Retouching examples

(click to enlarge photos)

This is not my photo. All photo credit to the photographer

Ell & Cee Lingerie

W.I.P screen shot

Blue Daisies Florist shoot

Portraits

Now I make your photos pretty too, huzzah!

If you are interested/looking for someone to touch up a few of your photos then please send a low res copy of the photo and a specification of the adjustments you want made. Whether you need photos fine tuning for your portfolio or just want a family photo sprucing up, i'll be happy to help! Further examples are available upon request :)

e: info@lottesimons.com

web: www.lottesimons.com
follow: www.twitter.com/lottesimons
like: fb.lottesimons.com

Blue Daisies

So here's a little selection of images I shot for Blue Daisies, a new florist company. I'd not shot anything remotely bridal before now so it was a lot of fun doing something new and the kids certainly helped to keep things fun throughout the day!

Claire was kind enough to give each team member one of the bouquet's to take home which was a beautiful gift :)

If you need a florist I highly recommend them: Blue Daisies Website

Geneva Lane: Photos

So these photos have been a long time coming and even though I gave you some behind the scenes pics in a previous blogpost, thought i'd give you all a little video as well as!

They were shot back in April and I have only just caught word today that it's all good for me to release them. Just a little photo session I had with Geneva in the first half of this year, we played around with concepts a lot to begin with as it was important that we got the right image for her seen as this would be her first solo shoot but as this would just be promos and we were working without a stylist we kept it simple and treated it more as a good experience on Geneva's behalf to be infront of the lens on her own.

It hadn't been too long that she'd been out of the limelight after her appearance on the 2010 Xfactor as part of Belle Amie. Which meant 4 or 5 months after last appearing in my front room on the tv screen, she was back there in person. As the first recognisable face i've shot, it felt quite surreal.

I worked with make up artist Lucy on this shoot to create two different looks, one i'd wanted to do for a while with feathers in the hair and the second simply red lips & eyeliner. Realising I had some nerdy frames in my bag I handed her those too and think it really suited her character a lot more so the second look had a lot more personality to it.

Myself and Lucy both wore a feather in our hair too as we'd joked that we didn't want it to look like Gen had been the victim of a violent duck attack to passers by. Whilst at the second location we also sat and watched the ferry's coming into Dover port, observing one that appeared to be doing the slowest handbrake turn ever known to man (tryin' to impress the ladies! ;) )
Finally, aside from the photos, if there was one productive outcome from that day back in April it was that we forged an unbreakable bond from our shared admiration of one Spongebob Squarepants. To which I leave a tribute at the end of this post.

Jade & Zatessa

Click to enlarge

A couple of weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of meeting and photographing Jade and her lovely mare Zatessa (Tess).
It was a lovely warm day and courtesy of Tess's charming but adventerous personality compelling her to go forth and explore new patches of road, grass, tree, sky, fence, leaves, gate and all other inanimate objects worthy of her attention, I was boiling hot and probably managed to burn 2 days worth of food keeping up with her. I have to say thank you to Jade for her infinite patience riding back and forth up the road for the perpetual lens changes.

I adore shoots where I have the chance to photograph both portrait and ridden images as you spend most of the day getting to know the owner and the horse as individuals within a co-existence. A relationship that you then have the responsibility of doing justice in the photos, setting up moments that represent that as well as sneaking shots of the spontaneous incidents where that just naturally happens.

Ridden and working shots, on the other hand, tend to leave me on the sidelines. Aside from giving tips as to where exactly to ride or circle around me to catch the best light, this is a chance for me to take a step back and watch the pair transform into one perfectly attuned team.
This is why I love shooting for horse owners and taking on private clients, it gives me that opportunity to witness and document the I, You and We of equestrianism and the challenge of making sure each shoot depicts the unique form of each one of those.

Jade Power:
www.drewdana.com
info@drewdana.com

Happy Halloween!

Seen as last year I did a halloween self portrait as I wasn't out celebrating on the actual day, I thought i'd make it an annual sort of shindig. Here is 2011's little set. They're just simple little things as i've been really busy with retouching work and clearing a backlog of horse photos from the past four months or so.

I vamped it up this year, not wearing fangs in this set but I did have them for the night. They're AMAZING and looked like this:

(sorry for bad quality, it's a phone snap of my laptop as I was editing the actual photo)

Beautiful all year round

If you're the sort of horse owner who deems spring/summer the only seasons you can get good photos of your horse then you're certainly missing out. No, you wont get the shiny, sleek looking coat during autumn and winter but you do get a wonderful snap of their character shining through and the potential for photos that create a lot of drama.

Whilst I can appreciate the seasonal quality to equine photography, throughout the winter months I have clients book shoots for spring/summer when "the weather's a little better" or their "horse doesn't look so scruffy" Embrace the scruffy, fuzzy look! That's their appearance for half the year and they look just as beautiful as they do in summer, it's a variation to the normal horse images. The windswept look and grey stormy clouds can be incredibly dynamic and show your horse in a different light.

Also, don't worry about aspects of shooting in various weather conditions that are of the photographers concern. It's our job to do all the clever logistical thinking and planning and if we're not worried about it, you shouldn't be either. We have experience and equipment that can cope with all sorts of issues raised when shooting on location, infact, there's one photographer who posted a set of photos of a man herding his horses up when they escaped after the volcanic eruption in Iceland. His photos are striking and he was in a situation where there can't have possibly been much light due to ash cloud coverage and the weather conditions were volatile.

Furthermore, the concern of any stuck in dirt is nothing a good groom wont take off OR you can get some great action shots of them stampeding round in the mud, if you have access to a stable that has atleast one natural light source there's always the opportunity for simple yet effective portraits and finally there's the ability to use lighting equipment. Admittedly that last point is horse dependent, if they're easily spooked it's not necessarily going to be the best option for them.

I really hope i've managed to sway atleast one or two peoples opinions that horse photos don't have to be seasonal and the change in weather and your horses appearance can be used to your advantage.

With the wind

Some images from a recent client shoot. She's actually an old school friend, we went to secondary school together so was a great chance to catch up! Her friends were bugging her to try modelling so she decided to book a little taster session with me, I think she did amazingly well considering it was the first time she'd plonked herself infront of the camera. Well done Aster!

These types of shoots are available to anyone who is maybe thinking about modelling, just want to have some fun infront of the camera or are looking for some pretty pictures of themselves!!
Any questions, queries, worries, troubles, issues, you need only to email me for an answer or some advice :)
lottesimonsphotos@gmail.com