.

I want to model forever and I know I wont be half the model I am now in 10 years time and that thought depresses me so I can't dawn on it too much. I am getting more into photography now but the passion I have for modelling wont ever be replaced.

I think I have another 5-6 years in me.. Still 5/6 years is not a long time and when your having fun time goes even more quickly.

ahh

On that note, Im off to bed..

Enjoy the shots :D

xxx

Another day at The Cutting Room

2011-02-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

Eeeeeek

I think maybe we possibly spend too much time hanging out at the cutting room..

Anyhow Jade (the redhead other than me) was well prepared so we were all striped up to the max for this shot. Jades hair was done by the mighty talented Sandy who is like the grandmaster of the cutting room (well I like to think so anyway), Bex's hair was done by Nickie and I had the awesome Zara doing mine!

Obviously photograph is by my better half Rory, there was 6 models including me on Sunday so it was a bit of a mental day. The headshots of the models are for competitions so they have been given a higher editing priority than the ones of us 3 fooling around :(

I have tried editing a couple up though just to easy Rory's strain of doing it. We shot our first band last week too which was pretty exciting!

www.thecuttingroomperth.co.uk

Such a talented bunch of people in there, and all very friendly!

In other news though I done my first proper seminar yesterday at Damian Mcgillicuddys fashion fusion event held at Loxleys. It was rather exciting and the pictures looked shit hot so looking forward to seeing them. Big thanks to my ultra talented MUA June Long who made me look awesome. Was so nice to see some friendly faces and thanks again to Barrie and his gorgeous other half Fiona for dropping me off home.

http://www.modelmayhem.com/726729 -

I recommend June very highly as an MUA/Hairstylist she is out of this world :D

Anyway I think thats all I have to say today, I have the nephew coming over tonight and need to update my diary and fill in the blank dates. I have been saying yes lots recently and not putting things in the diary so I officially suck, its a shame I cannot afford someone to do all this for me then I can concentrate my time on actually modelling..

Ahhhhh

xxx

Shoot for Makepiece!

2011-02-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

Well a few weeks ago I was asked to go down to Todmorden to model for the eco Knitwear company Makepiece. What an honour it was getting to wear their beautiful pieces for their Autumn/Winter 2011 collection! I was sent some images but will keep a lid on them just now until I get the "thumbs up" for publishing them, here are some out-takes by Rory who was my handy assistant for the day.

Such a beautiful part of the UK. Although the names of the little villages were pretty amusing. Next time I am travelling down that way I'm soo going to get pictures with every village signpost although I can imagine that would mean me posing by street signs every 5 minutes!

Aww how I love England!!

I will post the actual pictures sometime soon hopefully

If you fancy being all cosy and wearing some beautiful ethnic knitwear please check out their website, absolute quality and very unique designs!

www.makepiece.com

Chrissie xx

Phil Winterbourne

2011-02-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

Well it was a last minute arrangement really but I finally got to work with Phil a few weeks ago. I was mainly going down to shoot for something else (I will talk about that in the next blog). So it was a perfect opportunity to sort something out with Phil, ofcourse we only had a days notice so I loaded up the suitcase and we winged it! I have been a fan of Phils work for awhile now, so glad he started shooting again as he is super talented and an all round lovely bloke.

To see more of Phils work check out his website =

www.philwinterbourne.co.uk

My furry jacket even got a little airing (I have hardly taken it off since I got it).

xxxx

Back to the comfort zone..

2011-02-01T02:30:00.001-08:00

Not exactly a white wall, its more like a grey'ish blue kind of wall really. Anyhow Rory was going in to shoot Jade for Nickie. I was officially the reflector holder for the day but I didn't actually hold it once, apart from carrying it from our flat to the salon :D

I have had limited experience doing fashion alongside other models but thought Jade and I would compliment each other well so put myself in the salon seat and had Nickie give me a new do. I only had the clothes on my back for these shots so they are somewhat limited, apparently my boots are not all that photographic :-) nor is my christmas cupid bra mum got me recently in a sale haha.

Jade was awesome, Nickie was awesome and Rory was awesome. It was just a afternoon/evening filled with awesome!

I got to wear my new furry coat :D its not been off since Saturday when it arrived!
Jade and I :D
again, this time jade gave me a little loan of her leopard print leotard :D it looked pretty funky (if i do say so myself).. Horray for working with other models and not looking like a big heifer!

Ok I took about 6 or 7 shots that day, kinda couldn't help myself.. Here is my shot :D

I know I need to work on my editing but hey, I will learn all that someday!
xxxxxxxxxx

Ze Cutting Room! Jan 11

2011-02-01T02:15:00.001-08:00

Well as Nickie has some competitions coming up we all had another day/evening where we just shot as much as we could really. It was a challenge for Rory lighting-wise to light a large setting rather than just a model and white wall. I must admit I thought the hair/clothes and everything else was fab but we were more productive the last time we all shot together just using a white wall. Time for us all to get out of our comfort zone me thinks.

There is more to edit from this shoot and we done a little set outside the salon too..

(Sorry im almost rushing now, got some things to do today)

xxx

Location shoot with Rory :D

2011-02-01T01:56:00.000-08:00

Well we were going to be shooting with the awesome Valentina but her outfits didn't arrive in time so we thought "screw it we will wait for her to get some then re-arrange". Instead we went off to an abandoned mine I had been to previously but never gotten around to going back to. Sadly the mine building is a no-go, big fences up all over the place :(

Thankfully there was still little doorways nearby and a bridge a little further down so it wasn't a waste of time spending 3 hours trying to find it and having to follow a steam railway line. My memory is terrible, I think santa needs to get me an inbuilt satnav for Christmas.

The first doorway I thought - hrm that looks cool, lets do something there.. So we did...

(I have just figured out why my images have not been previewing recently.. and managed to sort it out so I can actually go into a little more detail now that I can see what image I am talking about). The ground inside this little hut was bloody horrible, dirty everything and my toes had this tar like mud inbetween them.. It really was nasty! Perhaps on par with the shoot I done with Craig Mcguire up to my ankles in Pigeon shit..

After getting dressed from the first doorway I spotted these little doors. I loved the colour of the blue one and how the wood had aged, kinda liked everything about this little spot - the brickwork/padlock.. Everything so we got a shot with just the one door and then 2..

We took a little walk down a set of very steep stairs, its a shame we couldn't find the right composition to shoot on the stairs really as they were beautiful to the eyes but sticking a model in there wouldn't have worked very well! I did take some shots of the stairs on their own too though.

We were pretty lucky as 2 seconds after this we spotted a group of lads, which to me meant - time to get clothes on and go back to the car. We done another little shoot on the way back home but I was cold and miserable and had shit between my toes which I couldn't wait to clean off.
So after getting cleaned up and warmed up we headed out to Edinburgh to meet up with someone who is very very very special to me (although I don't think he realises just how much so). Its Irish puppy Ciaran! I have admired his work for years - literally really. I admire and respect his opinions on my work, if he likes something then It gives me that little bit of extra ooommmpppff about an image. I know others opinions should not matter and usually they don't but hey I can't help it! It was fantastic to finally meet him and just sit and chat with him.

I really do need to get my arse on a ferry/plane or swim over to Ireland, to be honest he is the only person left who was on my "must work with him" list. One day!!! no pressure haha.

xxxx

only 1 post in January.

2011-02-01T01:50:00.000-08:00

Well I'm going to make up for my lack of Posting in January..
I'm going to have a super dooper busy as hell year and constantly update.
the sad thing is I keep forgetting what I have done and where I have saved images too.

So these are some images from recent shoots, both with photographers called Stephen :D
There is Stephenwales and Stephen Phillips.

I had a wicked shoot with them both at my place. Which reminds me I received a cd from Stephen Phillips yesterday so I really need to send him a big thank you for that.

XXX

Let it snow...

