Animal Influenced...

Here are a few images that I found on the web whilst researching animals and clothing.

The top image is taken by David Lachepelle and features Leonardo Di Caprio. I wanted to show this image because Animal Print isn't actually shown in the clothing at all but it is shown in the background as a wall feature that the model is leaning on. This image works really well as the background works well with the model and neither one outshines the other. It is as though the background is just as important as the model/Celebrity stood in front of it.

The Second image features Kate Moss for an advertisement, I cant find who or what she is advertising and this image was anonomously shown on the web sith no information but I do love the clothing she is wearing in the shot.I noticed she is lyng on a man in the shot and I think this works really well with the chosen clothing. She is dominating the male model just like an animal and I think the clothing represents this really well.



The final image i'm again not too sure who or what they are advertising but the clothing stood out to me because of the styles and colour palette. The colours, fur and animal print all represent wild animals in there own way and they have decided to take a classy and elegant route when styling and wearing them.

Animal Print Catwalk...

These are two images that I found online, I dont really know how I came across them but I'm glad that I did because they relate to my work really well. They are catwalk shots for collections by designers. Again I am unsure as to who the designers are but I still really like the collections.

The top image consists of 5 catwalk outfits put together. My favorite is the middle outfit as it reminds me of holiday whilst still being really classy and elegant. Some of the others, including the black jacket outfit and the black pants jacket, I am not too keen on. The animal prints in these images are very strong and there isnt many accesories used like Roberto Cavalli's collections. It is just simply the cloth that is animal print and that is all that is needed to make the overall outift interesting. There is something animal like in the way the cloth is cut aswel which really attrects my interest.



The second image however seems too elegant to me. The style and cut of the dress is too classy and doesnt seem to fit the animal tendancies as well as the top styles. The print is animal however, but to me, the colour and print of the dress could have been something completley different and it still sould have looked right because of the style of the dress, the styling and accessories of the model seem to clean cut for the style of shoot I am looking for.

Fashion Magazine Style Pages...

Here are just a few magazines spreads that I found in the latest Harpers Bazaar and Vogue.

The top magazine shot is for 'Catwalk Report' in Harpers, which includes collections by top designers that all incorporate animal print into the clothing. Some however arn't animal print exactly but they do have animal tendancies such as the use of fur etc. I do like the idea of using fur in the styling of clothing, as it isn't as obvious as actual animal print (Leopard, Tiger, etc) and can create a different style of shoot.



The second magazine shot is just simply a cut out of celebrities using animal print in their own clothing. In my opinion they are wearing the animal print to stand out from others as the animals prints they are wearing are very dominant animals. This spread just simply shows that the catwalks and designers creating collections based on animal print are influening celebrities and the way they dress, it is sort of like a trend.



The final magazine shot is taken mainly for summer and holidays, featuring mainly accessories. They are focusing on animal print on things such as bags, sunglasses and swimwear. The trend here is called 'Wild at Heart' which is trying to attract your adventurous side, and pursuade you to buy something animal print which can show a different side of your personality.

Roberto Cavalli F/W 2010 - Fashion Catwalk Show

This is just a quick video to show the Catwalk by Roberto Cavalli. I have already shown the stills to show the clothing now I just wanted to show the clothing as it was being worn on the catwalk and to show the entire collection by Cavalli for his Animal inspired clothing for Fall/Winter 2010.

Roberto Cavalli F/W Collection 2010...

These are a few shots of the catwalk models wearing the collection by Roberto Cavalli Fall/Winter 2010. I already know about this collection before deciding to focus on animal clothing but I wanted to put it in this blog as initial research for clothing by designers already out there. Each model is very over stylized with lots of accessories and each of them are animal print of some sort. This could be seen as too much animal print in one outfit but in my opinion, I think it works with the models and the overall look he is going for. I want to try something like this in my own work and really over stylize the models.

There is alot more of Roberto Cavalli's work that I could have shown but here are just a few examples. Even though they are all showing animal print, there is something distinctively different about each outfit.

The Next Step...

I know I haven't posted in a while but it was only because I was figuring out which shoot to do next. We have also had a lot of assignments due in for other modules so i'm afraid to say that the independent practice blog has taken a back seat for the time being. BUTTTT.... now I am sort of back on track and is planning the next shoot for this module.

Now I have decided not to incorporate animals into my shoots and just focus on what the animal represnts and how I can show this by only using a model in the shot. The next shoot I have decided to look into clothing in fashion photography. I want to focus on studio shots and portraiture. I will try to find clothing with animal prints or even clothing which I believe to have animal reference and shoot the model in the studio.

