Guro lolita (and much more) photoshoot at an abandoned asylum

Last month I got to be one of three photographers along with my boyfriend James on a group shoot at an abandoned mental asylum, and I had a great day and took lots of cool shots. The theme was "gore" and to my surprise and delight one of the models showed up in guro lolita! Since this was such an interesting day I was always going to post about it briefly here but it makes me really happy that it's (partially) "on theme" for this blog anyway!

So I'm going to share a shot of each main look I did, and talk a little bit about the day as I go. If you're interested in seeing all my photos, please visit my facebook page for the complete album. I have credited the models in each photo description, and have linked to their public profiles (where applicable).

The other photographers on the day were my boyfriend James aka The Enthusiast and Wulf Photography, who was the primary organiser and also responsible for doing/supplying/teaching SPFX on the day.

And, I guess, trigger warning...this was a gore shoot. There is a lot of fake blood in the below photos, and some SPFX wounds.

Model: Ashley Victoria

It should surprise none of my readers that the first model I shot with was the guro lolita! People were arriving in dribs and drabs (to be fair, this location was a twenty minute bush walk from the nearest parking) and were also still applying make-up and costume when we got there, so when Ash walked up fully ready it was great. She was also fantastic to work with - the first shots I have of her she was literally climbing up the walls! And I didn't ask for it!

Model: Kurage-Koneko

Next James and I shot with Natalie together. Going into this shoot I had only one idea I really wanted to execute; a girl in white near the overgrown wall shot as a black and white double exposure. And I got it perfectly! Natalie was very good holding the exact pose and expression for me while I shot of whole lot of compositions and angles to layer together.

Model: Rachillustration

By the time we got back to the base camp area after shooting Natalie everyone had arrived. I'm not quite sure how it happened but the next person I got to shoot with was Rachel. One fantastic thing about this locations is that it has a whole range of locations within it - overgrown walls, destroyed and graffiti covered buildings and even a stretch of sandy earth with rusted car bodies. And with Rachel's cool, kind of post-apocalytpic grunge look I thought the cars worked well! For this look with her I just asked her to walk towards me again and again and again. Most of my shots were bad, but the ones that were good were very very good.

I also got gravel down my pants from hunkering down ever lower as she walked closer. The things we do for art.

Models: Dan and Rachillustation

Next up I grabbed Dan as well and did some couple shots with him and Rachel. This one was my absolute favourite of them together, and it's kind of funny because between shots we were goofing off, I was complaining about my gravelly butt, and I was giving ridiculously pretentious direction. But you wouldn't guess it from the final shots!

Model: Dan

And of course, I had to get some shots of Dan on his own. Like Rachel his look was way for post -apocalyptic than gorey, so I went in a bit of a fashion-y direction for a couple of simple top-half shots.

This seems like an appropriate time to say that one of the best things about this shoot was how wonderfully differently each model interpreted the theme of gore. As a photographer, I got to shoot a range of different looks and emotions throughout the day, which I loved.

Model: Celestrial Fox

Then I got to work with Celeste, who was the goriest person so far! We focused on doing some very emotive close up shots, which I really enjoyed. The contacts she was wearing especially made it kind of eerie.

Model: Jordan

Would you believe that this shot of Jordan and the previous one of Celeste are at the exact same place? What a difference model and photographer positions makes! I really enjoyed getting to get in some super dramatic lens flare here, I love lens flare something fierce.

And here I segue into another thing I like about this day - we had two male models! Amateur modelling is so female dominated that it was kind of a surprise to have two guys show up for this one, but definitely a good one as once again it gives the photographers a lot more variety.

Model: Celestrial Fox

At this part of the day I was getting tired, but still wasn't done! As we all gathered at base camp I asked the models if anyone had a particular concept they had in mind but hadn't had a chance to shoot yet. And Celeste said she wanted to climb in a window. So climb she did!

I'm not sharing the adorable behind the scenes shots because there's just so many, but at this point a big white and black wolfhound and a mini wolfhound type dog showed up and started clamouring for attention at Celeste. Later it seemed like the dogs owners were in the area to teach a friend how to off-road 4WD and were letting their dogs out for a run around here. Both the owners and the dogs were super nice, and the doggos in particular made pretty much everyone super happy.

Model: Keira

Next I shot with Keira. I had shot with her second, straight after Ash (James and I did a model switch) but I didn't like how those photos turned out in the end, so in terms of finished photos she's here in my timeline!