2011-01-09T08:18:00.000-08:00

Rory and I couldn't believe how heavy the falling snow was yesterday evening..
We had to avoid drunkards and find spots in the town where enough light was but I think we managed ok.
:D

Ericaaaaaaaaaa

2011-01-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

One day I will do a proper shoot with a model, all my shoots have been 5 minutes long.

Here is one of the awesome Erica, we had such a fun day.. I just wish it lasted a little longer!
Next time we will have her for a weekend, she left a pair of shoes so I am holding them to ransom.
Rory got some great pictures too so a good day had by all!!

xx

Kirsty - Miss Hellcat

2011-01-09T08:13:00.001-08:00

We were grateful to have Kirsty - Miss Hellcat over to Perth last week, the sun was out (but it was freezing cold). The ground was soo icy I thought we would all end up on our backsides but thankfully we survived, I only had a little shot of the camera for about 5 minutes. I really love lensflare so I might spend some time reading up on it and looking at other peoples use of it..

So thanks again to the wonderful Kirsty for enduring the cold and being such a fantastic model!

xx

Happy 2nd wedding :D

2011-01-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

Recently one of Rorys old School friends had his 2nd wedding in Scotland (His first was in the Philippines), we invited the happy bride and groom over to get some pictures of them. I can't claim ownership of the shot of them but I did manage to get a few shots of their beautiful daughter Shaynia who was soo well behaved while here. I finally found a good use of my massive teddy bear too!

So congratulations to the loved up Russell and Orlie and all the best!

Happy newyear.. (Did I say that already?)

2011-01-09T08:03:00.000-08:00

Well I'm not sure if this is the first or second update this year so far.
Can't even remember if I listed all my amazing presents I got from santa or not.

I lost a bit of tooth while eating chocolate eclaire sweeties a few nights ago, thankfully it was not the middle front ones but one just to the side so you can't see it unless im doing a toothy grin. Dentists on Tuesday to sort it out but I despise the dentists, last time I had to go was to get a tooth taken out and I had a panic attack and passed out in the waiting room after getting it done!! not good at all..

Anyhow heres some stuff Rory and I shot last week, as usual 3am and with nothing else to do we decided this was a good idea. Our choice of prop was noodles or doritos.. We went for noodles :D

The nude image was a bit of an experiment, we have a large lamp which is kind of see though canvas'ish so we stuck the flash gun under it to see what light came out..

I have been a busy bee this week... Shot a few models myself which was nice :D

Playing with the new lens :D

2010-12-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

Well I do hope everyone had a really great christmas :D

I had a fantastic time with the family and future in-laws.. Got some fantastic gifts (I will post some x-mas festive pictures in my next blog).

Anyhow quickly heres a couple of shots we took tonight with the new lens..

Check out my bloody awesome hat and the beautiful necklace.. (both Christmas gifts).

Anyway..
Short and sweet!

Filling up my diary for the start of the year, if you fancy a shoot then please get in touch :D

Cxx

Christmas is almost here :D

2010-12-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas is only a few days away now, Everything I needed to do has been done. I appear to have some cold/flu going on and have had it since last Friday so I really hope it's gone before Santa visits, wouldn't want to infect him with the cold :(

We did get some shit news a couple of weeks ago, which will really effect our future. I wish I could comment more on it and release my inner anger but at the moment its not confirmed either way what the situation will be. Just have to remember Rory and I may loose a shit load but we will still have each other and that is the main thing :-D

I need to remind myself this is mainly my model blog so I will update on recent shoots, A couple of weeks back I got to work with Editions of you (GaryMck), he was visiting family up in Perth and at the last minute decided he fancied a snow fashion shoot so my bags were packed, I loved the way he worked... So quick, he knew exactly what he was after and just shot it.. We managed so many different locations in one afternoon (I have attached a picture at the top of this blog).

I also finally worked with Stephen Wales, its only taken me about 2 years! I met him a long long time ago at contrast studios and everytime I went there we would talk rubbish to each other. He is such a nice person so it was great to shoot with him, we shot at mine and done a variety of fashion and some nudes (It seems like I am doing more and more fashion these days). He has been struck down with flu recently so no pictures as yet but I am eagerly checking my inbox daily!

I had another shoot with the awesome John - Fox, as usual we had great fun. This was our 3rd shoot together! He even brought me a massive print of myself from one of our previous shoots and it looks superb in the lounge. This time he arrived with lots of wires (I have been told they are network cables).. Trying to get them to stick to my body was impossible, I got a little carried away at the end and done loads of silly face pictures. I have a disk in the next room of the images so I will post them on a different blog.

I think this week has been the week of getting Disks, I have 5 sitting through there.. Strangely most of them are fashion shots, not sure what it is about fashion but I always feel they are half finished even if they are fully edited... It might just be me striving for perfection or something but little things niggle me more when im looking at clothed shots.

We are off tonight to spend the evening with Jenny and Stuart (Rorys workmate). They are a wonderful couple with the sweetest little cat EVER so the camera may have to come along. Thankfully they have a massive tv too which is good because ours decided to die last night.

Well i think I have rambled enough for now.
If I don't post again before Christmas I really hope everyone has a great time with their loved ones.

I also hope all the parcels I sent out arrive before newyear!

xxx

and now..

2010-12-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

Is a general update on the life of Chrissie, I have actually been pretty busy recently..
I know most people struggle in December but I'm still hitting my average weekly shoot number :D
(and no I'm not including Rory in these statistics).. Well not always ;-)

It has been so cold in Scotland recently, we spent about 10 hours getting home from Elgin (its meant to take 3 hours). The snow has been crazy, our gutter and part of the drain pipe collapsed a couple of mornings ago, thankfully it was 3am and no passers by were harmed but I got the shock of my life the sound of it scraping down the side of the building outside my bedroom window was pretty scary,, I thought someone was at our bedroom window running a knife along the pane (virtually impossible unless they also had big ladders or a cherry picker on the go and we would have heard them if they had that type of equipment).

I wish I could say I was all ready for christmas but thats a lie, I have got Rory 5 things (can't say what they are on here though because I know he reads my blog from time to time to see what I have been saying about him).. I did buy a tree and put it up, its 6ft tall and black with white lights... I have never really liked tinsel so went arty and got big black feather boas for my tree, you can hardly see them but I think it was a genius idea and i imagine by next christmas my craze will be dominating peoples livingrooms :) I have some of the presents Im sending down south to friends but still have one to buy and I don't have a bloody clue what to get him, his girlfriend said something funny but my type of humour is pretty different to most peoples for example I think 'cockpit spray and car lube' are hilarious but others just look at me like I am from another planet when I spot a tin and giggle..

Been catching up on reading recently so off to read a book before I fall asleep! Its 4am now but it was worth staying up late to do a blog, had a shoot yesterday and have another on Thursday so I'm sure I will be updating again soon. Rory is very behind with editing and I have told him to concentrate on his shoots he recently had with Sarah & Esther so I have let myself be put on the back burner so he can sort out their images!

Anyways nitey nite
xxxxxx

Drac-In-A-Box with David Porter

2010-12-06T19:40:00.000-08:00

Well this was a fun shoot while I was up north..
Infact David is the reason I went up North in the first place :D
I have been a little bit of a fan of his work since I first spotted it so it was nice to get up and work with him.
Strangely we didn't do much nudes :-S

We were shooting some of the Drac-In-A-Box new steampunk (i think thats what it was called) collection for their website

CLICK HERE TO SEE ME...

The funny thing is that when I started as a model and was buying too many clothes for my wardrobe I remember coming across the dracinabox website (i think I even bought a few things from it), I remember thinking "I would bloody love to be on that website" and its now reality.

I love the images David shot, I have seen them on his facebook and it kind of gives me a little confidence boost. I'm not 100% sure about me as a fashion model yet. Statistically speaking I'm tall enough but I'm so used to not faffing about with clothes now and its so difficult trying to make clothing look good rather than my body.