To start this mini-assignment, I will research into clothing, the types, prints and what it signifys through the image. A lot of photographers has used prints for clothing in their shoots but the clothing hasn't been their main purpose of the shot whereas mine will be... Lets get researching!!...

Evaluation For Shoot 1...

I have shown the best images from the shoot in the last post but to be honest I don't really like them, they are just the best of what I took. For starters, on the day before of the shoot, I went to go and get a film for the 35 mm camera but they had ran out and didn't know where I could get another one from. So that went all wrong to begin with and evidently I din't end up using the black and white camera that I had planned to. Therefore the whole shoot had to be shot in digital which isn't what I wanted for this shoot.

I styled my model the best I could and tried to use references from old fashioned clothing, I used pastel creams for the tops etc but still wanted to use classic horse attire such as jodphurs. I pulled her hair back into a slick bun and used dramatic make-up on the eyes to make them stand out. I tried my best with the styling but lets face it, i'm not a stylist and really should have used a stylist for my shoot.

When we arrived at the location, the weather changed drastically and it was pouring with rain nonstop which also ruined my ideas for the shoot. I wanted to do some shots in the stables and some whilst my model was riding her horse but I ended up having to change this and do all of the shots in the stables. I used natural lighting because the horse would have got scared if I used flash but this did work to my advantage as I gained natural highlights and shadows on my model and the horse. The stbales was very small and couldnt really move that much so I had to try and work within the space we had. Monty the horse was quite hard to work with as he kept moving around which is what I expected as he wasn't a trained horse for events like these.

I did get some ok shots from inside the stable but it wasn't what I really wanted. Ideally I should have used a different model and not just my friend but as I said before in my planning, I couldnt use anybody else otherwise the horse wouldn't have been as relaxed as he was on the day. However because I didn't use a real model, the poses arn't as relaxed as I'd hoped and this creates tention in my images. In my post production work on the images, I decided to desaturate them to drown out some of the colour, the images wer to colourful for the look I was going for so I thought this would make the images more aesthetically pleasing. I'm not happy with the result I got really but they are all just little things that didn't really work out on the day and I think if I was to do this shoot again on a different day and be able to go outside with my model then the shots would look completely different.

I think next time, I would use a stylist to help me dress my model as I dont really think I did the best job and also I would hope that the weather was different and get some better lighting shots.

I am proud of myself for this shoot though, only because I have never shot with an animal before, I was pushing myself to something I have never experienced before, sadly it did not work out but I am happy that I tried. Now that I know working with animals isn't as easy as I'd thought, I wont be attempting to do this sort of shoot again. I am still sticking with the animals in fashion theme but I will try to use the animals with actually featuring them in the shots. I will do this through means of suggestion, using clothing, make-up and animal manerisms to get my point across.

Favourite Images From Shoot 1...

Lighting and Technical Aspects of Shoot 1...

For this shoot which involves a horse, I really want to shoot with a black and white 35 mm camera as well as taking some digital images aswell. I think that by shooting in the 35 mm, I will be able to gain an old fashioned look to my images, I will shoot on this camera but not develop them in black and white, instead I will scan them in using a negative scanner and create manipulations on them if needed. I will also shoot in digital to see what the differences between them are.
By shooting on both 35mm and Digital, I will be broadening my technical skills and pushing myself because I am not that confident with shooting on 35mm so this will test my skills in creating a good aesthetic in my images.

As for the lighting on this shoot, we will be in the stables with the horse and model and not outside. It may be a little dark but I will not be able to use a lighting kit as this will scare the horse, therefore by working out the correct light shining into the stable with a light meter, I should be able to just use natural light and shadows in my images. Hopefully this shoot will work out the way I planned .... Fingers crossed!!

Styling for Shoot 1...

Model - Rebecca Aubrey
Age - 20
Occupation - Photography Student




I have chosen Becky as my model because although she hasn't quite got the look I wanted in this shoot, she does however have the hair colour and height I wanted. I was also worried about the horse not being comfortable in the shoot if there was a stranger stood next to him and trying to pose therefore I wanted Becky to be my model as he is her horse so that she could work with him (Monty) and get the best out of him. I wanted him to be comfortable and not scared so I thought this would be the best way to do that.