Also, you know how I mentioned that this location was a bit of a bushwalk in? Well, James and I drove Keira to the shoot with us (seeing as she's a friend ^__^) and she had the most ridiculous Snow White moment with a friendly little wallaby on the way in. The wallabies and kangaroos around here know that humans equal food and pats, but I wasn't expecting the ones in the bush to just come up and start nuzzling her hand in search of food! It was a really cute start to the day I ahve to say, and nearly everyone got to have a similar moment on the way in.

P.S. Oh my goodness, how Aussie does that paragraph read? Bushwalking and wallabies? I feel like such a stereotype...

Model: Rachillustration

Rachel just happened to wander by at this point, so I grabbed her for a few more spontaneous shots. Gotta love it when models are wiling to lie on grimy bricks for you!

Model: Ashley Victoria

Then, as a last hurrah, I shot with Ash again, who now was a lot more gorey! I especially loved the pentagram on the forehead...

Throughout the day I also got a couple of random artsy shots of Keira and Natalie as well, and a cool one of Celeste and Storm  together but I figure this post is along enough as is so if you want to see more please check out the album on my facebook page!

And I'm finishing off this rather long post with a group shots of the models! It was a really great, and super exhausting day.

Five super basic modelling tips.

Becoming a good model and learning how to look you best in front of the camera can be a long process for most of us. Coming up with a range of poses and facial expressions that come across well on camera takes time and practise, so I thought I'd pass on a few things I've learned from my time on both sides of the camera. These tips are mostly geared towards female models, because hey, I'm female myself, but some would be useful for the guys as well. In fact, they're all good for guys, just try to make them less effete.

So without further ado, here are some simple pointers and ideas you can use to look more at home in front of the camera.

Throw out your hip.
When written like that it sounds like something grandma did last year. But if you thrust one hip out to the side and thus shift your centre of balance, it gives a much more pleasing, curvaceous shape to you body. Obviously you need to do more to make a great pose, but throwing out the hip is a very good place to start.

Pay attention to your hands.
Often times a sign that betrays a newbie model in a photograph is awkward hand positions. Practise things to do with your hands, lots of things. Practise how to flare your fingers in a natural seeming way, how to hold your hand near your face and the most important one - learn how to hold your hand straight by your side without looking like a wooden soldier. I won't say that learning how to pose your hands well is easy, because for some people it isn't, but being able to make your hands look natural even in the most weirdly contorted positions can make a great difference to how a photo turns out.

That hand position, for the record, feel extremely odd. But it doesn't look it. Hand posing is one area where it's really important to have confidence in what your photographer is telling you to do, because if it feels weird we think it looks weird, but that really is not the case a lot of the time.

Tilt you head.
When moving your head around, don't just give the photographer your left side, right side, front on. Try tilting your chin down, turning your head to the left but then cocking your head back to the right. Tilting your head rather than simply turning it from side to side can give a whole range of different subtleties to a shot. With this tip, it's also important to remember not to tilt your head to an extreme angle, because that can look rather silly.  Practise in front of the mirror to find out what head tilts make you look cute, sexy, dark, high fashion, whatever.

Loosen it up a bit.
Relax. Really. It makes a big difference. One particular failing of mine as a model is that I tend to make my legs too rigid and in shots where my knees are bare that can make them look pretty ugly. How to fix that? Whenever I notice I'm tensing up and getting really locked into a pose I make myself relax. I bend my knees slightly and take a couple of big breaths. This is also really important to remember for facial expressions. Blink between shots, and drop whatever expression you are holding and resume it in time for the next shot. We all know how terrible a held smile can look, but holding any expression so long it goes wooden looks bad.

Know what you need.
Now this tip is a bit vaguer. Know what you need in a shoot to make you pose the best. Sometimes it may be handy to have some pose references on your phone to take a look at, maybe you like to check out the photos on the camera as you're shooting or perhaps getting very specific direction from a photographer helps you. Have a chat to your photographer before the shoot and explain that you need to check you phone poses, want to see the photos regularly, would like lots of direction, whatever.

So. There are five ways to easily improve your modelling skills. No go forth and model for awesome photographs!

Credits:
All photos in this post were taken by my lovely James man, and you can see more of both our work over on our facebook page. My make-up and hair in the top photo were by Amy.