Anyhow YEY!!
xx

Elgin - Single Speed - Neil

2010-12-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

Here is one of my favourite images of the day (to be fair though from what i have seen so far everyone did a pretty good job)
Although theres still one person who I worked with who is sending me over a cd from our session, We done some funky fashion so fingers crossed they turned out well too :D

So yeah this is by the talented Neil, such a beautiful softness to it!

x

Elgin - The lovely Sarah (Zombie Sazza) & Mike (Abzloon)

2010-12-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

Behind every great man is a great woman...
and behind every great woman is a great man......
So by my reckoning Sarah & Mike are great :D

I was going to give them separate blog entries but its so difficult to find different describing words for them, they are both such genuinely lovely people. I worked with the for a couple of hours while I was doing my studio day. They were such fun to work with!

Its soo bloody nice meeting and working with people who are as passionate about their creative work as I am!
It shows how much they love what they do and In a way they reminded me of Rory and I when we are shooting..
I guess thats also partly down to the fact Sarah is a model/photographer much like I am.. (Well I use a camera and take pictures but not really got the guts to call myself a photographer yet... one day).

So the lovely picture of my back is by Abz_zoon and the one of me with the lovely swishy red material is by Sarah!
I <3 them!!!

Quincy - Elgin

2010-12-06T19:13:00.000-08:00

Well I was booked to do a day at Elgin Studios.
I was really looking forward to it, the space was the main attraction...
Having been there I now see so many different attractions with it.
Geoff the owner really takes care of the place, everything a model might need/forget is there and he has a well stocked up fridge. Can't thank him enough for his hospitality while I was there :D

Seeing as I was going to be somewhere in a nice big studio rory booked the last hour, we have never worked in a big studio just the two of us before so it was a nice opportunity for some full length stuff which we can't do at home because of the skirting boards lol

The 'box' one was my idea, had spotted it the day before in the studio and thought it would look cool on my head... and I think I was right :D

Leaves with Robert John Hughs

2010-12-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago now (Yes Im far behind)
I had Robert John up /down to Perth for a shoot, just some basic stuff really nothing fancy.
One of them might not be an image which would stand out for some,but its simple and naturally me and I think John captured me very well!
I guess sometimes me as a model sees something in an image which others might not notice/like .

So much to update on....

2010-12-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

I often feel like when I do a 'mass' update I miss some really super images so no more *heres a shoot from this date and heres a shoot from someone else*. Ofcourse this may take me awhile and I'm going to have to go back and read my last few entries to see where i got up to and if I can remember any funny stories I will drop them in too.

These updates are not in order and my image uploader is not letting me preview which order the images are in either which is a bummer. All these are Rorys images, we had to have another shoot with the bustle and shrug worn with a corset and I got 2 new corsets for the price of 3! :D I'm very much in love with the underbust black and white one although I wish my boobs filled out a bit more in it but never mind.

Again the bustle and shrug are curtesy of Gothic Diva Designs, we are holding onto it to shoot it against a different backdrop and outside when it gets a bit warmer than -15 (which is what its reported to be this evening).

Gothic Diva Designs

2010-11-22T04:52:00.001-08:00

We have a couple of pieces on loan to shoot for Gotic Diva Designs this week, I searched high and low for a white corset yesterday in Perth and couldn't find one anywhere. We managed to shoot a few pictures without the corset but we know they wont be much use to the designer (she likes them and one without boobs is useful) but we know with the white corset we can do a much better job for her so we will have round 2 later in the week.. Must go buy a white corset now :D

xxxx

Bus museum

2010-11-22T04:46:00.000-08:00

Well heres the pictures I promised, I have to be honest though there are soo many I love so I might have picked the wrong ones but Im sure we will continue editing them slowly and putting them up. I LOVE them!

Thank you so much to the Scottish Vintage Bus museum for letting us shoot there, Can't believe Rory never told me before that his bestfriends dad runs the place!! I left a pair of shoes there so we will have to go back!! was bloody cold though so maybe hold off until summer. I think he said there was over 100 busses there. He opened for us and just left us to it.

I also got to work with a bloody kick ass MUA for this shoot - June Long, I really couldn't have dreamed for someone nicer. She is a star and I hope she likes the pictures as much as we do!!

xxxx

Goshhhh!

2010-11-22T04:13:00.000-08:00

Well I had a very mad week (was fantastic) but mad.
As I have mentioned before I was sending Rorys mum and my mum on a cruise, well the time arrived. 3am wakeup to drive down to the airport the weather was horrible driving down. It felt really strange seeing our parents walk off together to catch a plane, if the weather had been better we would have took some pictures but it was windy/raining and dark.

Seeing as we were in Glasgow anyway we arranged to meet up with Demetrios (a nice young Greek photographer I had worked with a couple of times before),He is leaving Scotland destination unknown but more than likely will end up in London or Ireland so we had to see him before he left we also needed a little hand shopping in calumet.. We had a little bit of money to burn and going in alone was not wise.. We ended up only spending a small % of what we thought we would (somehow in the week our parents were away we managed to burn all the money on other things though). By the time we got back to Rorys mums house that evening we were shattered... (we didn't know it at the time but we picked up a speeding ticket in mums car on the way back home... dammit).

Saturday we went up to Perth to pick up more of our stuff, I needed to get some clothes to shot in and collect my makeup.. I think we done a little shoot on Saturday afternoon (no pics edited yet though). We also investigated a building I had spotted last year when I was down visiting his mum, its an old hotel... The door is wide open but we were both too scared to just walk in! lol

Sunday we headed off back to Glasgow to work with Sarah (Valentina Velvet), we booked contrast for a few hours because we really were not wanting to trust the weather forecast that day. I shot Sarah a little at the end and Rory shot us both, I even got to wear one of Sarahs big gowns along with a beautiful gold and ivory corset.. It was nice to feel like a princess!

We did find some snow on the way home but it was dark/cold and scary so it wasn't as productive as the studio haha!
Sarah as always was fantastic, she really is one of the nicest people I know. She won the title of ultimate rock chick (I think thats what it was called) for Rock radio a couple of days later so mucho congratulations to her for that.

Monday was another trip to Perth, picking up a camera from one of Rorys friends. He was shooting the beautiful Esther Kungu in Edinburgh that evening and our camera might have struggled a little. I was acting as an assistant, as was Craig mcguire and we had Nicola our hairstylist from team hallway along doing the hair..

Never thought we would shoot outside the parliment buildings, the police went past but didn't bat an eyelid :D we also had a few drunks standing about watching.

We didn't get back home until after midnight, was a really long day but worth it. I say it all the time but I am really proud of Rory and how is photography is coming along.

Tuesday we had a little shoot together in Rorys mums garden (not edited yet either)... He has only
done one edit from this lot and its not my favourite but here it is..

Then here is some by the fire, I actually burnt my leg while shooting this..

Its amazing how the 5d actually makes my legs look a million times longer!! :D
..

Wednesday I think was more pissing about going from our flat to Rorys mums with stuff.. We needed 2 car trips iin the end getting it all back home with us..

Thursday I was planning on going into Edinburgh but by the time we woke up and got ourselves sorted I didn't have time. I went some shopping in Dunfermline though which was nice :D just got little bits and pieces for our bus museum shoot which was on Friday.. (I will do another blog with that)..

I think thats all I got up to :D

I know its turned into a bit of epic reading but nevermind..

Next post will be pictures.. Thats a promise!

xx

A poem by Sarah

2010-11-09T04:02:00.000-08:00

Big thanks to the beautiful Valentina Velvet for writing this poem about me!!
Was such a nice surprise to see it in my inbox so thought I would share it here.

Chrissie Red - A Mental Scots Chick

There was a tall Scots chick called Chrissie Red,
Professional art nude who loves tea, toast and bed.
There was never a figure you ever did see,
She bends into shapes that confound you and me!

She's such a crazy lady who suffers no fools,
And good on her, 'cause there are lots of tools,
Who masquerade as togs behind shiny Nikons,
Imitating David Bailey, their favourite icon.

