I have been meaning to share this set for a long time!!! They were taken last year at Film Photo Studios in Cheltenham by the lovely Keith Cooper!! We have shot together a lot of times and always build on ideas and tangeants we came up with from the shoot before. We had been working with classic nudes, billowing fabric and wind machines, and tried out some constant movement, which we took further on this shoot. We basically got our light set up, put on the music and then I just moved and moved and moved – and Keith just kept shooting!

I and other models I have spoken to, have found this technique really great in the past for coming up with new shapes and conveying more energy and emotion, as you don’t have much time to think or plan, you just ‘do’. It’s really liberating as a professional model to break out of your mould, as although I don’t usually have a set routine, of course there are many poses that I do again and again because they’re the ones that feel natural for me, work well for my figure and my body just seems to fall into place. That’s totally fine when people are booking you for that look and style, but it’s really nice also to collaborate with the photographher to try out fresh poses and get into a new flow.

Looking back over all the shots, I was up in the air for about 50% of the time and we must have been going for a good couple of hours with just little breaks in between, I’m not sure where I kept mustering the energy. Normally that’s not advisable, as leaping around repeatedly for too long so much can wear you out so badly and puts you at risk of injury. But I think because I know Keith so well and we were both prepared and ‘in the zone’ for capturing something energetic, enjoying it loads and feeling inspired, it was okay. Of course the next few days later ached even more than ‘regular’ energetic shoots. Muscles were awoken deep inside crevices and ligaments I didn’t know I had! I’m not a trained dancer and certainly don’t have anything near that level of natural bounce and stamina, but I do what I can do, and it was worth it! You have to celebrate what you have and as the great Baz Luhrmann song says…

‘Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it – it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own!’

Of course I need to decide on my top images to add to my portfolios, but these are my favourites…  on tip-toes, stretching, jumping, leaping, whipping, flinging and falling… ‘Dance of the Ivory Flame Fairy’… 😛

And rest!! 😉