Photoset - Queen of Hearts (Patreon)

Back in June I had my first shoot with the fabulous Tegan. I had been looking forward to this one for quite some time - Tegan is a very talented artist and as such has a very creative mind, which is like gold dust to me. I love coming up with ideas and concepts, even if sometimes I find it very difficult, so it takes the pressure off me a little if a model has ideas too.

However, for our first shoot together we had decided to keep it simple and focus mainly on my black and white style, both in the studio and on location in a nearby wooded area, where there is also a great under-road tunnel that makes for some lovely soft light.

Towards the end of out studio set Tegan spotted the cardboard crown that I had knocked up for a shoot with Meg Farmer, earlier in the year. Tegan was very keen to use it, but I hesitated as I had already done the set with Megan and was worried that it might look too similar. however I changed my mind as soon as she showed me that amazing bejewelled waistcoat and her Vivienne Westwood choker necklace.

These were shot using a continuous LED light with octabox, placed to the left of the camera. I held some sheer red fabric over the camera lens to get the soft, dreamy look. It is a technique I have used on a handful of occasions, and it can be a bit hit and miss - sometimes the lens really struggles to autofocus, and my eyesight isn't quite good enough for manual focusing. This is something that I am rowing to accept - I can get too obsessed with getting sharply focused eyes in my images, when even images that are very much out of focus can actually look beautiful or fit with a vibe.