The 6ft goddess is a freckled red head,
With legs to die for and a brilliant street cred,
Renowned for her humour and sharp witted ways,
You'd be wise to listen to the advice that she says.

She's professional, friendly and funny to boot,
She'll strip off her naked-jumper and do poses to suit,
But only if you're a photographer with her kind of style,
Like Eddie, Barone, Paul Cox and Nick Giles.

You'd be mad not to book her and see her in action,
She's different to the norm and thats the attraction,
She'll give you images you could hang on your wall,
She's a down to earth girl with beauty and all.

--

I also posted a nice picture of us from our last shoot together, we are all working together on Sunday so very excited about that :D

horray

xxxxx

A day in Perthshire with Ian Patterson!

2010-11-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

Well technically its Sunday now but I will still think of it as Saturday seeing as I have not went to bed yet :D
I was out yesterday (technically not actually yesterday but the day before).

Ian is from a little bit further up north and he fancied doing some autumn type stuff with me (the trees kinda match my hair colour ya know).. Off we went, it was a bloody miserable day for weather, actually pissing it down thankfully it stopped for a short while enough for us to get me in a field and make the most of the sun while it was out.

I would say we got lost and walked miles in the wrong direction and ask a priest for directions but no way did that happen ;-)

Anyway here are some of the pictures, Thanks soo much to Ian for sending me them over. I had a great day despite the crappy weather and I wont forget the 5th of november in a hurry!

Next blog will be my firework pictures.

Rory and I were meant to shoot a model today but she decided at 8.30am that she had flu, we wont be bothering with her in the future.. Not that we were put out but we really can't be bothered with flakey models who can't be arsed coming to a shoot, considering she had never shot before and was getting the travel costs back we thought it was kinda rude.. The 2 negative no-show feedbacks on her profile should have given it away but we gave her the benefit of the doubt..

arghhh

xxx

An afternoon at Contrast

2010-11-04T09:02:00.001-07:00

Well here are some shots from the shoot where I was horribly late for :D
Thanks very much to Andy Ritchie for sending them over to me, much appreciated.
He sent over a few but these are my favourites and the ones I wanted to share with y'all!

Andys purestorm

Time is going too quickly....

2010-11-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

Ok so I have been shooting my butt off recently, still waiting on pictures and no doubt will upload some when they arrive. As some of you know, I won a cruise a few months ago online... Sadly my anxiety wouldn't stand for the travel and staying on a boat so my mum and mother in law are going, it only hit me last night that its next Friday they go away, We are designated cat sitters so will be based down at Rorys mums house for most of the week, We have a fair list of plans.. The pictures attached to this blog are from a random day we went out over the summer and just took a couple of shots quickly in the field as the sun was setting. Its these type of pictures that are special to me because if Rory had never learned to use the camera it wouldn't have been possible unless I happened to be out with another photographer at the right time.

I have been thinking about some things recently, and I'm sure I wont be the only model who sometimes feels like this.. I have seen thousands of images of me over the years, some awesome at the back of the camera/ some terrible and some which have the potential to be something really special if processed with care and time and that vision.. I have no control usually over how things are edited sometimes Im asked to edit for people but usually not. Its frustrating seeing beautiful nude images which just need a tiny bit of work on them come out looking bad because of bad editing.

Meh... I guess im a little spoilt sometimes, If Rory edits something and I think it could be better I tell him.

So while we are away we plan on shooting some new models, or well different models. One of which is a fantastic fashion model, 6ft tall and beautifully stunning, she is signed to one of the agencys up here too so will be nice to work with her.

XX

Been a tadge busy...

2010-11-01T07:30:00.001-07:00

I'm forgetting what I have done recently and fallen behind on lots... Sorry!

Wednesday I was out shooting with Craig Mcguire, I think I have some pictures from him on my other computer and I know theres an email in my inbox I have to reply too but as always with e-mails I know if i sit down and reply to 1 I will get 5 more eeek. Sorry Craig :(

Friday I was out meeting a photographer and on the way home I decided to take some pictures beside the river... Which is the first picture on this page.

Saturday I was down in Contrast working with Andy Ritchie doing mainly artnude type images, It was the morning from hell (not the working with him part but everything before it). I hate being late for people, infact it made me cry because I was soo worried. So off to the train station I went, thinking I would arrive in Glasgow with at least 45 minutes to spare and gabber/do my makeup, an announcement came out saying the train was delayed by approx 25 minutes (it was the type of announcement that you know if you waited around the delay would get longer and longer and then just be cancelled) so thinking on my feet I called my mum, asked her if Rory could borrow her car, so we ran along to her work all my bags in tow and called her insurance people, sat on the phone for 30 minutes in a state worrying about the battery going dead or them saying no, we finally got through and I gave them all the details, apparently they were unable to put him on the insurance.. So we were back at square 1.. I had 1 hour to get to Glasgow and no transport to get there, this is when I started crying.. We had a last ditch attempt at getting a car, Rory contacted a workfriend and she said yes, while she was calling her insurance we ran for a taxi and thought even if we get to her house and find out we cannot immediately put him on the insurance it would be better than being even more late by sitting around in town. We arrived at her house, she was still on the phone (grrr). I called contrast, explained to Con (the owner) about my nightmare morning and he said he can switch the booking times by 1 hour and explain to the photographer what was going on, I was thankful but still felt like a div. At 12.52 we finally got on the motorway (my shoot was originally meant to start at 1) and with the roadworks on the way and average speed of 40 MPH I knew even getting there at 2 would be amazing.. So with the foot very firmly down we arrived in Glasgow city centre at 2.08, there was so much traffic so I decided to just jump out the car and make a run for it... Sadly when I was 2 minutes away from the studio I noticed Rory driving by infront of me... ARRRRHHH! Anyways I made it, thankfully the photographer was cool about it all but it could have been much worse... I usually have little sympathy for people who no-show or make up crap excuses but being in the situation where I really couldn't have done anything else has made me think again about how somethings are really out with out control. If Jenny never let us borrow her car I would have been totally and utterly f£$ked which would have resulted in a no-show from my part.. Although in the back of my head getting a taxi was the last option.

So after my frantic fluffing around on Saturday I was shattered by bed time. Sunday Rory and I decided to go do some autumn fashion (or well stuff with clothes on). We took a walk down the riverside and had some take away coffee with us to keep our fingers warm. I collected some leaves because I want to do something with leaves soon. We got home and done some stuff with my new skirt :D

Now its Monday, I'm shooting Tomorrow in the flat (in the middle of tidying just now), also shooting on Thurday and Friday this week so its a little bit more than my usual average shoots a week just means when the weekend comes I can chill out a little and catch up on E-mails/Editing and everything else I have been putting off doing this week eeeeeeeek..

xxxx

painting with light..

2010-10-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well Simon, Rory and I had a bit of a sleep over the night before the groupshoot and at midnight I decided we should all go to a castle I had visited recently to lightpaint it. Simon is always up for a bit of torch action as is Rory so off we went, maybe not the best idea when we had to be up early the next morning but thankfully we all survived the next day (just)..

I was doing all the red flashing light bits, so totally a team effort as it was a big site to attempt to do.. Not sure if it would have been possible with just the two of us.

Anyhow, I have lots to catch up on. I was shooting last week and have been editing the pictures for the photographer (hes not too good at photoshop) still have some to do and send over to him but once im done i will post them up.

Should get to bed actually, its nearly 3am and im shooting with Craig tomorrow for a gothic clothing shop in Edinburgh..
Friday I have someone over and then on Saturday I'm off down to Glasgow for a shoot so its busy busy busy. Gutted I will miss the fashion show in Perth as we were asked to shoot 11 models for the salon but it looks like Rory will need to take on that job on his own which is a bit of a bummer but cannot be helped!

Anyhow adios amigos

xxxx

Deed flowers..

