Clic La Mode goes live!

Well it's finally come to fruition! Clic La Mode has finally gone live... featuring articles, blogs and a fabulous gallery section showing editorials from some of the industries most talented photographers (and me!)

Check it out and hope you like it!

Shoot : Meetings : Shoot : Meeting : Shoot

Shot a test yesterday with Anna from Models1 which I'm hoping I'll get chance to retouch in the New Year! I've got an exciting meeting this afternoon about where to host the forthcoming Clic La Mode networking event. Then tomorrow I'm shooting again, hopefully with another model from Models1, will find out if any of my options come to fruition later. There's then more meetings on Thursday then hopefully another shoot on Friday...

Trying to cram it all in before finishing for Christmas!

Shoot with Courtney from Oxygen Models

Did a shoot the other day with Courtney from Oxygen Models, great model and a lovely girl.

I wanted to give the studio a good run through and see if anything came up from the first time shooting in it.

Love love love the headshot we got from the shoot which you can see below and the rest of the images are in the previous post.

Make-Up & Hair on the shoot was by Carol Brown.

The rest of the images from the shoot with Courtney...

Missing in Action

Have been very very busy over the last few months, shooting, setting up the Clic La Mode website and also building and fitting out the new studio which can be seen at www.cliclamodestudio.com (which also had to be built!)

Most of the work is done now and am looking forward to the first shoot in the new studio tomorrow. Am shooting with the fabulous Carol Brown and Courtney from Oxygen Models, might even shoot a little behind the scenes video too.

Will post results soon.

Clic La Mode

I've been working on a new site idea with Cat Watson... my friendly neighbourhood Styling Cat.

The site is www.cliclamode.com and is a resource and forum for all those involved in the production of fashion images.

Please check it out, sign up and get involved in the forum!

more white background images pt2

Hair & Make-up: Claire Salter
Model: Rosie at Boss

more white background images

It does seem like I love to shoot on a white background! There something very pure and clean about shooting on one, there's no hiding place for the model or the photographer's direction.

So I shot a couple of things recently and the results of the first are below:

Hair & Make-Up: Claire Salter
Model: Hannah @ Boss

New Illustrated Work

Just received these back from Neil, the illustrator I collaborate with and am very excited!

I shot them last year but with going to LA and Neil's horrendous work load (he's always busy!) it's took a while to get them finished but here they are!


Model: Hollie - Boss
Make-Up & Hair - Claire Salter :: www.clairesalter.co.uk
Styling - Jess Stebbings
Illustrations - Neil Duerden :: www.neilduerden.com

B&W Hair Images

I've been slowly working on some new images, getting round to retouching them when I can. They will form part of a series of black and white hair images. I'm building the series up over time. Whenever I'm in the studio, shooting something new with a model who has long blond hair I try and grab 10 minutes at the beginning of the shoot to rattle off a few of these images to build the set up. I think I've got another couple that need retouching and another couple of shoots planned.

Just retouched another one today (top image) 

Model: Catriona - Boss

Hair & Make-up: Claire Salter

Model: Erica - Boss

Hair & Make-up: Claire Salter

You can see Claire's work at www.clairesalter.co.uk

New Card....

ok, to update from yesterday, it looks like we've completely changed our minds about the images that should be on the front of the card, meaning I didn't need to spend all that time at the computer on a Sunday afternoon!

Oh well, not image looks great!

Have been ringing around a few of the printers to get a couple of new quotes for A5 postcards and just need to finalise the images for the back of the card now.

New front of card shot.

Just spent the afternoon redoing the retouching on the shot that we think will be the main image on my new card. I've attached the finished image below...

Just basically spent about 5 hours listening to this afternoon's football whilst paying close attention to the blending of the image. I know that I rattled through them all at the beginning as they were being illustrated over so they didn't need a huge amount of attention. However they are lovely shots just on their own and so with it being front of card and going out to some pretty influential people I thought I'd better put a bit of effort in!! ;o)

Behind the scenes video from LA rooftop shoot

I had wanted to drop the finished versions of the images into the video but a backlog of work has meant that I haven't been able to get the shots finished off. So whilst waiting to get the chance to finish I thought I'd get the video up for people to see.

Behind the scenes video from LA rooftop shoot

Twitter

You can follow me on twitter if you like...

Find me on the following link

www.twitter.com/jameslightbown

look books...

Was sent a couple of really nice fashion look books through the post today. Beautiful quality printing and photography too, very nicely put together. It's really nice to see look books well presented with a bit of thought put into them. There's the odd occasion when clients are too eager to simply rattle through the shots and get a look book out there as they are too focused on their product (after they've spent 6 month producing it's a little understandable) But too often you see plain and boring images with no thought behind them... I think it's really refreshing when you see companies taking a really innovative approach to their look books and they're a joy to work on as well. 

A couple of season's ago I shot a look book for Playful Promises Lingerie which needed a mirrored box building and shooting into... lots of headaches in the production but a really nice feel to the finished look book, especially as the mirrors meant that you could virtually see all of the product in one image, which Emma, (the client) was very happy with!  (see below)

Client: Playful Promises, AW08 Look Book

MUA: Lucy Mckeown

Model: Rachel Sylvester

Been a busy week or so!

Most of last week was spent editing and retouching the first story from LA, which was the roadtrip shoot which now has the working title of 'California Dreamin'. It's now finished but is being pitched out to a few magazines at the moment, so is being kept under wraps for a while, apart from showing it to a few ad agencies with whom I've been making a whole bundle of appointments for next week. 

I went to see Mark at Dinosaur in Manchester on Wednesday which is always a pleasant trip as they have some pretty darn cool offices!!! I'm enjoying getting back out there and showing the book about especially with the chance to talk about the LA trip to anyone that will listen!!

