The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

Photographing for Dumfries and Galloway Life

"Gorgeous girls to photo" was the subject line of a message I received from Andrea Thompson, commissioning editor for Dumfries and Galloway Life magazine. With an invite like that, how could I refuse?

And so it was on a wild, stormy Sunday afternoon in October I found myself in a house with hairdresser, Nicola McMinn, makeup artist, Hannah Mason, and their models, Aline and Kayleigh, doing a photo shoot for the Christmas edition of the magazine.


Hannah and Nicola

Sometimes it's a tough life being a photographer.

A range of photos were needed. Nicola was being featured in the "Inspiring Entrepreneur" section with her business "Curl up and Dye," while Hannah had been asked to provide 3 different make-up looks for the festive season. Additionally, Andrea was hoping we might get a cover shot.

At this point, thanks need to go to Lindsey Mason, Hannah's mother, for putting up with us filling her house and moving her furniture.

A few days later, Andrea came round to my studio and we went through all the photos together, and it was a fascinating experience. I'm in little doubt that had I been choosing the photos to edit and send to her on my own, I would have picked a different selection - some overlap, but not all.

While there were various photos I was pleased with from a photographer's viewpoint, Andrea was, of course, looking at them with an editors eye. This meant there were images we both liked, but they just weren't D&G Life photos so were dropped from the selection.

However, in the end about a dozen of my images were used, including the front cover, featuring Nicola.


Nicola makes the front cover


Nicola with Kayleigh in the Inspiring Entrepreneurs section


Group shot of all 4 for the start of the Christmas section of the magazine







And I think this might just be their first cover girl with tattoos and piercings...

5 comments

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Niiiice, Kim. Very pretty.

That looks like a lot of work, how long did it take you to do the photo-shoot?

Kim Ayres said...

Guyana-Gyal - Thank you :)

Much longer than anticipated, is the answer...

Actually I was there for about 6 hours in total. A couple of hours of that was taken up with the girls in hair and make-up, although I used some of that time to set up lights and work out potential shots beforehand.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I asked because I remembered my days in advertising, how the shoots took forever for all kinds of reasons.
Some people think a photographer simply goes in, points, shoots, and that's it.

Pat said...

Yes I can see the selection must have been a fascinating experience. Hope it was more educational than frustrating.
What a brave girl to have those
extensive tattoos. At least they are now colourful and not that ghastly navvy blue.

Kim Ayres said...

Guyana-Gyal - I think because everyone has cameras on their phones so are used to just pointing and clicking, there's even less understanding about the amount of work that goes into a proper photo shoot. Most people seem to assume taking photos professionally is the same as what they do with their phones...

Pat - it was very educational. Do you have any tattoos? :)

All content copyright of Kim Ayres. Powered by Blogger.