Its wonderful to be able to do a shoot every now and then which is purely for creative purposes. It means as a team, you have the freedom to style and theme a shoot to your own taste without ever having to worry if the paying customer will be happy. I had an idea for a rural/gentry-styled editorial shoot involving the right model, a horse, a dog, a big manor house and lots of land. A tall order I know and I didn’t expect to get lucky on any of it! I thought it would also be interesting to have a shoot were our Irish weather here would be a plus instead of a disadvantage. So instead of wishing for sunlight I was hoping for soft, muted, mossy tones, atmospheric, misty and magical.
There is a whole team of people who were really helpful in making this happen. It was wonderful to be able to work with Olivia and Collette again and to work for the first time with Jennifer. The clothing was supplied by Debenhams. My sister, Tracey, who is the personal shopper over at the Rushmere branch, put these items together for me. There were lots of other gorgeous pieces supplied by her, but because we have such a small amount of daylight at this time of year, I didn’t get the chance to try them all.
Also, by pure chance, we found a fantastic gem of a place on the Moyallon Road, Portadown. Woodbank is owned by Maynard and Joy Sinton. They were so generous in opening up their beautiful home to us for the day. (If I could live anywhere, it would be Woodbank!) They are planning to hold marquee weddings here on their grounds from 2010 onwards so contact Joy if you are interested. Imagine my excitement when I found out that Joy had a chestnut coloured horse and ‘Finn’ the great dane also!
Hair: Olivia Muldoon, Make-up: Jennifer Ireland, Model: Collette O’Neill, Clothes by Tracey Toman at Debenhams Rushmere, Shot on location at Woodbank, Moyallon.
