Now I am in my new home in Malmesbury, I have found that I am surrounded by some of the best models in the UK. So my first shoot was at Carla’s home studio near Malmesbury, just a short drive from me. Difficult to take a bad picture of Carla as she is such an amazing model so there will be a lot more shoots in the future for sure. 

We started in a natural light setup a slightly overcast day the best for natural window light. These first two images taken away from the windows. This helps to give a much softer light these were taken with my Nikon D610 and my 105mm DC F2.0 lens. Shot at Iso 100 and F2.5 @ 1/200 sec. Pleased with these two images, I think it shows what you can do with minimum equipment. A very studio type look but no lights needed. 

We then used the window directly. Shooting across the window at Carla and using the net curtain to give some defusion. All shot with my 50mm lens at F1.6 speed around 1/360 sec. Focusing I always use the rear button function and select one point only on the nearest eye. Very important at such wide apertures.  Loved the soft sensual feel to these images. 

I have recently bought myself a cowboy hat whilst in the USA. So this was with me at the shoot so we decided to have some fun with the hat. This time we moved away from the window and used the wall with a reflector to bounce back a little of the window light to balance the shot. Again shot 50mm at F2.0 this time and a shutter speed of 1/160 sec. 

On a couple more used the hat to shield the eyes to give a little mystery to the images and I love the shallow depth of field that my 105mm DC gives at F2.0 . Used the ISO a little more at 320 on these two images. 

For the final part of the shoot we moved into a more studio type setup assisted by Carla’s husband. With a Black Backdrop and two gridded strip lights. Art nude type images with harsh side lighting is my favourite type of work. The hat by now had become Carla’s favourite thing so there it is again. Loved this part of the shoot. 

Settings 50mm focal length. ISO 200 at F8 and 1/200 sec. 

Finally on the same set up we got rid of the hat and did a few last grasp images before wrapping up. All in 2 short hours. The last image with Carla looking very much like Faye Dunaway !!!!! I think anyway. Thanks Carla.