As you can see from the images above that I have styled my model in pastel coloured clothes. I have also slicked back her hair into a tight bun so that it doesn't distract your eyes from the horse. I have made her eyes dark and smokey as well as darkening her eyebrows to make them stand out and styled her in classic clothes such as a neck scarf and netted top. I didnt want my model in the classic riding outfit that you would normally see a horse rider in because it is supposed to be stylized high fashion. I think the colour scheme will work well with the horse and overall look that I want to get from my images.

ANTM - Equestrian Shoot...

These two images fascinate me!! I was watching America's Next Top Model and the whole shoot was based around an equestrian theme. What I really love about these shots is that it is thought he model has just been placed on there to take over the shot. It is as though the jockey on the horse doesnt even know the models are there and they are just concentrating on riding the horse. However the model really takes charge in the shot and simply uses the horse and the jockey as a sort of prop for her to use. They are the main element in the shot but the jockey and the horse are their to help try and tell a story for why she is there.

These images fascinate me and show a very stylized high fashion style of what I want to try and achieve. I know it would be impossible for me to try and create something like this without it looking awful but I am using these images as a sort of inspiration for my own shoot.

David Lachepelle...

I have looked into David Lachapelle many times over the past two years but it is only because I find him brilliant and his work fascinating. The first image is a different shoot to the second and third image but they are completely different in everything. The top shot features Christina Agulera in a very highly stylised shot that is over saturated. The horse that she is sat on is a fake horse in a very bright colour but the whole shot still reveloves around this horse as though it is real. She is sat on it as though she is riding it and this is all done through the power of suggestion. The second shoot however, features Angelina Jolie, partcailly naked with a real horse as her prop. She gets intimate with the horse and you can see a real connection between human and animal. The lighting could be natural on a sunny day but I do think that there has been added artifical lighting.

Overall I prefer the Angelina Jolie shots as they seem more natural and not forced into a pose unlike the top image. She is showing the horse as though it is a prominant feature of the shot ansd she is working well with the animal to get the best kind of shots. This is how I want my model to be when shooting my own images with a horse, I want her to act natural and thereofre this will gain the best kind of shots.

Andrew Southam...

This is just one shot which I found when looking though one of my favourite photographers websites. Andrew Southam has a wide range of images on his website but they all seem to have a connection to fashion which I love. I wanted to show this image because it reminded me of old fashioned horse racing. I love the styling in this shot and the clothes she has been dressed in have a huge historical reference. The jacket is very classy and the hat just screams professional rider at me. When creating my own shoot and styling my model, I want to be able to keep it contemporary but still have references to the past. I think this image works really well and because a horse represents beauty and elegance, the model is reflecting this beauty and elegance within her own pose etc.

Harpers Bazaar

Here are two images that I found whilst reading Harpers Bazaar Jan 2011 Edition. I wanted to show them in this blog because they are images that relate very well to the shots of animals I want to create in my own shoot. The first shot was an editorial shoot shot by Alasdair Mclellan and incorporated animals as a prop for the model. The shoot can be seen as high end fashion but also as a low budget shoot just because the models etc isn't highly stylized. The second image I found in Harpers is for an ad campaign for American Apparel. These images to me arn't as interesting as the first and I think its because I don't really like the way the model is posed. I mean I don't really have any right to judge but for me the shot just doesn't work. I do like the styling and the fact that the horse is a main element in the shot but the way the mdoel is posed, attracts my attention for the wrong reasons.

First Shoot Plan...

Here we go... What I am planning for my first shoot, as stated on my Statement of Intent, is to incorporate animals into my images. My friend Rebecca Aubrey has a horse that I could use in my shoot who lives in a stables quite near by. I am very fortunate that I will be able to shoot with Becky's horse because otherwise i'm not usre how I would be able to get hold of an animal. I am quite excited about this shoot now and will start doing some research into photographers and single images that have incorporated a horse into their shoots before. Hopefully this will help me decide how I need to shoot these images, how I am going to style my model and also the overall final look of how I want my images to be.

Lets get started on some research into my idea...

Tim Flach...

Tim Flach is a well known Photographer who mainly shoots animals and focuses on the beauty of them. I actually had a lecture on him recently and I was facinated by the work that he has created. These are just a few of the images he has created, and I have noticed that he also shoots the animals in the stuido as though they were humans. He wanted to try and make a connection with the animals and shoot them as portraiture like you would with humans. His work is generally quite abstract - the perfect antithesis to anthropomorphis, in other words, he places human tendencies on animals and he looks for that certain feature on their face or even an expression in the animals face that resemables a human. He focuses on the beauty and elegance of the animals as though they were humans and I find his work truely incredible.

I found these images from his online website ... www.timflach.com