Alcolollies

Following last month's cocktail experiment, I was commissioned by the Evening Standard to photograph some amazing-looking alcoholic ice lollies created by the fiendish wizards at Barchick. It was a surprisingly challenging job...

The ices needed supporting in a vertical position, but they had so much alcohol in the mix, they were somewhat prone to collapse, so a gentle touch was required.

The lighting was quite technical.  In the end I opted for a single on-axis fill light, and two rim lights, the one to camera left raking across the front of the lolly, which we doused with water, to define texture.

The lollies were clamped into position by the handle, and then I later photographed the handles sans clamp and replaced them in post.

Needless to say we enjoyed the few remaining spares once we had wrapped.  Most refreshing.

Home-made ice lolly makers can be found on amazon, and here are the recipes

Courrèges coat

Had a bit of fun yesterday, photographing a client who wanted some shots of herself wearing her 1968 Courrèges coat, recently discovered in the wonderful new WilliamVintage boutique in Marylebone. It's a stunning piece, a searing vivid orange fabric with gigantic circular pockets and big gold buttons, so I thought we'd try to contrast it with the gritty grey concrete of the South Bank Centre, which is approximately contemporary.

To make the jacket really sing, I underexposed the (already gloomy) ambient light by two stops, and lit her with a single off camera Canon Speedlite, gelled 1/4 CTO, fired through a Lastolite Ezybox.

We took an hour or so and made about ten pictures.  Here is a selection: