An early XMAS! Shoot with Red Magazine

To brighten up this blog a bit and to brighten up my life to, I booked a small job that turned out to be one of the most fun jobs I have ever done. It was for Red Magazine and it was their Xmas edition of the magazine. Now I have to admit that before going for the job I wasn't too keen on it due to the small amount it was worth and it clashed with other work I had on. But I was extremely glad I did it.

I turned up to a studio/house in Shoreditch and the whole crew were so lovely. Very friendly from the off, which 99% of the time is the perfect sign of a relaxed day ahead. I also found out that working on the job with me was a guy I had worked with on one of my first shoots over 4 years ago. And what a great guy he is as well, the perks of my job when you get to meet and work with some very nice people.
(quick note about this guy, Matt Bailey - check out the link to his new comedy pilot called The Buffy Diaries! It is absolutely brilliant. You may need to copy and paste it, but I recommend it to all. www.rmc-design.co.uk/buffypilot )

Back to the shoot...there was a wonderfully designed table with everything Xmassy around it that you could imagine. Crackers, Xmas lights, candles, presents and even a tree in the corner!!! It was very bizarre as it was a warm September afternoon and the sun was shining outside, so slightly bizarre as you can imagine. First job to be seated at the table and toasting champagne with 6 of us. Very simple and they wanted us to drink the champagne too! Result. It was lovely as well and it didn't take us too long to finish the first bottle off! Those who know me won't be too surprised by that ha.



Next off it was on to the red wine, more toasting, smiles, laughter, which was very natural as the atmosphere amongst everyone was fantastic. Sometimes when your shooting, and the photographer asks you to smile, it's more forced and amazingly to some is quite obvious in a photo. When it's natural laughter and happiness, it looks so much better and of course, realistic too.

Xmas dinner time! And what a xmas dinner it was! The trimmings and it was edible too!!! That might sound a bit strange right? Well so often food is used in shoots as an accessory, there to look pretty as part of the detailed background to a shoot. The food is often sprayed with something to make it look shiny, and tasty, when in fact it is not edible one little bit! It's often like a tease, a temptation dangled in front of you that you can't have. So what a lovely surprise to be able to enjoy a xmas meal whilst shooting!

I'm sure so many are thinking the same thing, "this is work???". But it was. A bit of dessert later and some more snapping away by the photographer and continued laughter and that was the day complete! Seriously that was it! It made me fall back in love with the industry for a bit after recent times contemplating the whole modeling world. This is fairly common practice for me when work doesn't go as well, but there is always something that drags me back in when it seems I will "retire" from the industry.

Let's hope this will bring about a new form of confidence and happiness to move forward to the future.