It takes both the sun and the rain to make a beautiful rainbow.
― Cinderella

That’s right. I’m starting this blog with a quote from Cinderella. If the shoe fits, or in this case, the quote fits, then wear the quote with fabulousness. This quote definitely sums up the weather we experienced during this shoot. It was sunny, then cloudy, then drizzling, then windy, then torrential, then back to sunny; it could not make up it’s mind at all. But it does not matter. We were chasing rainbows and making the light work for us.

The beautiful Eleanor modelled for these photos whilst the ever so talented Beth Atkins created the stunning, natural hair and make-up look. Ele sent me a message, asking to shoot an alternative lingerie shoot as she feels frustrated by seeing “boring lingerie shoots” popping up everywhere. She wanted me to help jazz up the lingerie look by bringing in a lazy Sunday, yet edgy, twist - totally up my street!

We shot at my house, after an exhausting and non-successful search for an indoor location, which turned out to be the perfect location. I mean, where else are you gonna spend a lazy Sunday? Home is the perfect place, right? Taking photos in a location that you have previously shot in can be challenging because you do not want to fall in to the trap of repeating the same shots over and over again. However, on this shoot, ideas were flowing very naturally and I was eager to use the small space to my advantage. We used my conservatory and the garden, which closely surrounds the conservatory, so that there was a clear link between internal shots and external shots. This also helped to keep the colour scheme consistent.

We shot four looks and shot all (except one of them) inside the conservatory and outside in the garden. The lighting was the most challenging part of the shoot, for both inside and outside set ups. Windy conditions meant we had limited time with direct sunlight before clouds pushed their way in front of the sun at irregular intervals. Patience is a virtue. We couldn’t help but laugh when we composed the shot and got the pose just right when the lighting would change and alter everything. Quickly, I would change the settings on my camera and take some photos before the lighting would change, yet again, and I would have to alter the settings back to how they previously were. When we noticed the passing clouds were only small wisps, we would sit patiently and wait for the lighting to change back to how it was. Although the conservatory is a beautiful, bright space, it was quite difficult to shoot indoors when the direct sunlight was pouring into the conservatory. This is due to the shadows cast by the window frames. I tried to use this element to my advantage and compose Ele so that the shadow placement was deliberate.

Mixing it up a bit, I dug out my glass prism from my camera bag. Glass prisms are great for creating dreamy reflections and pulling light into the frame. Whilst taking these beauty shots with the prism, we noticed the prism was creating a rainbow along the wall perpendicular to where we were shooting. Excitedly, we jumped up, switched position to shoot with the rainbow. However, my excitement meant we lost where the rainbow went. Using a prism, whilst enjoyable to experiment with, can become a bit arduous because any minuscule change in position can create a completely different effect. The changing lighting conditions meant the rainbow was not always present whilst moving the prism around. Carefully changing the position of the prism, I kept making strange “ooooooooOOOOOHHH-AH!” noises as though the sound would help lure the rainbow back. We so desperately wanted the rainbow to be where we previously spotted it. We couldn’t help but laugh at how so much effort was going into a simple beauty shot. This is when Ele decided the shoot should aptly be called Chasing Rainbows. A few moments and strange noises later, the rainbow was back in the perfect spot and we snapped some gorgeous beauty shots - possibly some of my favourites from the shoot.

I adore the photos from this shoot. I am thoroughly enjoying shooting with direct sunlight at the moment. If you follow me on Instagram, you will see that a lot of my recent shoots have incorporated shooting with direct sunlight. Hopefully the weather will remain bright so I can venture out, camera in hand, to take some more shots like these.

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