With thanks to Felicity and N22 Portrait Studio for the facilities.

WARNING Contains images of a nude life model

It was a pleasure and a privilege for me to have my first nude photo shoot with Rachel McCarthy of the Register of Artists’ Models. Having read her interview in the 2012 Metro article it would have been a real coup to have Rachel as my first sitter. When she accepted my request it was really good news.

Creating images that maintained Rachel’s modesty without destroying the essence of being a life model was certainly a challenge. The poses I wanted to achieve would be natural, not forced or over-exaggerated. Getting a different type of image from the norm would be a bonus.

When the day was set in my diary, I began planning the technical aspects of the shoot. What I wanted to concentrate on was the position of Rachel’s body in the picture rather than the lighting set-up. There was a big debate in my head whether or not to bring any lights.

On the day itself I decided not to bring any lights and I was lucky enough that there was plenty of natural daylight at the location of the shoot. I did bring a tripod but stopped using it early on in the shoot as I kept losing wonderful natural moments.

I’m really glad that Rachel gave me the opportunity to work with her. The work she has done to dispel the myths of life modelling and for the Register of Artists’ Models is truly impressive. It is sad to hear some of the shocking stories of people out there taking advantage or their lack of duty of care. They may be a minority but in an ideal world they would be non-existent. Without Rachel and her colleagues the art world, indeed the rest of the world, would be a much poorer place.

With thanks to Rachel McCarthy.

So here are the images from the first serious shoot in this project. I thought it would be best to keep it as basic as possible. I should try walking before running. One light. One camera. One lens.

A golden rule of lighting is to have the direction of the light always coming from above, as this mimics sunlight. Used well, breaking the convention is never a bad thing.

With the winter months, I noticed that the only bare skin on show was the face and hands. And I was thinking, can you really tell that much about a person just from these body parts? Or do we make judgements or assumptions about a person not from the bare skin on show but from other factors like the clothes they are wearing?

Observing the faces and hands of passers-by too intently is going to get you into a lot of trouble very quickly. An artist on the other hand can take their time studying the human anatomy while they create their drawing or painting.

It is just a shame that my drawing and painting skills are non-existent. Which is why I need a camera to do the drawing for me.

Before I knew it our session was up.

This is the second time I have shot in a studio. The first was part of a training course but that must have been over ten years ago.

To some photographers a studio is a blank canvas in which they can have full control of the light. I’m not so sure it is for me, it just feels a bit sterile. I quite like working with natural light and real surroundings.

With thanks to Anne and Studio 60 for the facilities.