2010-10-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well... my birthday flowers were dying so thought we should use them as part of a shoot, this is totally not what I was intending going for, we attempted a full length nude shoot amongst the dying flowers but it didn't look right and despite Rory standing on the windowledge haphazardly it just wasn't working. Never mind, the one which looks a bit blurry is actually a mistake... the heater was causing the lens to steam and I thought it looked cool so there you go :D

As always we did shoot some nudes at the end of this but none of them have been edited yet and to be honest they are not too different to ones we have done in the past so not much point in rushing to throw them up.

Cxx

My first groupshoot....

2010-10-26T18:17:00.001-07:00

Ahh for some reason the preview of images is not coming up on my little edit screen which is a bit of a bummer really.
The group shoot went really well, Rory and I had a great time meeting everyone and it was nice going as a photographer rather than a model :)

Lynnie brought along her friend Kaz who had never modelled before "(the girl with the purple hair). I started doing some shots with her in the hallway then moved into the studio set-up and shot Lynnie.. I had lots of smoking breaks inbetween then grabbed Erica and her mate Suzie for a wee shoot, took them downstairs to the lower hall and got them rolling about on the floor :-)

Was about to pack up and spotted this 6ft gorgeous lady, asked her if she wanted a shoot to which she replied "yes yes", so took her out the back, her name was Violeta. I have never met anyone more bouncy and full of life before, she was off her head (in a good way) pulling fantastic poses and bouncing about. I would love to have her over to work with her properly sometime and she said she loved the pictures so fingers crossed I can persuade her.

I want to take a moment to mention a special someone in my blog - Allan (twentytwentyimages) is sadly departing from Scotland next month to move over to south Africa, he will be missed a great deal by me.. He is always welcome to holiday over here with us. Safe trip allan

xxxxx

Chrissie met Perthshire Photographic Society...

2010-10-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well this week has been not to bad actually,
I was invited down the artgallery in Perth by Dave Hunt as he was giving a live demonstration of a portrait shoot...
It was kind of surreal, I'm not shy - obviously but it was a very different experience for me to have my picture taken infront of a room full of people - I think there were maybe around 50 people but then it might have just felt like that at the time. I think my wee knees were shaking so I was glad I was seated for most of it and that the softbox didn't really light up my legs :D Was pretty cool to see the images on a big projected screen filling the wall straight after they were shot. Got to see lots of Daves prints I had never seen before of Joceline & Holly which was cool, I managed to snaffle a print of me and Joceline too so now I need to think of somewhere worthy to put it :-D Ended up in the pub with a few of the members and got chatting to one who has offered to let Rory and I play around with his old film cameras, he also develops which is awesome :D ohh and he got a shot from the back row of the demonstration taking place so he has my address and said he would send me a CD (old fashioned and has no idea how to e-mail... bless).

Had an e-mail from a very sweet lady called Catherine and she has asked to use a few of rory and Is images as inspiration for her paintings. We are thrilled and honoured that someone felt inspired enough to want to paint their own take on something we shot. We always shoot just for the sake of it, when we feel like it and just to share it with people so its nice that some images will have a use other than sitting on my blog. Can't wait to see her finished pieces and I will post a copy up here when I do and share them with you lot..

So images attached to this are -
by "James" - theres lots of images from this shoot but doing one set at a time.

Its a busy little period coming up (no complaints) -
Sunday is the groupshoot, Wednesday I'm off out with Craig shooting alternative fashion for his brothers clothing place in Edinburgh - might even make my hair all mental who knows.., Friday I have a photographer over for the afternoon doing nudes and im going to show him some lighting things and next Saturday I'm scheduled to be at contrast for the afternoon with another new photographer I have not yet worked with. Can't wait to see Con again its been too long.

After that.. well who knows.

xxxx

Apologies..

2010-10-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

For the last bog update.

Things were not loading properly..
Anyhow heres an update with another image again by Rory (yes we have been busy).
Its nice having the lights set up in the room and Rory ready to shoot anytime I fancy it. Only problem is we have shot so many times in the one corner of our room that I really can't wait till we can go elsewhere to shoot something for a change. Its pretty challenging only having about 2/3 feet to work in and trying to come up with different ideas/poses and styles.

I have some nice news to announce, I'm doing a studio day on the 27th of November up in Elgin. I'm excited for a few reasons really -

A - The studio looks bloomin cool, lots of space and light which I love. I just hope i've not become "too used" to working in a tiny corner of my bedroom...

B- Its up North - my most favouritest place in the whole entire world and its been over a year since I was that far North, Rory is coming along too so it means on the way home we can do a shoot or two :D

C- I can't wait to work with some of the folks up there, I have seen some of their past images and really liked them.. Now I just hope the studio day books out or else I wont be a happy lady.

D - It will be my first STUDIO DAY in the sense of - people booking who want to work with me, one photographer at a time and nothing like a groupshoot meat market type set up which has happened in the past.

This weekend Fox mentioned there was a networking afternoon in Perth for models and photographers... Alas he did tell me to come along but I never got invited plus theres someone attending who I really wouldn't want to be in the company of. So I decided to get my arse down to Adam Matheisons groupshoot down in Helensburgh which is also on Sunday - i'm going as a photographer alongside Rory and will help anyone with makeup/hair or anything else anyone wants to know. Should be a really good day..

Anyhow i think thats about it for my news :D

xxx

errrm its not working..

2010-10-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Little green leaves

2010-10-14T21:07:00.001-07:00

Well I'm super proud of this lot...

Its the first time I have actually looked at the makeup/styling and liked something I have produced.

So far Rory has edited these 3 - I love them

I have a few more exciting things coming up - and am now organising a workshop up in Scotland with Damian McGillicuddy, I have been wanting to work with him for awhile now but we have never got around to dates so when he asked if I would help him sort a workshop out for us both It didn't take me too long to consider it. Anyone who has not already expressed their interest then best get back to me quickly as so far its looking to be a sell out -

Date - (End of January- At a weekend)

Venue -I have my heart set on a castle and what I want I always get.

price - £195 per delegate which is for the full day (bloomin bargain really my rates alone are more than that for a full day and I can't advise/teach quite as much as Damian)- Will be fashion/Nudes.

I'm hoping to get everything booked by the end of November and will be visiting castles mid November to see which one the event will be held in..

Anyhow.....

Its after 5am, Rory is snoring at the side of me so its time for me to kick him then hope he shuts up for 5 minutes so I can get some shut eye!!

xxx

Hurm... where do I start?!

2010-10-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

Hello :D

Chrissie has been a busy bee recently, can't remember if I mentioned it in my last blog but had a utterly fantastic session with Edinburgh based Artist Steven Hendry - His work is rather amazing and I can't wait to see how his photographs of me look on canvas! Would love to have another session with him in the future but this time model in exchange for a painting (they are seriously great). Was nice to be part of something a little different and the train ride home was actually rather enjoyable..

Yesterday I had a shoot with *James* ;-)

We went to a castle, an old limestone quarrys headquarters then done some autumn type nudes having me roll about in the golden/red leaves on the forest bed! can't believe how many images we captured and really looking forward to seeing how they turned out.. I even managed to keep my clothes on and do some fashion which makes a change..

Anyway now to all the images on this blog - they are all by Rory, just us messing about really with baby powder for the crazy hair ones.. Not exactly what I was going for but it will do for now :-)

So I suck at fashion and glamour but I'm starting to enjoy being photographed in a slightly different way...

this is in no way meant to be viewed as a serious image... we actually shot it to cheer a friend up (it cheered him up).. the other images we shot to make him smile are firmly on all our hard-drives never to see the light of day....

We shot so many images i liked, these are the ones which have been edited properly but I found a new dumping ground in the form or rorys flickr account so I quickly processed a bunch of images - not any real editing apart from the exposure/saturation

The dumping ground!!!

We are rubbish at picking images.. we know this so now we have a dumping ground there will be more to see :D

xxx

Intimate

2010-10-04T18:58:00.001-07:00

Well we were shooting dresses earlier - just boring pictures to send over to an mua we are working with next month to help her get some ideas and afterwards I sat on the edge of the bed and spotted in the mirror how my new bedroom lamp (its huge) lit my body so although it was 2am and rory was shattered he shot it and then I edited and here I am posting... quick off the mark tonight for a change.

