Eleanor Jane

Links 10.02.12

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo

♥ A Beautiful Mess gives us five tips for shooting perfect outdoor photographs.

♥ Famous photographers pose with their most iconic images in Tim Mantoani's new project which archives photographic legends. He shot the whole thing on 20x24 Polaroid at $200 a pop!

♥ For all the wedding photographers out there looking to give their business a little kick, Rock & Roll Bride shares how to get the best out of exhibiting at a wedding fayre.

♥ Some strange soul has scanned the entire Argos catalogue from the year I was born and uploaded it onto Flickr. There are bad dinner services galore, clunky cameras, a whole page of typewriters and really really ugly duvet sets.

♥ I just had to quickly edit this post to share a beautiful project called Love Ever After with you (thanks to Debs from Belle Amour for alerting me to it). I spent most of yesterday evening blubbing my way through the last few episodes of the BBC drama 'Call the Midwife' so am well up for some sentimentality today!

Real Weddings: Hannah & David

Oops, I can't believe I forgot to blog about this! VOICE magazine are running a new 'Real Weddings' column over the next few issues and I've been writing it. This is Hannah & David's wedding feature from the January 2012 issue. More to come!

Ffoto Week 02.02.12

Hello hello! This time last year I was sunning it up on the road in California so January 2012 was always going to be a bit of a plod-along month in comparison. For me anyway... Peabrain still flew out to Los Angeles to work for a week while I was left home alone. I consoled myself by planning our next trip (why is Tombstone so far away from everywhere else?!).

1. He did bring me back this awesome repro Elvis poster from Amoeba Records though. Love it! I'll have to get a frame asap.

2. New year, new business cards! Amazing customer service from Moo after my order arrived all muddy coloured & wrong. They dispatched a new batch the following day and they were perfect.

3. Some of my Zakk Wylde shots from last year are in (& on the cover of, yay!) the new Rock Guitar Heroes book from Guitarist magazine. He's in good company between Jack White and Angus Young so I'm well pleased.

4. I've been so obsessed with my new pedometer I've even had it clipped to my pyjamas and accidentally worn it to bed several times. My inspiration? This study. My mission? To beat the Amish! Yesterday I finally succeeded but I'm still fixated with it and need a new challenge.

5. The most exciting thing to happen is that one of my brides from last year, Emma, is starring in the new Simple skincare advert in America... and so are my photos - woohoo!

The Lash

Introducing my boyfriend Chris' latest musical incarnation, The Lash, a 45,000 RPM rock 'n' soul hurricane blowing through a city near you soon. Like the devoted girlfriend that I am I allowed them to drag me out of bed very early on a Sunday morning to shoot these pictures at Les Croupiers casino in Cardiff (with the aid of a very large tea and the promise of a giant sandwich afterwards!). Check out their new single here and more tracks here.

Links 13.01.12

Courtney Love's goal board - © Peter Murdock

♥ Courtney Love takes xoJane on a tour of her West Village, NYC townhouse. The decor is totally not what I expected with lots of antique furnishings, a little bit chintzy really!

♥ Iconic photojournalism of 2011... with added Lego!

♥ What do you think of these colour photographs of Russia over a century ago? Now, I know colour photography has been around a lot longer than many people think but for some reason I still couldn't believe these were 100% genuine at first. It took a lot of reading up on the process to convince me.

♥ On a similar theme here is some fascinating colour movie footage of London from 1927. Everyone is so smartly dressed and wearing a hat. How proper!

♥ These rare lenticular clouds, usually only seen over large mountain ranges such as the Himalayas and the Andes, were photographed in the skies above West Yorkshire recently. Apparently these cloud formations are the single biggest explanation for UFO sightings across the world (but personally I believe little greys are always to blame!).

Backstage at Opeth - Guitar World

Ok, I'm aware that it sounds like I say this about everyone I seem to meet through my photography, but Opeth are such friendly, down-to-earth people… I'm starting to believe there's no such thing as the stereotypical rock & roll ego!

I recently joined them on a couple of dates of their UK tour to shoot some behind the scenes pictures for Guitar World magazine and they were so very cool & accommodating. Frederik Akesson is an incredible guitarist, his playing mesmerised me into a state of total adoration and I have to admit I left with a little bit of an obsession! At one point I was up on the balcony of the Birmingham O2 seeking out a new angle to photograph sound check from but was so enthralled by Frederik’s intricate playing I ended up sat tucked away in the corner, watching & listening, camera in my lap… oops.

The magazine came out last week in America so hopefully a few copies should trickle across the ocean soon. In the meantime, here’s an awesome song called Slither from the new album, written in tribute to Ronnie James Dio. Enjoy!

 

 

The Hyde Family Portraits

I love outdoorsy, natural portraits. Although they're always a risk in the dismal British climate I think it's worth battling the elements to achieve something more interesting than the standard high key, white backdrop look. Thankfully Robbie and his kids thought so too, so in early December we took off to the Newport Wetlands nature reserve to shoot some surprise pictures as a Christmas gift for his wife. The rain held off and we even had an intense burst of sunshine which enhanced the bright colours of the kids clothes until they popped against the dark grey of the rainclouds in the distance. Don't you just love it when nature Photoshops for you?!

Links 06.01.12

© Hedi Slimane

♥ Woah, so Frances Bean Cobain is no longer the little grunge baby in the iconic Stephen Sweet pictures of Kurt & Courtney at home. With those genes she was clearly never going to be anything less than an incredible model but something about these photos leave me feeling oh so unsettled.

♥ Encourage your wedding guests to get creative with their snaps with this cute idea from Etsy.

♥ Barbie & Ken get married. Posing my Barbie dolls for impromptu fashion and wedding shoots is exactly how I got into photography so I adore this. The standard is much higher than what I achieved in 1993 with a Kodak 110 camera but I should really scan those old pictures in for a bit of a retrospective blog - Ffotogirl: The Early Years!

♥ 20 Myths About Becoming a Professional Photographer (& how to avoid falling for them).

♥ Kids' drawings are hilarious and Imagine Awesome is one of the funniest websites ever! The artist Garrett Miller re-imagines the drawings the way he thinks the child intended them to look if only they had the skills.

Baby Tomos

Do you remember Owain & Stacey's pretty country barn wedding from late 2010? Well, they certainly didn't waste any time settling in to family life - I think most of us were still recovering from the epic reception party when they announced that baby Tomos was on his way! Here's a sneaky peek at some shots I took of him at four weeks (he's nine weeks old now), awake & wriggling like crazy. Until I finish knitting my bright & cheerful newborn hats I'm loving shooting these baby pictures almost exclusively in black & white. Hope you guys like them too!

Anna Calvi - Total Guitar

YES! The January issue of Total Guitar magazine is out which means I can finally share my favourite portrait of 2011 (at long last!) - the beautiful and enigmatic Anna Calvi. This photo was taken in the hull of the Bristol Thekla months & months ago just before the live gig I shot for this feature. I stepped pretty far out of my comfort zone with all the music photography over the past few months but I've definitely thrived on the chaos... here's hoping for more awesome band shoots in 2012. HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!