fetish
Ali Brooks Comes To London
Last weekend, the fabulous Ali Brooks came up to London to shoot and drink champagne with me!
We’ve not worked before but we clicked immediately and managed to get some shots I’m really pleased with.
Some of the results are in the Fetish, Lingerie and Glamour portfolios.
Afterwards, Ali left me a lovely recommendation:
“Went and shot with Richard… Well what can I say.. Had a fantastic 2 days shooting.. Was a very fun and productive shoot.. Richard is both professional and very friendly and was very comfortable working together. Would highly recommend working with Richard.. I’ve already booked to work with him again.. So can’t wait xxx
And yes, the next shoot is in March, this time in a studio to really do her justice!
Forgive Me, Father, For I Have Sinned
It’s been a while since I updated this blog.
I’ve been so busy and every time I sat down to update, something else would come up, so …
On the Friday afternoon after the last update I rode up to Silverstone for Kevin Ash’s memorial lap which was a fitting tribute.
Saturday and I thought I should do some more cycling: I’ve injured my knee in my training for the Berlin Marathon and had to call it off for this year on the advice of my Consultant, though I’ll still be there to support GT. So off I went for another quick explore along the Thames Path, South and North: 11 and a bit miles in all. Great fun.
The following Saturday saw the start of the new football season. Jack and I have now moved seats to a more central location – which meant paying full adult season ticket rates for him as well as me – from where we watched Norwich get a draw against Everton.
The following week saw loads of hard work and travelling between offices, interspersed with blood tests and seeing my Consultant and Physiotherapist – with whom I’m so comfortable, I started undressing whilst she was still in the cubicle talking to me. And an after-work meal with colleagues at the Folly. We found out the next day that my colleague from Colchester fell asleep on the train home and ended up in Ipswich. No trains back so he had to wait until after 1.00am for an airport coach which dropped him off in Colchester at 2.00am but the other side from the station so he had to walk through Colchester at kicking out time, stopped off for a kebab en route and got in at 3.00am. He’d forgotten we were out for the evening so had only sent a text to his wife at the last minute…
The following weekend ended on the Bank Holiday with my upping my pushbike mileage to 20 miles as I continued past Greenwich – and the obligatory stop for an iced tea – and on to Woolwich where I caught the ferry across for the first time since the late 80s. Nothing’s changed. Saturday had been off to GT’s for the evening and some shopping the next day: some killer heels from Kurt Geiger.
A shorter work week – with more doctor’s visits – ending with Club Antichrist on the Friday night with Alix. Great fun! Home at a reasonable time, though, as I was off to Norfolk again the following day.
The following week started well with a fundraising burlesque event for Dixie Evans at Volupté which meant a whole load of cocktails mixed by Josie, including an utterly fabulous Amaretto Sour (or two) (two measures of Amaretto, one of strawberry syrup/liqueur, lemon juice, Angostura bitters and an egg white). And the week ended on a high note with a meal at an Italian restaurant in Ewell Village with GT and shopping for leather jackets for her.
And the small matter of a 20 mile pushbike ride on the Sunday morning down to Hampton Court, following GT as she’s training hard for the Berlin Marathon. Mad woman!
Oh and talking of leather, I ordered a gas mask and a bespoke ladies’ white leather straitjacket, which will both probably find use in one or both of these locations:
One evening that week, walking home from work, I came across the London Air Ambulance landed on Potters Field by Tower Bridge as a cyclist had been squished. I happened to take a quick iPhone shot of the landing site pausing only to try to set it up as best I could and then I uploaded the image to Instagram. That night, a local news site picked up on it and asked if they could use the credited photo on their site, which they did. The next morning it was picked up by ITV News and used on their site with credit (eventually). And the London Air Ambulance themselves picked up on it and asked me if they could use it for their promotional stuff. I was happy to licence it to them and indeed made a bigger version for them as the original would be too small for print:
That week, I also heard that I would be heading off to Canada for a week in October and another trip there in December, both for work.
And we’re almost up to date! Last week started off with a hospital appointment for some 18 burns to be applied to my face… It improved significantly with an impromptu gig – Kings of Leon at the Roundhouse courtesy of the iTunes Festival. A great gig!
Saturday was spent relaxing … and another 20.7 mile ride on the pushbike which I’d fitted with a new gel MTB seat. This appears to have made only a slight difference: at 17 miles when I have a load of cobbled streets to ride over, my arse still hurts! But at least today there were some random Morris Dancers out:
The Trouble With Paris…
…is that the wine is hideously expensive!
So Friday found GT and I in a cab heading to St. Pancras and the Eurostar to Paris. Arriving early Friday afternoon at the Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan Hotel, Paris Eiffel thanks to our pre-booked taxi, we dumped our bags in our large room and headed off on the Metro from Trocadero to the Expo where GT was picking up her race number and pack as yes, she was due to run the Paris Marathon on the Sunday. Oh and we picked up a new running outfit at the same time…
Back to the hotel where we got some advice about one of best Italian restaurants in Paris, so off we went. Luckily, despite not having a reservation – the hotel had warned us we’d probably need one – we managed to charm our way to getting a table and enjoyed a lovely meal with one of those horrendously expensive bottles of wine … good, though!
It was important that the Friday night would bring lots of sleep with the Saturday night’s sleep likely to be fitful so we headed back to the hotel at just after 10pm … to find the door to our room and its main window open! While I poked my head inside to see if there was still an unexpected visitor in there, GT hightailed it down to reception to report it and get the police. By the time I got downstairs, the police had been called and I’d summoned the Hotel Manager back from his evening out (at the Cirque du Soleil, as it transpired). I went back up to the room to do a thorough sweep to see what had been taken and was relieved to find that my iPad and iPhones, UK wallet and passport were all still safe and sound, as was GT’s running gadgets – phew!
