Hayleigh’s last shoot with us, which was also her first ever, had seen her transformed from intrigued but terrified makeup artist, wondering what it would be like to pose for a shoot, into a confident, up-for-any-challenge model.

 Now we’re not daft enough to waste great opportunities, so we’d wasted no time bringing her in again to see whether the transformation had lasted.

It had.

It was a very confident Hayleigh that arrived early for her second shoot.

I’d asked her to come in to work up some ideas with me for a shoot I wanted to do over the summer, and I’d also said that if the weather held, there was a location shot I’d like to do if we could catch the light.

With a brand new portfolio to fill, Hayleigh was also looking for some mainstream glamour style shots.  I’d suggested some casual dress glamour, and she’d bought along a high cut tee-shirt for a high energy set.

The location shoot was to be for my ‘nude in the environment’ project, so I also wanted the still inexperienced Hayleigh to practice some of the poses we might use.  Better experiment i the comfort of the studio than on location.  After all it is still only April.

The studio work went well and once again it was clear that Hayleigh’s confidence is at its peak when she is working nude.   Nothing phases her 🙂

I had said that I’d like to shoot the last set on location if the weather held.  

It didn’t, but with Hayleigh on top of her game, I really didn’t want to waste the opportunity, so stating confidently that it was brightening up again I hustled her, weighed down by camera gear, towards the car.  

As she crouched under the tailgate sheltering from the rain loading the bags, the look she gave me suggested she wasn’t entirely convinced by my optimism.

My chosen location was The Needle’s Eye at Wentworth, which is at the top of a hill, so she had a cool breeze to distract her from the steady rain :/

The light was already dropping when we arrived, so we had to work quickly, funnily enough, I got the impression Hayleigh thought that  standing naked in the wind and rain was a pretty good reason to work fast too. 

I got my final shots as the light was becoming unusable, and by that time everything, cameras, model and even the photographer was well soaked, but we got the pictures.

There  she was, waiting (mostly) patiently in the rain while I balanced the flash for the rapidly falling light, in conditions that would have had many models heading for the car long ago and  being teased about not having enough sympathy for me because I had to kneel on the wet grass.  

The gleam of humour in her eyes I told me all I needed to know.  Hayleigh would just have to be a regular in my studio 🙂