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The Face Behind The Legs

June 18, 2014

Wedding, portrait & commercial photography

Over the last few months I have very much enjoyed the variety that my job can offer and with that, the challenges that present themselves through such a mixture of tasks. In this blog I just wanted to give you a little snapshot of my approach to some recent, more unusual projects with different aims and subject matter, but with a common incidental and unplanned theme: my brother's legs!

Two years ago this month I was privileged to be shooting a very special wedding in the stunning venue of Upwaltham Barns (Happy second Anniversary to Ricky and Kelly!). I was delighted that the image you see below was awarded a credit at the MPA Awards (Master Photographer Association), and it remains a firm family favourite from the day.

The stark green corrugated iron backdrop we were shooting against was the antithesis of everything 'weddingy' and this is the sort of irony that I love in photography, it helps inspire my creativity. What I felt was needed was a strong composition of the subjects with an element of humour to make the backdrop work in favour of the beautiful bride in white. So after some quick thinking, my brother Ricky ended up flat on his back with his legs up in the air!

This pose was a bit tongue-in-cheek in portraying how the groom is clearly 'under the thumb' (or elbows in this case!), but also how the bride does actually lean on him and his underlying strength and support. Oh, if only I had a moral for every picture! We waited for a slight gust of wind to pick up Kelly's veil which I felt added a touch of Marilyn Monroe glamour to the picture too!

After the wedding Ricky and Kelly soon welcomed a new addition to their family, and I know what you're all thinking, but I am talking about Jake the puppy. (While I think of it, Happy 1st Birthday Jake!). As for many new 'parents', high on the list of 'to do's' is acquiring portraits of the new family member. Not just one shoot suffices in this situation, but a series is essential of course, to show the growth and development of the little one. As Jake was to be having four portrait shoots (yes four), we wanted to create a picture that showed his relative size and scale to his new master, to be of comparison in later pictures.

Having attempted the shot below with Ricky wearing jeans, something about it was just too safe and I felt it needed a little bit of edge...

So we left the Converse trainers on as a reference to a trend of our era!

And by the way, faces are definitely overrated.

(But just so you know, Ricky WAS wearing shorts).

On a more serious note (!) another project I undertook involved commercial photography to aid promotion of a Sports Injury and Orthopaedic Physiotherapy company developing their website and marketing. My brother has worked for Reactivate Healthcare as a Sports and Physiotherapist for over seven years and was selected as the model to demonstrate some of their latest equipment in the photo shoot.

Here you see a Compex Muscle Stimulation Machine. I needed to capture the function of the product and what it could do as much as possible in a still image, whilst showing off the product itself. The unusual angle I have used from above along with the specific use of light and shadow, enabled me to show the tensing defined muscle in Ricky's left leg versus the relaxed right leg.

This shoot overall required a lot of creativity and strategy in terms of how I shot the products and indicated the services of the company in an interesting, unique yet functional way, pushing me to think outside the box. I was pleased that the resulting pictures were a little less predictable than the typical website stock imagery that you could buy off the shelf.

(Once again I assure you, Ricky WAS wearing shorts)!

So three shoots, the same legs and still no face! Well here it is at last. You can see I didn't crop it out to protect us from any horrors, he turns out to be quite a handsome fella really.

So to have the sudden realisation that I had accumulated a catalogue of pictures of my brother's legs in various situations did amuse me, (obviously enough to write a blog about it). It's good to always be challenged with new and different assignments and I am always grateful to good subjects who trust me enough to enable the task to be achieved as creatively as possible.

So thank you to my little brother Ricky for the use of your legs. I'm sure i'll be seeing them again, (not by choice), but probably on the next dog shoot, and if Jake has grown a lot, we may need to think up a different pose!

Kelly Hearn A.B.I.P.P - A.M.P.A