For my recent published photo shoot, my creative team and I transformed Norwich into the Wild West. How did we do this? Let me explain…

First of all, pick a day where it does not rain… Whoops! We shot this series at the beginning of September and we were having a particularly good week weather-wise. We had planned to take the photos late afternoon - early evening in hope of capturing some really golden images. In fact, I was out only two days before with another team around the same time and we had the most beautiful golden light. I was hopeful we would have the opportunity to shoot in the same light two days later. But ooohh no! The day started off really sunny but as the hours pulled away the skies became greyer and greyer. I met with Arleya and walked to Rebecca’s house to do the hair and make-up. Rebecca’s house is quite close to where we planned to shoot so this made it easier to stop off here first. Rebecca selected warm and red tones for the make-up but decided to keep the look very natural. The look was finished by two plaits. Perfection.

For this shoot I wanted to challenge myself so I decided to do the styling as well as the photography. I found inspiration on Pinterest to gather my ideas together. I had lots of items of clothing in my wardrobe which were western inspired or could easily be matched up with another item of clothing to make it suitable. I selected 4-5 outfits and paired them with accessories such as hats, gloves, jewellery and glasses. I kept the colour palette simple, focusing on monochrome with hints of blue to make it contrast the backdrop. Arleya got changed in to the first outfit and we walked to the location.

I thought the location would suit the shoot due to the long yellow grass and rolling hills. It gave us a lot to play with. The location even came with the cutest little black cat. As we started shooting the second look the little cutie had its sights on us. It came trotting over whilst Arleya and I were taking some really dramatic walking shots. It came up to us meowing, rubbing up against our legs and flopping over for cuddles. After a bit of excitement the cat sat down and just watched us, occasionally coming over for more cuddles. When we had taken enough photos we moved over to the next spot, with the cat following us closely behind. She did not leave our side for the entirety of the shoot.

This is when it started to rain. A little light drizzle to start, nothing to really get upset about. But as the shoot went on the rain did not want to hold out for us. At the end of the shoot I walked home like I had just been swimming in a river!

When retouching the photos I really wanted the colours to reflect those of the 1953 film Calamity Jane. I love the warm yet muted tones. I used Lightroom to achieve the colouring. I think this helped to transform rainy Norwich into the Wild West.

Since the shoot, the photos were featured on Whim Magazine.. YAY! Please go take a look at the feature and let me know what you think. I’m so pleased these photos were featured as I have been wanting to shoot a western look for over a year but never had the opportunity to actually shoot it. Arleya and Rebecca are super duper amazing and were fab to work with. I’m so thankful and grateful these photos were selected to be featured on Whim Magazine as a lot of passion and planning had gone into these pictures.

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