I left the bedroom so I didn't wake him up.

Rory is the most modest person I have ever met and I do give him a hard time most of the time but in the past few weeks I have been bloody loving the pictures he has been doing, not only of me but the ones he done from our recent shoot with Abbie.

We have lots in the pipeline and I'm so excited that we are sharing the "pipeline" together. I think I'm feeling more inspired now than I ever have before.
The diary is slowly getting back to normal... wont say business is booming but I am n Scotland afterall and opportunities are not exactly popping up every second. Must remember to get back in touch with the people who contacted me when I was taking my break, its always the way really.. When I'm busy or not actively looking for work I get offers coming out my ears and when its quiet I spend most of my days twiddling my thumbs shooting myself haha.

I did get a rather exciting brief sent over earlier but it was too much for my brain to take in at midnight but from the quick skim read it did sound pretty funky and right up my street so looking forward to sorting out the date for that and judging from the location I'm betting it will take me away overnight.

xxx

Hiding :-)

2010-10-04T18:53:00.001-07:00

I'm not shy but sometimes I want to hide my face, I don't really like my face all that much haha..

its 3am Rory is asleep next to me so this is a very short update..

all images as usual spur of the moment by rory

Abbie - Showery

2010-10-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Woops forgot my favourite back shot... (can you tell I really like them?)..

anyhow here are some more, I don't care if the arm is over exposed in this shot.. I messed about with it and cropped it out then realised it looked better without trying to hide it.. I'm not a photographer, just someone who likes taking pictures and if they are nice then thats a bonus. I never played by the rules at school so I'm not about to start doing everything by the book now..

I then got Abbie into the bathroom, which reminds me I should clean the oil off the shower screen lol

Anyhow hope someone out there likes my pictures.. I'm not giving up the modelling anytime soon but its nice to play about at the other side of the camera and we can't wait to get Abbie over again for another shoot!

Im feeling so inspired..

next blog will be the nudes of me from a few nights ago so keep the eyes open.

Abbie - Ballet Back

2010-10-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well here is a little set I done yesterday with Abbie, she came over to the flat to work with Rory and I. This is the first female model I have worked with (that I have not met or known before the shoot). It went really well. We did get lots done especially considering Rory and I were taking it in turns! I'm sure Abbie slept well when she got home.

I bloody love images, I model for them and I take pictures for them.. I love backs, I have looked at these type of images before (usually old prints) and fallen in love with them and its something I wanted to do as a model but for some reason it never really happened so I thought I would just be the photographer that way I was in control of how the image turned out lol.

I think this was my favourite set from the shoot, I didn't go mental with touching up the skin I wanted it contrasty and kind of "spooky" looking. There are a couple which are really soft and beautiful though.

xxx

Chrissie in a corset in the corner by Rory

2010-10-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well Rory and I had a play about with the lights one evening, I had just got this delightful corset in so couldn't wait to shoot in it. We are needing to experiment with the shooting corsets as I have been speaking to a uber amazing designer from down south who is getting us to shoot some of her corsets for her, we are really excited and can't wait to do it. Hopefully the corsets will arrive before our week of shoots in November. We have a really exciting location and are staying at Rorys mums house which is just a massive version of our flat with white walls so it means we can play about even more with the lights and have more room to do more crazy shots.

I have a headshot planned with one of the horses too... not sure how its going to work but I'm sure it will :-)

We also shot some nudes the evening we shot these but they have not been edited yet.

xxx

The good news!

2010-09-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Apologies for leaving this a little too long, I went to the hospital last week and was thankfully told everything is ok. As you can imagine I'm delighted. I was worried my anxiety would take a few months to get restored but I have already successfully done an all day shoot since my diagnosis with the wonderful trio -Tim, Dinah and Mary.. They were fantastic to work with and I really can't wait to see their images from the day.

I have a new addition - in the form of a bit of "fluff". I think its staying, well for the time being anyway because I do feel like it adds something to images. We'll see though!

We are shooting Abbier this weekend, very excited to be working with another model and being the photographer rather than a model. I have no idea what I will be shooting yet and i'm slightly nervous but it should turn out well..

I have a few things coming up to look forward to so im sure i will be back updating very soon.

Chrissie xx

Still in limbo.... yawns

2010-09-16T07:14:00.001-07:00

Well its been awhile, or at least it has felt like it has.

Again I don't have much exciting news to report on but I do have some pictures Rory and I have shot recently, mainly spur of the moment stuff when we have had energy left at the end of the day.

Below is a beautiful drawing 50lbhead done for me over on DA - Its titled - Girlrocks, inspired by a photograph taken about 2 years ago. Nice to see other people still getting joy and inspiration from one of my images.

I can tell the winter is coming, I have been bloody freezing the past couple of days even when the sun is shining.

I have the hospital next week, I'm really scared but it will be better getting it over and done with so I can get on with my life rather than being a big anxious ball of mess like I have been these past few weeks.

Anyhow time for a cup of tea, Thanks to all the awesome people who have been wishing me well recently - Especially Aimee and congrats to her for becoming a godmother this week!

Till next time..

Chrissie xx

Clouds in my bathroom...

2010-08-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

Before I start posting my most depressed pictures heres one of me with squirty cream from a few weeks back.. Just spotted it in a folder which Rory and I have not actually taken a look through yet so in my "usual" photoshopping the only thing which has been done to it is tweaking the lighting and stuff because I was too lazy to do anything else and because there is a ton of dishes waiting to get cleaned...

Well although i have officially been on a break you can't really keep a camera away from me. Here are some Rory shot of me earlier this week just using the light available in the bathroom, a toilet roll tube and a candle holder..

Its hard to explain how I have been feeling in words recently - I know chances are there is nothing to worry about but there is that 1% of doubt in my mind that things aren't going to turn out for the best and its during these doubting moments that I'm at my lowest ebb. No matter how many people say "everything will work out ok" I have trouble believing them, although I like to think of a glass as being half full this week I have been thinking its half empty.

A day with Barrie :-)

2010-08-27T07:40:00.003-07:00

Still no news about when I have to visit the hospital for tests which is a shame because I hate living in Limbo although this week has been much better than the end of last week was. Anyway here are some images Barrie kindly sent me over from our shoot last week, I had a wicked day with him at the beach and really like some of the pictures he has sent me over..

I fell over and got a slight injury while shooting with him, over a week later and I still have a bruise just a good job its not sore and I don't have to worry about covering it up for anyone because I'm having a little break until the dark cloud has gone away from over my head...

I wish I could give a long list of things I have been up to - make it sound more exciting like Bink's blog or something but afraid other than tea/toast and occasional trips to the local shops nothing much exciting has happened this week to speak about..

xxxx

A day with Barrie :-)

2010-08-27T07:40:00.001-07:00

not as positive as I would have hoped..

2010-08-20T06:24:00.001-07:00

Well yesterday was not good, need to go for some more tests but staying positive, taking at least the next couple of weeks off modelling well i wont be working with anyone but I'm feeling kind of inspired at the moment to do some emotive self portraits but today I don't have the energy so I will do it another day when I have the will to get out of bed..

*shakes herself off and smiles*

xxxx

My weekend in York..

2010-08-19T02:41:00.001-07:00

So heres a run down of last weekends events, as always I will include the bad stuff...

We left Perth at about 3.30 had a fairly chilled out trip down, as usual we took our time and stopped off a fair bit. We finally got to our hotel in Leeds at about 11pm.. Had to walk 10 minutes from the car park to get to the hotel and took us about 3 or 4 trips around Leeds to actually find the 20 story hotel but we made it.

