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Pure Amber

July 8th, 2011|0 Comments

Portrait shot of model Amber Foston The question is – what do you do with a model like Amber?

Treat her to some fine dining? Take her to a West End Show? Give her your credit card and put her in a boutique?

Or do you drag her off to a derelict hospital, and give her a bottle of water & packet of crisps?

The site of the former Harold Wood Hospital to be precise, and just as the bulldozers were waiting to go in and flatten the place! You really couldn’t get any more derelict, and it came with a morgue and dissection tables that really cried out for some ghastly make up – but more of that later.

Model Amber Foston posing in a corridor of a derelict hospital

In the spirit of things, it seems only right to show something of Amber before we made her look less than appealing!  So, we got Crystal Edwards, the resident Stylist for the day, to add a bit of lippy, eye liner, tussle her hair a bit, and put her in something more suitable for the location… (I think she done a bit more than that…)

Yes, this really was a grubby place, and not some where you’d want to visit in high heels and a little black dress, but then Amber had agreed to this so why not? A few more shots in this outfit, and we got bored; you can only take so many pictures of a person in the same place, the same outfit, and with the given number of poses – but also, those doors in the back ground were just crying to be used in a shot.

Model Amber Foston posing in a doorway, leaning on an open door

Whilst I moved the lighting around, I got Amber to  change in to something different and prop the doors open. Not sure this  is what I had in mind, but can’t fault her for initiative! Seemed foolish to pass up the shot…

I took a few more pictures, you have to keep  the ladies happy – they like to be pictured when they’ve been attended to by a Stylist, but then my patience ran out and I dragged her off to the morgue, and those lovely dissection tables.

I thought some one was setting me up when they offered to lend a gun as a prop – I think Amber was a bit shocked too.

 

Before we finished taking in the offer, a gun was produced and put on a dissection table, thankfully it was a replica – but it looked real enough…

Another change of clothes, fresh coat of lippy  and re-think how we were going to set up the shots -  we hadn’t factored a gun into the equation. Some red ribbon was added to the wardrobe and with it came some inspiration. The urge to create a James Bond pose was great – but I decided to leave her in a pose akin to how most bond villains are last seen.

It was about this time that Amber mentioned she had a hat in the wardrobe, I took the hint and gave the gun back. The hat was clearly going to be the new prop – the things we do to please the ladies!

Model Amber Foston, sat on a wrok top posing with a hat

The morgue had this lovely work top that ran the full length of the room, sat against the windows. The problem was how best to use the lighting off those windows, the white work top, and Amber’s cream dress. The obvious choice was to go with high key, but in the end we tried several lighting options,  making sure the hat was included in the picture…

It was about this time that we realised our day was almost up – and we still had another outfit to try out, which I wanted to shoot in mono. The thing is, with something like a morgue, the dissection tables and white walls lend themselves to a B&W photo. So, a spell with Crystal, the resident MUA, had to be sacrificed to get time for time to get the shots – which is pretty how we ended the day. The shot below, being almost the last shot of the day.Amber Foston posing on a Dissection Table

It had been a long day – the batteries were running out, the water had all been drunk & crisps eaten – and the bulldozers were itching to get on with leveling the place, ready for redevelopment. It was sad to think that there would never be a repeat opportunity to work at this location again. Much thanks should be given to Carlos Lyons, a fellow photographer, without whose help, this shoot would not have taken place.

Thanks should also be given to Amber’s sister Charlie, who was utilised as an assistant – well you couldn’t just let her sit around getting bored for the day, could you?

As for Amber’s hopes of Fine Dining, a West End show, or a Boutique – there’s always another shoot…

 

 

 

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