Morwenna has always flicked through each issue of Country Life Magazine to see who was the latest ‘girl in pearls’. So when she got engaged to Phil Bush, it seemed like a rite of passage. However, she chose to wear a stunning Vivienne Westwood dress, with black boots and and a black manicure.
She was a total joy to photograph. She looked incredible in every single image, my favourite of which you’ll find in the portrait section of my website.
This week’s Country Life Magazine‘s frontispiece features the highly talented and utterly beautiful actor Kate Phillips, who appears in the Downton Abbey film as Princess Mary. You might also recognise her as Linda Shelby in Peaky Blinders.
A special thank you to Paul Ellis who assisted me in this shoot, Mach Management for make up, the Ritz London for providing a fabulous location and a much needed supply of coffee, and Lucy Editor, the picture editor at Country Life for this wonderful commission! Feeling very blessed.
Meet this week’s stunning frontispiece for Country Life Magazine – Princess Adebomi Adewale, from Nigeria, photographed at the Church of St Mary & St Nicholas, Wilton in Wiltshire.
A joy and honour to photograph – Bomi was beautiful, vibrant, intelligent and great fun. What more could I ask for? Thank you Country Life for another wonderful commission. Lucky me!
I captured this portrait of Sabine Getty with her husband Joseph and daughter Gene, at home in London for the Country Life’s frontispiece in their Special Christmas issue. The image released can be seen on my publications page, but this was another favourite from our shoot.
Country Life Magazine’s frontispiece, often referred to as the ‘Girls in pearl’, ‘babe of the week’ or ‘English rose’, is arguably one of the first pages people reach for when opening the magazine. Originally this was a means of introducing young women into Society, portraying members of the aristocracy, but it has developed to celebrate engagements, achievements, new career choices, charity endeavours and so on.
It is the variety of styles, not just in the photography, but the clothing & composition that interests me so much the frontispiece. One day you will find a beautifully lit close up portrait, another you’ll find a girl in green leaning out of a yellow digger, or as in this issue’s case, in gold standing in a round ball on a large lawn in Hampshire! My preference lies with the more quirky shots and this is one of my recent favourites.
Thank you to the stunning Victoria Gibbs for making the shoot such fun, Avington Park for providing a spectacular location and Mach Management for their wonderful make up.
Another very enjoyable portrait commission from Country Life Magazine: photographing Cecily Offord at home in Devon for the frontispiece with my great friend and very talented make up artist Amanda Jackson Sytner.
Although the weather was rather dreary, the light was soft and there was little wind – so great conditions for portrait photography. The only set back with soft lighting is that it’s flat and lacking in shadow which adds a depth and mood I love particularly in close up portraiture. However, I found an ideal location under a pergola offering opportunity for creating soft shadows, a lovely wall with plants growing up in the background, and soft light flowing in from the front and right. I positioned the chair towards the front on the right, where there was sufficient light behind to avoid her her being lost in the dark background, and angled it so as create some soft shadow on the left of Cecily (from the viewer’s perspective).
We then worked through a variety of poses on & around the chair, which resulted in a wonderful selection of stunning portraits. The combination of a stunning model, make up, red velvet jacket and set up all worked in my favour. The one Country Life chose is but one of my many favourites.
Very honoured to have met and photographing this inspiring young lady – Sophie Montagne. As covered recently on the BBC news, Sophie is part of the first all female team attempting to cross Antartica later in November this year. The team has just returned from 3 weeks training in the Norwegian Wilderness, where they have skied 463km and climbed over 6000m, pulling 50kg behind them (about 75% of their bodyweight).
In November, their 3 month journey will be cover 1,700km during which they will be battling temperatures of -50C with wind speeds over 60mph. Some feat. Follow them on twitter @exicemaiden.
Not exactly your usual frontispiece, but this is one of my favourite photos for Country Life. My great friend and hugely talented make up artist, Amanda Jackson Sytner, and I headed down to the dark depths of Devon on a cold wintery day in early March.
Publication was set for the end of April, so I’d been briefed to capture the colours of spring. but there was not a flower let alone a bluebell in sight. Fortunately the yellow derelict digger, aka “Custard”, caught by eye and invited some quirky compositions, and worked particularly well with Freddie’s bright green dress. The red wellies provided the final touch.
This portrait may not have captured any spring flowers, but the bright colours made a pretty good substitute on this bleak midwinter’s day!