We checked in and I mentioned to Rory that it smelled a little bit weird throughout the hotel, almost like a sewer or drainage problem but it wasn't too strong in the hallways.. It was bloody knockout in the bedrooms though, the bedroom has fag burns in the dated old carpet.. We done a quick shoot even though I thought I was going to be sick, I tried covering the smell with perfume and opening the windows after all we couldn't go anywhere because we had a wedding to go to first thing in the morning.. I really couldnt handle the smell so ended up going to reception, they told me they had no other rooms and I just asked for my money back which they gave me but no apologies for the room smelling like shit. So anyone travelling to Leeds - NEVER EVER stay in the Park Plaza, they do not deserve their 4 * status at all the place is a stinky dive in desperate need of a plumber and cleaner.

So 1.30am comes around and we are still hotel'less, we decided to just find a travel in and cross our fingers. We found one but he said it was fully booked the receptionist called a few other places but they were also all booked.. He must have felt sorry for us because he gave us a room which technically should not have been rented out, it had a plumbing problem and smelled a little like smelly feet which I could and would just have to deal with, it was cheap and had a clean bed in it.

So the day of my Cousins wedding had arrived, Rory and I needed a shower and a bit of chill out time so met up with my mum and dad at their hotel and got ready there, it was the hotel where the reception was talking place so perfect really.

The wedding itself was in York Minster, absolutely gorgeous building and now the whole family know what its like being a tourist attraction as when we were leaving the minster there was at least 30/40 tourists taking pictures of the wedding party. It was like being at some really badly organised groupshoot lol.

Here is a little shot of the Happy couple - my little cousin Jacqueline and her Hubby Aaron, they make a fantastic couple and both Rory and I were delighted to be invited to help celebrate their big day. I do wish their happiness continues for many years to come!

Here is me and the mothership and fathership, Glad dad made it down to the wedding as his health has not been great recently.

Anyway today is a big day for me, I'm of to go get something checked out at the Drs.. I have been pretty worried about it but I'm sure everything will turn out ok in the end. I had a shoot with Barrie Spence yesterday which really took my mind off the examination im having today, we went to the beach and had a fabulous time together.

Right time for me to go have a cup of tea... fingers crossed my next blog will be a really positive upbeat one.

xxxxxx

From my time with Nick Giles

2010-08-19T02:39:00.001-07:00

Here are some images from my shoot with Nick which was back in July. We had a fun few hours doing these and I really like them especially the one in the doorway which I guess would have only worked for me because I actually could fit the whole doorway by stretching up.

Thanks Nick

Self portraits - moan and Publication

2010-08-10T04:45:00.000-07:00

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

Is it really all about the money?

2010-08-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

Howdy all...

With this blog I have attached some new stuff by Rory, he has been experimenting with light recently in the front room so I have been his little model. I was experimenting myself actually with some more erh shall we say 'open legged poses' ofcourse some of the poses I done last night were showing a little too much so I'm glad I have practiced some new poses to learn what works for my body and what doesn't. Thanks to Rory for doing such a superb job :-D

xs1111§

So anyway I will get down to the reason this blog has the title "is it really all about the money?"

Ever since I started modelling I have had friends/family/fellow models and photographers all ask the same question "did you get paid/are you getting paid for that", not sure if I'm alone but I think its a very rude question to ask. I'm not secretive but it seems like any answer other than "yes" gives people an eyebrow reaction as if they disapprove of me for only doing something for the experience/images.

In the past month 3 people have said something along the lines of "it doesn't matter as long as you were paid", which I find as insulting as the question - did you get paid?. Not sure if this post makes much sense but its just something which has been bothering me. Yes there are some people who wouldn't get out of bed unless someone pays them but I'm not one of them people, I don't work with creeps just because they are paying me nor do I work with people who I don't think are capable of taking a decent picture - That does not mean I will not work with beginner photographers, if someone has a passion for what they are creating and they are polite and want to learn or get better then I would be delighted if they thought I would be able to help them with there projects.. What I will NOT do is work with someone who has been shooting for apparently 15-20-30 years and still can't compose/expose an image, people who do think their work has no flaws.. Everyones work has flaws but most people (myself included) have no problem admitting the flaws.

I'm sure photographers must get this question too - be it when they have been published or they have shot a non streotypical looking model or family portraits for the experience. I understand people have to pay bills, heck I have loads waiting to be paid but for some people money really does make the world go round.

So does it make me less of a professional not to be obsessed with money? does it make me more of a hobbiest model just because I care more about the images than a wad of cash?

Yes most of what I do is paid bookings but that doesn't mean I will throw principles out the window and shoot any old shit, I strive to be a better model and to help as many people as I possibly can. I will never be a millionaire or be a highly published model but I'm happy with what I'm doing and know that tomorrow I wont see bad images of me shot by a gwc floating about online.

Fuck money - fuck doing things for money

they say money doesn't make you happy, it just makes it a little easier.

I started all this as a way to get out the house and help my anxiety - and the fact I'm no longer stuck in the house scared to go out makes me really happy, the images are a byproduct of my journey back to a 'normal' life.

Chrissie

t and toast :-)

2010-08-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

Well I've got some time to sit back and kick my feet up for a little while, having a little lunch.

I have another little busy spell coming up, Northampton/York like next week arrgghh. So much to organise but really excited as I've never been to either of those areas before for work.

Had a super weekend and was joined by eymc (Eddie) & his model muse Cassie who arrived on Saturday evening. I took them along to my local abandoned and half falling down cottages yesterday to shoot and a forest type area. Since I have shot in the cottage a fair few times Rory and I went for the forest haha. It was pretty torrential rain at this point (I do have one with the rain in it but its not been edited yet). We got some cool shoot then all came back home for a big feast, I didn't realise just how much food i had prepared until the coffee table was full haha.

We all had a play about with random lightup things Rory and I had sitting about and created some really bizarre and trippy images which just scream to be made into desktop backgrounds :-)

They are off to Glencoe today, I was going to go along but I thought it would be nice for them to have a day to themselves and get lost up random little roads in the middle of nowhere plus I have washing to do and my blog to update haha, might even go for a candle lit bath.

I think we are all shooting indoors this evening if they are not too tired from their mammoth travelling about today, i have my fingers crossed that it will stay sunny for them.. When it comes to Scotland I really am like a proud mum hoping that her child behaves (I always hope for good weather).

I have a shit load (sorry for swearing) of images on my laptop but the battery is dead so here are just a couple from my recent shoot with Nick Giles, still waiting on my favourite ones back though and can't wait to see them finished!

Later skaters xxx

Lake District..... and a couple of old ones..

2010-07-25T02:59:00.000-07:00

Well these images shot on the beach were taken a few months ago by Rory, I only just managed to retrieve them from the other pc. I thought we had lost them but no.
Heres a silly picture of Tim, Me and Dave H wearing my naked jumper..

I had such a fantastic time working with Tim and Dave, can't wait for Tim to come up with his friends Mary and Dinah!

This is from awhile ago to, shot by Mr Denis Chapman..in one of the abandoned houses I know which I haven't have much of a chance to shoot in before. I love it!

Ok so this is our 'lakedistrict' picture from Friday.

We did plan on having an evening and sunrise shoot in the beautiful lakes but we were both tired and couldn't find a hotel which was free on Friday evening we also got lost in the woods where we took this picture so it was getting dark by the time we went searching for a hotel.. We got 6 miles from Carlisle in search of a hotel and decided just to come to the best hotel of all and that was home.

There are a couple of other beauties from different spots in this forest but we have not edited them yet. I loved this one, the second I walked around the corner I told Rory to go stand on the bridge then I fired off a shot and showed him on the back of the screen what I think we should try.. Then it was my turn and this is how it turned out - Not sure if I like it in black and white or colour, I'm edging towards the colour version just because of the different shades of green and the warmth from the sun.

Not sure if I mentioned it in my past blog so I will here - I'm hoping to be in Northampton area next month, not 100% confirmed on dates - already have booked 3 of the provisional dates so far and will only be there for 5 days so if anyone else wants to work with me while I'm in the area then please get in touch.

