Custom Fairy Image with Caroline

I was booked for a custom fantasy shoot with the very lovely and extremely interesting Caroline, and was immediately excited to be working with her on this project. Caroline wanted to be a fairy in her image, but something a little more edgy and with tattered wings. She asked to be in a set of ruins in the image with moss and vines around, and for the image to be in greens.

Portrait of the lovely Caroline

We met up with Caroline at the Metal Monocle pub in Leicester for her consultation, as this is where Caroline initially encountered my work at one of the periodic Monocle Maker’s Markets. (If you like alternative arts and crafts, be sure to check out their makers markets!)

At Caroline’s consultation, we discussed images that Caroline liked and what she wanted from her custom photo shoot. We were both looking forward to the shoot after the consultation, having gone over her ideas and wishes for the created image.

We set a date to work on location, but the evening before Caroline decided that she would prefer not to work on location. We very smoothly reset the date and arranged to work in a studio instead, Caroline’s comfort being paramount.

We decided to shoot at Aura Photographic Studio in Weedon Bec near Northampton, which is a great studio to shoot at, and made out booking right away for the first mutually convenient date.

We had a slightly off-putting start to our shoot as the photographer using the studio before us was shooting right up to our starting time, and only began to pack up at pour starting time which meant 15 minutes of our time was spent waiting for him to finish up. Although the studio agreed to allow us the 15 minutes at the end of the shoot, is never-the-less meant we had not yet set the lights when Caroline arrived, which I found annoying as it was out of my control.

Caroline was patient with us whilst we set everything up. The very talented Andy Kirkby, an amazing photographer in his own right, had come along and arranged our lighting for us before we got down to the serious business of shooting. Andy often helps me with lighting and tech, and his technical support is invaluable to me.

Andy then left Caroline and I to work so that Caroline could be entirely comfortable as she was in lingerie, and we set to work in getting the eposes we needed to bring her idea to life.

The shoot went well, although I was using a new camera and had to make some adjustments to what I was familiar with. We had allowed plenty of time for the shoot and tried a few different poses, some specifically with the original image idea in mind and some others for extra inspiration. We discovered that certain poses were easier to get into than others, and we took a selection of poses so that there were some different options to work with after the shoot.

Caroline had red hair on the day and asked to change her original request of being in greens, to being in reds to match her hair. That was easy enough for me to accommodate, of course!

Caroline loved the look of a different set which she spotted at the studio, which would not have worked for the image we were working towards. She immediately wanted to book another shoot with me as more ideas came to mind for us! Knowing Caroline loved the alternative set, I photographed the chandelier from it and resolved to try and work it into her image in some way.

After the shoot, I photoshopped Caroline into some ruins, building them around her to suit the pose I liked best from our shoot, whilst keeping her remit in mind. I added in the chandelier I had photographed from the studio, and created wings for her. I adjusted Caroline’s clothing to match her wings, and her pretty yet edgy fairy image was born!

Fairy with tattered Wings, image as per Caroline's remit

I really liked the final image, but I also felt we could get a little more as welll from our photoshoot. Whilst taking the custom photographs, and seeing Caroline whilst we were taking the photos, I wanted to try something a little different to what Caroline had originally asked for as well as filling her request for her image. I couldn’t help but choose a second image to work with as I felt so inspired and had an idea in mind from when we were shooting together! So, I started on a second image.

Caroline is so interesting and she has a unique blend of looking dangerous and mysterious, but that is tempered by a little cuteness about her which I only noticed whilst shooting her. It is amazing how you can sometimes see more in a person when taking photographs of them than you might see with your own eyes. I wanted to capture all that I saw in Caroline in another image, so went with my muse and created something a little different in addition to what she had asked for.

I loved the look of the additional image, which was a little darker and more mysterious!

My creation based on how I perceived Caroline

When the images were completed, we printed them for Caroline, which we can do ourselves to A2 size, and which we prefer to do so that we can control colour and quality. I then met up with Caroline at a pub in Loughborough to hand the custom photographs over. Caroline’s exclamations of delight left me in no doubt that she loved her images. I know I certainly did and that I really enjoyed myself working with her on this project!

Later, Caroline said again that she love, love, loves her images, and has said that she definitely wants to book to work with me with me on an image again. I look forward to working with her in the future!