Happy Birthday Dave!

Good morning and Happy Monday! The main point of my blog post this week is to wish the wonderful Dave Edkins a Happy Birthday for yesterday :)

If you're a regular here, you'll know that me and Dave work together an awful lot and we create some absolutely amazing images together. We also co-run workshops and have managed to bring together a lovely group of photographers through that. We work so well together and we have an endless (and growing) supply of ideas to keep us going.

On top of the way we click creatively and work well together, Dave is someone I am fortunate enough to consider a close friend. He's been there on the other end of the phone whenever I've needed him with a listening ear, sound advice or just a distraction (whatever I've needed at the time). He is also a wonderful role model for my daughter as 'Aunty Dave' and she absolutely adores him. I also may not have ever returned to modelling if it wasn't for Dave. I am very lucky to have him in my life.

I wrote a blog post last year about how me and Dave met and how we ended up doing the workshops together. It's a lovely read, and you can click here to check it out. I also wrote a post showing some of the images we have shot together over the years in a throwback post for subscribers which you can read by clicking here if you're subscribed.

Today's post is some portraits me and Dave captured on a location shoot recently. I've said in posts before that Dave has a wonderful way of capturing portraits of me that I just adore. I obviously see a lot of photos of myself on a daily basis, but there's always something a little different about the way that dave captures me. It's probably because in between shots we are chattering away or giggling so the portraits are less posed and more relaxed. But anyway, I hope you enjoy looking through these images and join me in wishing a very special person a happy birthday <3

Portraits

These portraits were all taken towards the end of a shoot and although we were going for an art nude vibe, I was actually wearing my leggings for all of them. There were occasionally people walking past and it was on a main footpath, so it seemed a safer option to just stay half dressed. In these first two portraits, I love the expression. It's difficult to not look a little bit angry in every shot when there is bright sunlight because of the light in my eyes, but that expression can really work in portraits sometimes.

The expression on these next two is a little softer when I was turned away from the sun a bit more. It also casts some more interesting shadows that add depth to the images.

Colour vs Black and White

Here are a couple of colour versus monochrome shots. I love the expression and the contrast on this first one and it works well in both colour and monochrome:

And I love the softer tones of this second one. Art nude works really well when you have the model coming out between two trees. It has the wonderful natural vibe of being at one with nature to it, and the soft tones of this image further that feeling for me:

Between the Trees

Here are some images with a wider crop, taken between the trees. It gives some lovely angles to play with when you find a tree that splits like this. As a model, finding things in nature that you can lean on/through/around is always fun because it inspires you to think about the shapes you can mirror or compliment with your body.

They are also good to peer through like this next image:

Or just casually lean on like in these last two images:

Location work is a lot of fun and nature gives you endless opportunities for shots. Me and Dave often go to the same patch of woodland and come away with such varied images each time. We see different shots as the seasons change and as we change in our mood and ability. I definitely recommend that you find someone to work with regularly and develop that relationship over time, because one thing I've loved doing on this website with blogging weekly, is seeing how much the images that me and Dave have captured has changed and developed over the years.

But anyway, that wasn't the point of this post. The main point of this post was to say: Happy Birthday Dave! Thank you for everything you do.

Lots of love from Misuzu x