Just a few shots of my Christmas, in details …

Quiet, relaxing and spent with those that matter.

I hope you all had a great one and here’s to a Happy New Year !

Every now and then somebody comes into my life and rocks my world … and Rachel Golding has done just that – quite literally. You see, she’s this little rockin’ dynamo who, in my very humble opinion, is going to go a very long way. But then I may just be a little biased !

Rachel has just launched a new website, has been writing songs for years and has been singing forever. And she’s rather fantastic.

I have seen her perform live many times (and almost became her official stalker, so taken was I with the music!) and we soon became good friends & running partners – oh, and I also wrote a song for her to sing – currently unreleased though!

So, a few weeks back we got together for a shoot to produce some images for her new website and promotional materials. The first session was down in Brighton, Rachel’s home town. The brief was pretty open, but the requirement was to produce a number of different looks which could be used for promotional purposes.

We had a second mini-session in her parents’ very cold garden, as the light faded fast, one November afternoon – this was for something a little more “rock chick stereotype”.

I am listening to a few of her tracks as I write this post and I feel so proud & honoured to have been a part of this future star’s career launch. I just hope she keeps me as her photographer when she goes global !

To the images then … I’m not too proud to admit that this first one was a complete fluke. I had half-set the pose, the composition was right and I was just checking the off-camera flash, to the left of the frame. At this moment Rachel just looked down to sort her hair and in that split second I took a test shot. This was my (and her) favourite shot from the day !

This next one was a must – I wanted to incorporate something from Brighton, and what could be more iconic that the famous pier sign – I was inspired to take this image by a recent Vogue shoot. Also, whilst “Moody Rachel” works really well, I also wanted to make sure that “Happy Rachel” was part of the portfolio – she has a great smile so Sam & I shouting random rude things did the trick! (No, we couldn’t possibly divulge the details.)

This shot is my second favourite, but was nearly my number one. Again, almost a mistake … the downlighters at Karma, a Moroccan themed bar in Brighton Marina, were proving difficult to work with (or against), so I embraced them by having Rachel kneel on the bench, close her eyes and look up, whilst thinking of something totally unrelated to the shoot. She relaxed nicely, and suddenly we have a potential album cover!

Again, a happy shot whilst taking in some of the texture & details under the pier.

The final image i’d like to show is from the garden shoot – completely different styling & pure rock chick. I grabbed one of her monitor speakers from the garage, popped it on the grass and asked her to ‘deconstruct’ a little – gone were the nerves, gone was the uncertainty of the first hour from our first shoot. This is the beautiful, confident, sexy Rachel Golding – Singer, Songwriter, Performer .. and she’s gonna be big.

Rachel’s website is : www.rachelgolding.co.uk
For her version of our shoots, go see her blog : http://rachelgolding.co.uk/blog/
To listen to some of her music : http://rachelgolding.co.uk/the-music/ (Check out “Ain’t Me”)
And PLEASE go buy Like What you See on iTunes – it’s only 79p !

I can honestly say that today was bitterly, bitterly cold – probably the coldest conditions in which I have ever done a pre-wedding shoot. However, Katrina & Richard were amazing … and despite the callous frigid chill of the wind, we had a great morning!

Having never met Katrina and Richard before today, we started proceedings with a lovely cooked breakfast in their little village of Emsworth, taking time to get to know each other a little (and relax some of those pre-photoshoot nerves!) After copious amounts of tea and coffee, we then headed down to the water and tried to ignore the arctic conditions. The sun was certainly working with us though – as I left Guildford at 8.30am this morning, it was grey, dull and foggy, and seemed to remain that way all day, for it was just as miserable when I returned this afternoon. Emsworth & Hayling Island, on the other hand, were beautiful and bathed in glorious winter sun !

Here are some of the shots from our session :

Looking somewhat too cool for school !

February’s wedding is going to be much fun, with Friday night Hog Roast and all fingers are crossed for none of the snow we experienced this February either!! See you soon guys xx