I do...
23.08.10 | ... do photoshoots
I love doing photoshoots. They're always a bit scary to organise - will the photographer, the models, the make-up artist and the clothes all reach the location at the same time? Will the sun shine?
Just one key person not turning up - or a box of clothes being returned late from a previous shoot - can blow the whole thing out of the water. And the weather can spoil everything.
Our wedding shoot was reasonably complicated.
Besides our beautiful models, make-up artist and lovely photographer we had to beg, borrow and negotiate (on a miniscule budget) a suitable location, extra non-knitted wedding dresses to go with our shrugs, romantic props, accessories and flowers.
Todmorden businesses and people are extremely generous - so we ended up with an enormous debt of gratitude if not a huge bill.
The first job was to sort out a location - for our wedding collection I really wanted to get the atmosphere right. It made sense to look for somewhere in Todmorden which has uplifting architecture - romantic, but not twee.
The professionals worked their magic. Morton Gledhill fashion team found me two models - answering the Makepiece brief of unusual and beautiful (not that we're demanding or anything), and Pamela Clare a make-up artist.
Then the hunt for suitable staging and accoutrements to make the shoot capture the label - not just any old wedding knitwear, you know.
Location, location, location...
Todmorden is justly proud of its Unitarian Church - a grand example of Victorian gothic architecture designed by John Gibson (a member of the Charles Barry team that designed the Houses of Parliament).
It's a building of considerable splendour - and some pretty amazing marble pillars - set on a grassy hill above the centre of the small town.
The trustees kindly let us use the church as a location. Even though we set off the monster burglar alarm when we went to do a recce... um sorry again... we won't reset the boiler next time.
And thank you again...
Something old, something new, something borrowed...
I turned to another set of professionals for advice and props. These are people whose doors I'd never normally darken, so I'm grateful to them for giving me so much as the time of day.
I managed quite a bit of enthusiasm for Nicola's wedding last year... but she was in charge! This might have been a photoshoot rather than a real wedding but I still had to make it look good - and I really don't have much idea about weddings.
Principally, Kath Staite who runs The Staite Room - the wedding boutique conveniently located round the corner from Makepiece.
Kath loaned us two dresses so that we could show how well our knitwear works with wedding gowns made from fabric. She's also a total wedding enthusiast - a good thing for the wedding novice.
Next door, Casson's flowers sourced and ordered us the biggest roses so that they'd show up well in photos and worked to get them open for the big day. They were English Avalanche roses - white tinged with green - which went well with some lilies and assorted other appropriate foliage.
Both were very kind about my lack of wedding knowledge and, indeed, air of general unease at the whole idea.
I also foraged around Todmorden market for interesting props - and was surprised to find a couple of veils to add to my treasure trove.
My fairytale wedding...
The setting for the shoot is important, but - given that I needed to be able to art direct with only a sketchy knowledge of the genre - I decided to create a story to give the shoot a narrative.
Not having a handy handsome man (well, just the photographer, but we needed him behind the lens...) to play groom I conjured up a storyboard in fairytale tradition.
I find that if you think of a narrative, everyone focuses on it and the pictures follow easily - even if you can't see the whole thing in one shot.
So the images were captured as the girls looked through a treasure chest of dressing up clothes, trying things on - until the 'dressing up' became real and magically they were transported into wedding dresses.
Personally, I'd find that terrifying, but luckily the models seemed to enjoy it!
Group effort...
It's quite amazing how many people you need to create an image.
Not just the model (although she is pretty and pretty important) but the make-up artist and at least one person to dress and tweak and generally make sure the clothes look lovely.
Then there's the photographer, whose eye must be matched by technical skills, lights, a big camera and an almost infinite well of patience and good humour. After all, shooting in a church is notoriously difficult - they're not big on light and whilst our eyes compensate for the gloom it's all too easy for it to dampen the mood. Then there are several perfectionist females to contend with... I rest my case.
We managed to persuade (or, rather, coopt) another local talent - more usually applying his big camera to fast moving mountain bikes and shiny technical things.
Chipps is usually found at the other end of Dale Street editing Singletrack Magazine. But he does do good pictures. And weddings. If you ask him nicely.
The other people involved in pressing and garment care were our lovely intern Lilli - whose handiwork can be also be seen in some of the samples - and Nicola. It took her an hour and a half to press the truffle dress.
I promise I did my fair share of pressing too - it's not all just telling other people what to do.
OK, I did that too.
Transformation...
I love the resulting images.
We managed to follow the story through - the transformation from exploring the contents of a dressing up box to brides walking tall in wedding gowns.
The architecture came into its own (if you must get married, it's the place to go), as did a lot of technical skill to get both it and our girls well lit.
The day was lovely - sunshine helped our flashguns as we used doorways, balconies and beautiful grassy grounds as our backdrops for many of the shots.
Our models - both relatively new to photoshoots - worked to make our garments look gorgeous. They were both super professional and a delight to work with.
Thank you to everyone involved.
Kerrie and Emma at Morton Gledhill
Chipps Chippendale
Hannah from Pamela Clare Make-up
The Staite Room
Cassons Flowers
Tomorden Unitarian Church