It was very late by the time the Manager had got back and checked what was what, so they moved us to a suite as there was no way I’d stay in the same room with someone possibly knowing what they could go back there to collect. The designer bath had a broken plug that I’d be trying to get fixed the next morning as a bath is high on the priorities list after a marathon…
Saturday morning and off we went to do mainly death-related touristy things: Jim Morrison’s and Oscar Wilde’s graves up at Père-Lachaise Cemetery in the morning followed by the incredible Catacombs in the afternoon. The latter holds the remains of roughly six million people. Yes. 6,000,000. Neatly stacked and arranged. It’s a bizarre thing to visit, running for 2km under Paris. We ate on our way back before celebrating my 51st birthday at the hotel.
Sunday saw us up bright and early to head to the start of the marathon up at the Champs-Elysèes. I’d chosen the hotel to be close to both the start and finish lines with the view of the Eiffel Tower an added bonus. It was cold, so GT was pleased to be able to wear much of her new, warmer, kit. The start corrals were sheer chaos as there was no apparent way to get in: many runners were climbing over the security fencing to get in and there were 50,000 running. So different to the efficiency of the London Marathon. After seeing GT off, I walked back to the hotel, stopping at what had become our favourite café at the Trocadero, overlooking the Eiffel Tower for coffee and croissants and juice. Lovely!
I downloaded the official app and headed back to the hotel to track GT on her run. No sign of any plug for the bath: the one they brought didn’t fit so it was back to the drawing board, sadly.
Then off to meet GT at Exit A in the finish area. Or Exit B as they’d managed to cock that up too and had swapped the exit signs and flags over so they were wrong. The pandemonium that ensued with tired and confused runners all trying to get out of the wrong exits was something to see. I stayed looking for GT until she texted me from the hotel: she’d left from the incorrectly-signed exit and found her way back. I stuffed the plughole with a flannel and ran the bath. After she’d recovered sufficiently, we walked down to the Trocadero for Kir Royales, beer and food! Then back to the hotel to celebrate her time – a few seconds over that milestone 4:00:00 she wants to beat – meeting her friend who’d managed a 3:58:10. She was off for a massage; we settled on another lovely meal over the Place at another great Italian restaurant followed by more birthday celebrations for me…
Monday and we checked out: the first night’s (upgraded) accommodation was given free by the hotel, but another guest had signed for a 52€ breakfast and a 389€ dinner on our room! That was quickly resolved, so we left our bags and headed up to Montmartre for more touristy stuff including a little roadtrain ride down to Pigalle and back up to Montmartre.
Then off to the Eurostar Business Lounge for complimentary wines and our train back to London.
The hotel’s Manager rang me today: they’ve checked the door key logs and it appears on first checking that it was one of the maids who’d left the door and window open for some reason. They’re interviewing her and getting the hallway CCTV footage to check.
So then: Berlin Marathon … and I’m running that one!
Me at Jim Morrison’s Grave, Père Lachaise Cemetery
Wilde? I was livid!
Trocadero
Marathon Day Dawns
One last comfort break
“How do we get in?”
Ready for the off
Eiffel Tower in the morning mist
Paris Marathon 2013 Medal
Preserved despite the water dripping through
Yes, they’re real
Not the usual backdrop
Sacré-Cœur Basilica
Quite Chuffed!
International fetish and art nude model Anita De Bauch is now using some of my images in her main website portfolio.
I’m really flattered!
August Booked Up!
OK, that’s August accounted for: a shoot in Kent (outside and inside) and another shoot (street fashion, latex and mainstream lifestyle) with the fabulous Anita De Bauch, who’s also left me some great feedback over on Purestorm:
“I shot with Richard and Madame Bink at Light Spot Studio on 30th July and would happily do so again. He was punctual, friendly, polite and professional, and we were both delighted with the photos. I would highly recommend Richard to anyone and am already planning my next shoot with him!”
In other news, I’ve ordered some new kit: a Canon EOS-7D, Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens and a Canon Speedlite 580EX II flashgun for external work, mainly, though I may use it with my Bowens Gemini 200 Kit lights too as a trigger and bounce/fill-in flash.
Photoshoot with Anita De Bauch and Madame Bink
On Saturday, I had the studio shoot with Anita De Bauch and Madame Bink at LightSpotStudio, London that I’d previously mentioned. Anita works internationally as a fetish and art nude model. Bink works all over the place throughout Europe as an art nude model and the two of them have worked together before.
Both were really very professional, really friendly and a great laugh and they were simply phenomenal with their imagination and posing. Nothing was too hard or difficult and the poses they created were stunning. My job was so easy as both were so natural and so imaginative. I would thoroughly recommend both models and I can’t wait to work with Anita and Bink again! Oh and Anita makes fab cookies!
Images have been added to the Headshots, Art Nude and Fetish albums.
Latex and Lingerie Two Model Shoot
The next shoot I have arranged this month will be something akin to herding cats for me: it’s the first time I’ll have shot two models working together as well as separately.
Both models are experienced alternative, fetish and lingerie models working internationally so I’m expecting some fabulous results! They’ve worked together before as well so that should make my job a lot easier and getting the poses I want won’t be a problem, I’m sure.
Photoshoot with Jo-Louise
I had a most enjoyable day yesterday doing a shoot with Playboy model Jo-Louise Kelsey. Despite suffering with the flu, she was the consummate professional: natural, ready to discuss ideas and superb in front of the camera (and not to mention stunning!). It was good to work with a truly professional model. Some of the results can be seen in the art nude, lingerie, lifestyle and headshots sections of this site: see my portfolio.
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