Tracey Barrow Photography

“The Body Says What Words Cannot ~ Martha Graham”

A little while back myself and a couple of fellow photographer friends Chrissy Mathew and Jo Rutherford were chatting and we mentioned about getting together to do a shoot.  As with most things in life we all have good intentions that never come to fruition!  However on this occasion we set a date there and then!  Determined not to let this shoot be simply another passing comment we set to work on organising when and where.

I had an idea of the sort of thing that I wanted to do and ran it by Jo and Chrissy both of whom were happy to go with it.  I have a thing about derelict buildings and find them fascinating so knew that I had to find somewhere that had a past but lost history to do the shoot in.  I managed to find the perfect location and also get permission to shoot – happy days! I put out a casting call for a model that had a background in ballet as this was one of the themes that I had in mind and luck must have been on our side as the gorgeous model  Zana O’Connell replied.  All three of us had actually shot with Zana before so we knew how amazing she was to work with!

Of course a photo shoot isn’t quite complete without a makeup artist and we were very fortunate to have Laura Walton onboard.  Laura spent the time and effort ahead of the shoot to study our mood boards and come up with suggestions of her own.  Even arriving on the day with little example sheets where makeup had been applied to a face on the paper – I am sure that there is a technical name for these sheets so I apologise for not knowing it!  Not only did Laura do a fantastic job with the makeup she was an awesome assistant, holding our reflectors for us and basically following us round the location!  All in all we couldn’t have asked for a better MUA!

We had set the date for the shoot as the 10th May and from the beginning of May all it did was rain!  This wasn’t a good omen for the building as it was in a pretty bad way to begin with so rain would simply gnarl away at it’s already damaged core…  The day arrived and I was up with the lark and extremely grateful to see the sun shining through the window, although on arrival to the site the last few days of rain had made a pretty bad mess of things making it extremely damp and cold inside.  As it was much warmer outside Zana and Laura set themselves up out the front of the building to get ready while myself, Chrissy and Jo set about deciding on locations to shoot.

The whole essence of the shoot from the beginning was about a lost soul, the past – what could have been and remembrance of what had been.  What was so great about the day though was how each one of us evolved while shooting and had our own ideas on what to make of the day and how to make it work for ourselves.  It was so great to see the sparks coming from both Chrissy and Jo  :)

Added to the obvious fun and enjoyment this shoot gave me it was also a tremendous learning curve – here are some of thing that I have learnt:

Nobody can pack a Smart car better than Jo Rutherford – I dare anyone to take the challenge!

I overshoot way too much, I need to take the time to focus and compose more.

Fox pee and poop is really rather smelly.

Look for the light!!!

I am much braver than I thought with releasing trapped pidgeons.

Stick to one or two ideas – no more!

Relax and don’t worry so much about all the little things.

I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY

I know I have thanked everyone already but I want to thank them all again for making it the truly amazing day it was, it was in difficult circumstances and I think we all got dripped and blobbed on from water and gooey stuff that was pouring in from the ceilings!  The day was full of fun, farting bubblewrap, photographer on photographer love (Jo has the evidence – I warn you if you ever shoot with me – I am dangerous!!) and lots of learning!  Thanks to Jo and Chrissy for all their pearls of wisdom – I always love how much you can learn from others and thanks also to both Zana and Laura who coped so well considering the bog like location!   Next time I promise to find us a slightly more glamourous place!!

 

Of course no shoot is complete without a few behind the scene shots, here is our lovely MUA Laura getting Zana ready and just a small selection of our props – seriously we had double this!  Oh and the two creative prop directors there

Chrissy and Jo demonstrate exactly how it’s really done and I think Jo may have had a little too many beans for breakfast….

Creative team:

Photography: Jo Rutherford, Chrissy Mathew

Model: Zana O’Connell

Make Up: Laura Walton