Spooky Season: Part I

Happy Monday Ghosts and Ghouls!

The Misuzu Monday Blog for this week is going to be a little different. As it's spooky season, I want to spam you with some of the cool Halloween images I've been creating so far this month. But there's one problem... There were too many to choose from and it seemed a little excessive for one blog post. So, I've decided that this week, I'm going to split the images into two posts: Part I today for Misuzu Monday, and Part II on Wednesday. This works out well because I'm currently half way through the second season of Wednesday on Netflix, which is fitting for spooky season, but also, this Wednesday will mark one month since I launched this site!

Part I is going to be completely safe for work (sfw), but I can't make the same promise for Wednesday's post. All of the images here were taken by Dave Edkins at ARB Studio in Longton, on our Halloween shoot that we did ahead of the Halloween group shoots we ran. We messed around with our ideas to decide which sets would work best for the event. All of these images are ones I edited (I'm going to start harassing Dave for some of his edits for next week's blog, including some shots he took on the group shoots too!) Dave shoots on a Nikon D850, for those interested.

Red Riding Hood

If you follow me on any of my social media, then you may have seen from behind the scene shots that I've spent a fair bit of time dressed as Little Miss Hood this spooky season so far!

This was a really fun set to do and I absolutely loved the cape! Having props like a cloak is great because it gives you a bit more to play around with. It was also fun to be able to use a different expression too, as looking fearful isn't really suited to most of the work I do in my modelling (obviously). Also, shout out to the creepy tree (which is actually a root!) that Dave sourced from his garden and bought to the studio three times to add that bit extra to our shots.

When we did the group shoots, we added smoke into this scene, used a different backdrop, I wore different lingerie and we added in more props. This switched it up and added variety so that everybody came away with slightly different images.

Here are three images that I decided to edit because I liked my expression on them, I think they really give that 'Red Riding Hood' vibe and tell a bit more of a story:

These next two images I like because they're a bit prettier, which I guess still fits that fairytale vibe anyway, but the first one, I just liked the picture. The second one that I edited to be black and white is a particular favourite as to me it feels quite glamorous as well as still telling the story.

Caution: Keep Out

I had so much fun making this caution tape into a top. It worked really well for these images I think. On the groups shoots as with the previous set, we mixed it up a little: I used different coloured tape and wrapped it differently each time, and Dave added in smoke and coloured gels (which worked really well!).

Here are my two favourite shots from this set:

The next two images are me playing around with negative space and colour select. The second one in particular I'm quite proud of because I didn't know how to do that before. I've always quite liked the results of choosing one colour to keep in an otherwise monochrome image, and I think the caution tape lends itself to this quite well.

On a side note, the tape was really sweaty and pretty precariously wrapped so modelling it was quite challenging when I couldn't move too much... But I think I pulled it off anyway.

Spiders

ARB Studio is perfectly decorated for Halloween and their barn set has a lot of cobwebs, so it would have been rude not to make use of it for some spooky portraits. We didn't do this specifically in the group shoot, but we did use the webbed up barn set (you'll have to wait until Wednesday to see those images though, sorry). I particularly like this second image:

And it would have been even more rude not to do something silly with it too:

Outtakes

It wouldn't be a shoot with Dave without some silly shots too, just for fun! He was very skeptical but I think the pumpkin thing worked ;)

And that's it from me for today. Come back on Wednesday for Part II with lots of blood... here's a sneak peak:

There's still time to book me for a Halloween shoot if you're a photographer and want some spooky (or silly) images. Contact me here, or on any of my social media if you're interested! Here are my links, so go and give me a follow if you aren't already following me on Instagram or Facebook.

More of Dave's work can be found at any of the links below, I suggest checking him out because his work is awesome:

Instagram

Threads

PurplePort

E-photozine

Until Wednesday! Misuzu x