I've also managed to retouch the shots that I did for Emma's book on the rooftop of the Bendix building. You can one of the images below... It was quite good fun as I don't normally get the models jumping around a lot, I normally shoot quite posed and still, however the huge amount of light meant I could play a little using faster speeds.

Plus I've finished choosing the pics from the shoot with Michelle, have started retouching those (the first one is to the left) Rather than in the bright sunlight I concentrated a bit more on the lovely light that was in the shade of the building which has come out with a really lovely soft feel to it. I'm really looking forward to finishing the series off. 

I've also edited the 'behind the scenes' video which is just waiting for me to finish all the images so that I can drop them into the video. Will post it when it's finished.

Slow file transfers!!!

After a whopping 22 hours, all the files are finally transferred onto the G5. Both the ipod and the external HD wanted USB2 and as I was absolutely shattered and just about to go to bed, I simply plugged them both into the nearest available USB ports.... hence the 22 hours!

So after a bit of file organising, I'm ready to edit! :o)

leaving on a jet plane...

Just been for our last sushi dinner. It's just so much better in LA then England. Just copying the last of the files onto my 60 gig ipod, which I've wiped clean and am using as an external drive for extra back up and data storage. I suppose that's the only draw back of the 5d mk II, my 18 month old macbook pro only has a 40 gig hd and I've shot about 50 gig of files since I've been here. SO a mixture of hastily bought DVD's and now a master back-up on the ipod will hopefully sort me out for the trip home.

Much as I've really loved it over here, part of me is really looking forward to getting back into the office and getting onto the G5 to process all the images! Will post updates as I edit....

muscle cars!

Just before coming out to LA I managed to queue jump from 38th to top of the queue to get hold of a Canon 5d mkII and it's been amazing! I'm blown away by it when I've shot with it. The functionality on it is pretty darned impressive. I'm kind of liking the personalised settings, on top of the lovely feel of it to shoot with. What I haven't had chance to really play with is the hi-def video that's bundled in with it. That is until today... we went out today to do a favour for my friend and got some footage of an old Chevelle and the 65 Chevy C-10 that I used for the editorial. They both have 350 V8's in and both will kick up huge clouds of burning rubber at the drop of a heavy right boot. Rather a nice way to spend the penultimate day in Cali, went to the beach, spent the afternoon playing in muscle cars and filming them in high def, then going for burgers & thick shakes in a '50's diner before going to watch a film in a retro cinema. Americana through and through!

One day left and then fly home to edit everything!

After shooting 2 tests and 2 editorials in 4 days I'm pretty worn out so today I'm having a bit of a lazy day off and trying to enjoy some sun before returning to the UK on Friday.

Both shoots that I've done since the last update have been fantastic! Both are for EyeCandy magazine. Sunday was a swimwear story shot on a private beach in Malibu, Monday was a roadtrip story shot using a friend's 65 Chevy C-10 truck which is an amazing truck and pulled the whole story together very very nicely.

I'm actually quite looking foward to getting home so that I can edit everything I've shot and pull it all together into some really nice stories. I think I might end up with about 20 pages for the roadtrip shoot and maybe 12 for the swimwear story.

Friday was good!

Yesterday went really well. Shot 4 things first with Emma for her book, which gave me the chance to try a few things out whilst Michelle went to a call back.

The shots with Emma are great and more importantly she's very very pleased. By the time Michelle was ready it was 3.30 pm and we managed to shoot 6 outfits in a little over an hour and a half. I shot with Emma in the direct sunlight and predominantly shot with Michelle in the shade which have come out really very nice and soft; perfect for the styling which was all long gowns and beautiful dresses.

What impresses me the most is crazy models that will do anything to get the shot and both Emma and Michelle are like that. So much so that both of them were virtually hanging off the roof of an 11 story building... makes me nervous but also gives me great satisfaction watching others work hard and give so much to do whatever it takes to make the shot.

I've had a quick review and know that there's some great stuff there but I'm going to have to be patient and wait until I get home before I can make final choices and edit and process them. So it'll be a while before I publish the results.

1st one!

Feels like the culmination of a long time of prep to get to this point!

Everything's gone smoothly so far, there was no traffic on the freeway, we got here exactly when I wanted with no delays, everyone's here and Michelle is currently having her make-up done, dresses are chosen and we're underway! yeh! :o)

Weather's great, suns out and not a cloud in the sky... but then I suppose that's the difference between shooting in LA and not Lancashire.

We're shooting these fabulous dresses on the rooftop with the LA skyline in the background, I'm just itching to get the first one in the bag now.

LA rooftop shoot

Today was a long day of prep, juggling four shoots and trying to get everyone in place for each day. Trying for different models, finding them not available, trying for other models and finding them not available. Moving models between shoots and checking different options, putting moodboards together etc etc. But everything is more in place now and really looking forward to it so fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.

So tomorrow we're shooting on an LA rooftop, got a great stylist, some amazing product and a model that I've been wanting to shoot with for quite a long time and now with a really exciting moodboard in place I'm really looking forward to tomorrow!!

LA so far

OK... so it's been a while since I last updated and I need to get back into the habit. I'm sat here late at night trying to put the finishing touches to a number of LA shoots. We've been here a little over 2 weeks now, we've done 2500 miles and I've seen a lot of California hunting for locations!

Now it's all come down to trying to put everything in place. Got 4 shoots booked in and am now frantically trying to put everything in place to get each one to come off. Still short of models for a couple of days, hair stylists for a couple of days and it's getting pretty close to shoot time! Nothing like flying by the seat of your pants. :o)