A client approached me after seeing my Berry Pomeroy Castle Halloween photos and asked if she could book me for an idea she had.

I love themed shoots and she wanted photos of her as a witch. How could I refuse that? 😀

We met at the Holy Trinity Church in Buckfastleigh, a burned-out Church on Dartmoor. It is an amazing setting for a spooky-themed photoshoot.

I had put a call out for a makeup artist. I also approached the beauty department at South Devon College and asked if any of their students would like to do this. Molly said she would so she met us at the church and went about creating her magic while I set-up all the lighting.

I get a lot of people who don’t like how they look in photos. My job is to find the poses that enhance the figure, or slim the face and slim the body.

I knew the client did not like how her face looks in photos. I knew she was really conscious of it but it is my role to pose you in ways that are more pleasing.

Once she was ready I took two photos. The first she posed herself and I didn’t say a thing. All I said was I am taking two photos to show you why you shouldn’t be nervous.

Her first pose, the one she did herself, was horrible. It was a snapshot photo, front-facing and I knew it was everything she was worried about.

Normally I could slim the face down easier than I could here. The problem was the headpiece she was wearing was not a tight fit. If she lowered her head to where I needed it, the headpiece would fall and smash to pieces on the floor.

For the second photo, my photo, I turned her more to the side and instead of positioning her head as I would normally do, I used her hair to help hide a part of her face I knew she disliked the most. In less than 30 seconds of posing it changed to this…

Once she saw this photo on the back of the camera she was so happy, she immediately relaxed. That then makes the rest of the shoot much easier and more natural because the trust is there.

Something else she wanted to try was a photo that looked like she was hovering on a broomstick. With a little bit of photographers magic, we had a flying Witch in some ruins…

This was a fun photoshoot and I love the weird and wacky shoots I seem to attract 🙂

If you would like your own photoshoot, please get in touch!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Equipment used:

Cameras and Lenses: Sony A9 with 85mm 1.4GM and 24-70mm 2.8
Lighting: AD600 Pro, AD200, Godox V1, Godox TT685