Also I happened to win a cruise holiday and found out just before I left Scotland - as everyone who knows me will know I have bad anxiety when it comes to travelling and things, I hate planes and I don't really like boats.. In a way its like someone handing me the death sentence but I have to accept it would be rude not to and I would love to see more parts of the world and have Rory shoot me while we are away.

We leave on November 12th and are away for 8 days, I just hope my anxiety puts up with it if not then I might need a bit of a break after the holiday to get back to feeling normal again.

Right its time for me to go get some housework or something done, and unpack some bags. I have Eddie here next week staying so I don't want him falling over all the suitcases in my hallway. Think Monkia T will be here on one of them days too which will be nice!!

Cxx

Edd Firm part 2!

2010-07-25T02:52:00.000-07:00

After our indoor/in the garden shoot from part 1 we went out to an old office building, was a fantastic site but very smelly - think vodka and alcohol lots of pro-drug type graffiti on the walls too - I didn't fancy hanging about in there for 2 long neither did Edd haha.

Yes these are all rather similar - well they are at the same location but I'm having trouble picking my favourite from this particular set so I'm sharing a few here. I even like my naked jumper picture (the naked jumper goes everywhere with me).

This is from a slightly different part of the building, we were going for something else here but it was a little too bright outside for our 'something else' to actually work. There is always next time!!

Anyhow Edd will be coming up to bonny Scotland sometime soon so I can show him around up here, I have recommended a couple of Scottish models to him so hopefully he gets in touch with you guys and sorts something out with you.

Cxx

Ed Firm - Part 1

2010-07-25T02:15:00.000-07:00

Argg... Ok I'm doing Edd's blogs in 2 parts because of the volume of images we captured.

I kind of want to introduce Edd to everyone because I think he is a very talented photographer indeed. I spotted his profile on model mayhem shortly before leaving to go to Blackpool and decided to send him over a message asking if he would like to work with me while I was there, his reply was a big yes. He has never really worked with a 'model' before, only experimented and shot friends and the likes. I think he should totally get his name out there a bit more as I know I wouldn't be the only model who would like his images for their portfolio.

Anyhow Edd is great, I was really looking forward to working with him and I was not let down. I would give location names but to be honest I have no idea where we ended up. I just chucked on random bits of clothes - chain smoked and got on with it. We didn't really have any set ideas just went with the flow really.

These are in no order at all...Enjoy!!

Right stay tuned for part 2

A little evening with Paul Cox!

2010-07-25T02:05:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got around to doing a little shoot with Paul, he took me to Dunham Massey which was a pretty funky location the deers were all running around freely while shooting this set one little inquisitive deer came along I really thought we would end up getting some in the background but alas it ran away :-(

Paul was ace to work with, I love the way he uses light. We didn't have much time together so I'm super happy with the results we did get in such a short time. I fell in love with the skirt he had me wearing it was amazing so I'm going to treat myself to one!!

Thanks for the shoot Paul and the little drinks before the shoot in the bar.

I love being away but I'm glad to be home!

2010-07-25T01:41:00.001-07:00

Well I have returned from my week in Manchester/Warrington/Blackpool/Lake District type tour/holiday. I have lots of photos, ideally I would be putting them in order but Nick Giles seems to be slower than the other people I worked with lol. Its only been a week but I can'twait to see what we done.

So we left on Friday morning and travelled down to Manchester to our apartment, it was really funky!! The bathroom had a glass wall and wet room so ofcourse Rory and I done a little shoot, We didn't have the studio lights with us so it was all available light with hand held camera

which I know wasn't the easiest thing in the world for Rory to shoot but I think he done a fab job. There are some images from in the wet room which are a bit more glamour than I'm used to but the one image I adore from that set shows a little too much 'fluffy' so need to figure out a way to edit the fluff out haha.

The next morning I was up nice and early to take part in the artnude studio day along with -

MonikaT (Mon Model), Anita De Bauch, Allegria, Becci, Vasillisa, Lauren & my dear friend Amieboo. Amie's other half Andy_H and Rory spent the day together shooting Bella Ava.

There was some fantastic people there and it was great to work with so many new faces but I don't think group shoots are really for me. I always like getting to know people a little before the shoot and I like taking time to ensure they get something unique and eye catching and sadly I only had an hour with each group of photographers (3 at a time) so it was almost impossible to get a rap-our going with anyone. The location was really terrific but i'm not really used to not knowing who I'm working with or forgetting how many people I did work with.. I think it was about 18 or 19 but I really can't be sure. My expectations were different I guess, I expected less photographers - no more group shoots for Chrissie - Ending on a positive here are a couple of shots by the studio owner Jim Gormley who was an excellent host!

I like this one, you can see me in the backgroud working with Daf.. and Nige is also in the shot walking along :-)

I'm finding it a little tricky updating the pictures on my blog and dragging them to where I want them so going to do separate entries for the rest of the shoots I done while down south so its easier to read and view!

Chrissie x

Lucky Chrissie!!

2010-07-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Well I have arrived in Manchester safe and sound, the apartment is pretty cool although the bathroom has see through glass so not sure I want to wee when Rory is sitting watching the news across the room.

I found out last night that I won a cruise on one of the bingo sites I play on.

We leave on the 12th of november and fly to las palmas then basically cruise around the canary islands and then go over to Morocco for the day as well as lanzarotie (wish I could spell it). Anyhow Im excited but scared at the same time. I'm sure the all inclusive food and drinks will settle me a little as well as the swimming pools, casinos and entertainment on board. Can't believe how lucky I have been.

Tomorrow is the big stockport mega artnude day with some of the most awesome artnude models around, can't wait to meet them :D Then on Sunday i have a couple of shoots lined up then on to blackpool, only got one shoot planned mid-week and the photographer was a big of a hidden gem so really excited about that.

Anyway dinner time and some pictures with Rory I think!

Stay cool all

xxxxx

cr

Something that really pisses me off..

Andrew Box :D

Abandoned near Newcastle'ish!

My little trip away!!

Day 2 with Carl Grim!

Working with others!! - Katy Cee

Yorkshire Post!!

Ouch

By Request! *waves*

Another personal blog update..

Shoot with Carl Grim & New house :D

and a few more...

a few more :D

Our weekend with our future camera :D

Not at all related to model things..

Some other things :D

Mike Nicoll

Temptation!

A little day out..

Christ.. I talk a lot of Shite!

Part 3 Britalicus!!

Shoot with Kate Bradley :D :D

Self portraits aye?

Weekend in Aberdeen - By Shep

Steve Gabbett = pt 1!

After the rain comes the sunshine :D

Britalicus

I'm back!

Weekend - By Rory!!

England Trip with Sarah & Rachael!

I'm surprised you don't feel like shit everyday.... (moan)

Quickie

Part twa!!

Pheww deep breath!!

A couple of other.. Seeing as I am here :D

A day out in Glencoe :D

Pictures for Makepiece :D

Here are some recent out-takes :D

Some Selfportraits..

Sleeping pattern is a wonky again!

Another day at The Cutting Room

Shoot for Makepiece!

Phil Winterbourne

Back to the comfort zone..

Ze Cutting Room! Jan 11

Location shoot with Rory :D

only 1 post in January.

Let it snow...

Ericaaaaaaaaaa

Kirsty - Miss Hellcat

Happy 2nd wedding :D

Happy newyear.. (Did I say that already?)

Playing with the new lens :D

Christmas is almost here :D

and now..

Drac-In-A-Box with David Porter

Elgin - Single Speed - Neil

Elgin - The lovely Sarah (Zombie Sazza) & Mike (Abzloon)

Quincy - Elgin

Leaves with Robert John Hughs

So much to update on....

Gothic Diva Designs

Bus museum

Goshhhh!

A poem by Sarah

A day in Perthshire with Ian Patterson!

An afternoon at Contrast

Time is going too quickly....

Been a tadge busy...

painting with light..

Deed flowers..

My first groupshoot....

Chrissie met Perthshire Photographic Society...

Apologies..

errrm its not working..

Little green leaves

Hurm... where do I start?!

Intimate

Hiding :-)

By Request! waves