C.A.L.M. Advent Calendar

Its Christmas...and its time for pressies!!

Below you will find the CALM Christmas Advent Calendar, where you can check out and download some great music for FREE!

'CALM' stands for the 'Campaign Against Living Miserably'.  It is a fantastic organisation, who are trying to help young men in particular who are not happy with life.  The stats for suicide rates amongst this section of the population are seriously scary, it is the second biggest killer of men aged 15-35 in the UK.  Anything that can be done to help the situation should be done.

So come back every day to get yourself something new and help support this great cause, by visiting their website, The Calm Zone.

Andy Turner - Olympian!!

Andy Turner, Commonwealth medalist and Olympic Track Athlete for the 110m Hurdles.

Fresh from the Beijing Olympics, I was fortunate enough to meet and photograph Andy recently as part of the promo shoot I did for 'Slaves To Vanity'.

He's a really nice guy, and here are the images we got together in a very cold old factory in Birmingham in November.

Thanks Andy for being such a good sport!!!  (Sorry!)

All Photography © Christopher Perkins 2008

Slaves To Vanity Photo Shoot

In my last post I said I had just had a month of working with guys for a change, and that the work that I was going to show couldn't be much more different from each other...well, here is the contrast!!

I met up with the boys from 'Slaves To Vanity' in Birmingham to shoot a promo for their new website.

Somebody had the great idea to shoot this in November in the UK, which meant we spent the day trying to avoid getting a soaking and jumping around to keep warm.  Actually, the jumping around wasn't so much myself, as I could keep my clothes on...the models however, could not!!

They say a model's life is glamourous?  Not so much on this day...

Photography © Christopher Perkins 2008

Make-Up: Deborah Lawson

Models: Garry Turner, Daniel MacNeill, Leon Knight, Andy Turner, Antonio Balsamo, Dan Eccleston

Dale Y - A new face to watch!

Wow, its been a month since I last posted on here, and I've been itching to get some new stuff up.

This month I have been working with the boys for a change, and its been fun too.  The couple of shoots I'm going to show from it couldn't have been much more different really...but first up is Dale Y.

Dale is a face that is definitely worth watching in the future.  I think he's going to do really well. He has the sort of look that the fashion industry is loving right now, strong features, yet very slightly androgynous!

I only used one light for our first set of shots and made it all about the attitude and actions, he came out with some cracking poses too.  Then it was off to the park to try out something a bit different from what I usually do, inspired by The Sartorialist.  Then finally back to the studio to play around with colours.

...and my favourite...its got to be that James Dean look you see at the top.  Wow!

I hope you like what you see...

Photography © Christopher Perkins 2008

Model: Dale Y

Make-Up: Deborah Lawson

Commercial Photography Manchester

A new addition to this blog...Commercial Photography!

Everything to date has been following more of a fashion and edgy feel, so I want to make a show of some of my commercial and catalogue work.

Please let me know what you think, or if you have a new collection that needs photographing, give me a call... 

...and here's a few product shots too...

How to do Classy Topless...

...I couldn't think of a better title!

For the current couple of weeks, I have been working together with my long-term collaborator, Deborah Lawson, on putting together some funky creative studio shoots.

We are constantly striving to keep the portfolios fresh and try out new ideas and techniques and this is the first of a small series that will see us pushing on previous concepts.

These Black & White images are of the model Kitty Chu.

The following images are of model Lucienne Perry...

Photography © Christopher Perkins 2008

Make-Up and Styling: Deborah Lawson

Amanda Marsalis Video

I had to make this post because I just came across a video of one of my favourite photographers, Amanda Marsalis.

Her work first came to my attention just over a year ago, when I was beginning to design my website.  I was actually searching around other photographers' websites, looking at what I thought worked well and what didn't, and hers was one that stood out as being very well designed, simple, attractive and most importantly about the work.

I think Amanda has a beautiful aesthetic to her work.  It is very distinctive and yet feels so natural.  I think this is one of those times when you come across a style that has to be natural, it can't be taught really.  Its the way you look at things and its an aesthetic I would really aspire to.

Anyway, take a look and see what I mean...

SLASH The Dress!

This is the final part of our summer-long Bridal Fashion and 'Trash The Dress' series.

Having shot the dress with our model, Abi, in Manchester in the morning, we then headed along to one of the old mill's on the outskirts of the city (sorry, the location has to remain secret!) to really finish this dress off!

Deb, our Make-Up Artist, had got hold of the dresses at the beginning of summer, and was by this point sick of having the two of them cluttering up her house...so out came the scissors and attack it she did...

I should also point out that the original styling and combination of garments to create this unique look was also envisaged by Deborah Lawson, along with some help from the our very stylish model, Abi.

Thanks to Matt (you know who you are) for his fabulous help in finding and navigating our location for the day.

If there are any magazines out there looking for a contemporary take on the new new 'Trash The Dress' phenomenon with a fashion slant, then you know where to come....

© Christopher Perkins 2008

Make-Up and Wardrobe: Deborah Lawson

Model: Abi Lutwyche

Assistant: Matt 'Darkscore'

Manchester Bride

If you've been following this blog you should be used to these Bridal updates by now.  This is the penultimate one in the series, in which we took our latest model to Manchester to look for some interesting street locations to use as a build up for final 'Trash The Dress' extravaganza.

The dress you saw previously in the Crewe Hall shots and Alderley Edge gymnastics images is back.  This time though, Deb has been hard at work creating a new look, adding the black floral patterning and cummerbund/belt along with a few other adjustments.  The piece that she has created is a dress that is uniquely beautiful and I'm sure many many brides would like to have themselves.

We managed to find some brilliant locations on the day and get some great colour into the pictures.  I couldn't believe it when we drove past Granada Studios, I had completely forgotten about the old frontage they have there, and hence I had to spin the car around a grab a few shots, despite the fact it is actually bucketing down with rain and Abi is actually hiding under that small canopy!

Photography © Christopher Perkins

Make-Up and Styling: Deborah Lawson

Model: Abi Lutwyche

Assistant and Location Scout: Matt 'Darkscore'