Monday, October 29, 2012

Location Scouting

This was a VERY improvised, not-really-a-shoot with Elly Lucas in the Peak District. It's probably the most beautiful I've ever seen it, all autumn colours and deep greens. Autumn is absolutely my favourite season, hands down. Also, I lied. The last shoot with Ella won't be the last I do in Sheffield. I've got a couple more in the works.

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images ©Nathalie Donado

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Closing a chapter

Well, this is my last shoot in Sheffield. Life is pulling me to London and who am I to say no? It's another great adventure. I do have to say, it looks like I will be kept extremely busy for the next three months or so. I hope this doesn't mean a complete stop to my picture-taking, but I do expect less posts. Tis' one of the downsides. The other is no more constant photo days with Ella. It seems like I've known her for ages and at the same time like it's only been a few months since we met in front of the Psychology department. She then proceeded to drag me up one of the steepest hills in Sheffield. Now I suppose we'll have to travel around England to meet up. Silver lining.

It seemed apt to return to the Botanical Gardens, our favourite photo haunt. We were joined by Stevie and Edward, the reflector. Autumn leaves, winter berries, and evergreens oh my.

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images ©Nathalie Donado

Friday, October 12, 2012

Dark, little birthday shoot

So, I've crossed over to the unpleasant half of my twenties. Still in denial. To celebrate, I headed down to a cemetery with Stevie and Ella for a slightly gothic inspired shoot. In stereotypical girl fashion it took us two hours to make ourselves look mental before walking to the cemetery. Luckily the spiders where nowhere to be seen and our only audience were a pair of bemused undertakers. It was also the first time I took my new reflector (called Edward) on a shoot and it was a hit. I'm normally a natural light only girl but the reflector just adds a great touch to my subjects' faces. Hopping on the reflector bandwagon...

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images ©Nathalie Donado

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Microraptor

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Microraptors were little dinosaurs with wings and a talent for tree-climbing. Ella Ruth is a little dinosaur  with no visible wings and a penchant for tree-climbing. This is easily the silliest shoot we've done to date but instead of going all out ridiculous we took ourselves very seriously. Well, except for a bit of wrestling and a gif that will come back to haunt me in a few decades. Editing it wasn't nearly as much fun. I realized when I was looking at the photos on my screen just how much green there was. Which I should have realized as we where shooting in a forest. I sat down to edit and had no idea where to start. Originally I tried going very saturated, which made me dizzy, it was so colourful. Then I tried black and white but the dinosaur suit got lost. Then I went back to Lightroom to do some more subtle editing and ended up doing a much moodier atmosphere than I was intending. I like the moody-ness though. Right, I've been going on about editing for a bit too long. Behold, the photos.

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                                 Using that live-view in non-traditional ways....

images ©Nathalie Donado