Last Friday we loaded the car down with retro props, camera and lighting gear and set out for Brighton. Our destination – Hotel Pelirocco…the goal to get shots of the various strikingly different themed rooms, then to do a shoot with a number of talented models.
Fortunately we were based in the Bettie Page room which is only on the first floor – it proved easier to drag the bags of kit up the stairs rather than squeeze into the pint-sized lift! Some of the rooms are perfect for shooting, although our room of choice had already been booked. I won’t tell or show too much here as the images are slated for use in a couple of magazines.
Time would be tight, as new guests would be checking in mid-afternoon, but in the interim we were lucky to have been offered a window for shooting in an additional four rooms. So as soon as each model was made-up and coiffed, it was a choice of outfits and off to one of the rooms. After a day of climbing up and down four flights of narrow stairs, carrying lighting and cameras, my knees really started to let me know they were not happy!
Brighton early…
It was bright and early on the Saturday when we welcomed Verity and Gemma from The Vanity Box who were to look after the hair and make-up. Space was at a premium, so the girls set up in the bathroom area. I have to say that this team created some amazing retro looks, working from the most cramped area you can imagine.
Gemma attends to Acid doll (L) as Verity coiffes Miss Phoenix
Dresses, lingerie and…
We were really lucky in our outfits as we had a wide selection for the girls to model: first there was a selection of vintage lingerie, corselettes, bras, girdles and vintage stockings from Sleek ‘n Chic. You can view a couple of the outfits here.
Then we had rockabilly and retro dresses from Lady-K-Loves and Outerlimitz, and jewellery from Bow & Crossbones.
The models…
By 8:30am Sam Huggins was undergoing her transformation as our first model. This was Sam’s first vintage shoot, and I thought she did really well…although every time she caught sight of her reflection she could not believe it was really her!
Sam Huggins
From there on until 6:30pm was a blur of photography (maybe an inappropriate turn of phrase there!) as Miss Lula Mae arrived, followed by Acid Doll and Miss Phoenix. I have shot with all three of these models before.
Acid Doll was over on a fleeting visit from Belgium, and has the pin-up style really sewn up. She is a chameleon, always able to produce different looks and a consummate professional. Lula Mae has a classical vintage look, and an amazing collection of vintage outfits…she could have stepped straight out of the pages of a fifties Vogue magazine! Miss Phoenix is an up-and-coming burlesque artist with gorgeous red hair and great expressive eyes.
Miss Lula Mae in pensive mood, wearing one of her vintage dresses
Acid Doll, channelling Bettie Page, at the Pelirocco Hotel
Miss Phoenix modelling Bow & Crossbones jewellery and Lady-K-Loves dress
The technical stuff
For those interested in the photography side, my goal was to rely as much as possible on natural light, supplemented by either diffused flash or reflectors, just to fill in shadows. I’ve always tried to shoot at low ASA to minimize grain, and today, on my Nikon D700 I worked between 200ASA and 800ASA. This created a few issues, the primary one being the wide apertures and slow shutter speeds. Often I found myself shooting with aperture wide open, and sometimes with shutter speeds as low as ¼ second, not the best recipe for sharp images! To minimise camera shake I used a monopod, but there were a percentage of images where slight movement of the model gave unwanted motion blur. In the future I will have greater confidence in the camera’s higher ASA speeds!
The results…
It took quite a while to check and sort the results, but I am delighted to say there are several hundred really good shots which you should soon be able to enjoy on the stockists’ websites, and in various magazines too. A big thank you to all involved, including my wife Debbie who helped style and ironed all the outfits too!
