Our friends at Wild Arena invited us up with them on one of their excellent photography trips, they run loads all over the place, and this one was a week-long excursion into the Highlands of Scotland to photograph Wildlife. We, however, were there to try out some ideas we’ve been working on for some things we’re planning in the future. So we loaded far more clothes, props and winter gear into the car than anybody should really need and headed up!
I’ve been working alongside Wild Arena for many years while working with Canon and more recently running Lightroom workshops with them from their base up in Knowsley. We also judged the Country File Calendar together for the BBC last year which was a blast! They’re really lovely people who are widely respected within the industry and I’ll be working more closely with them in the coming years.
Below is a selection of the images we came out with while scouting out locations and getting an idea for how to shoot in the landscape, it can be pretty difficult to photograph a model in epic landscapes as you’re too easily drawn into trying to fit everything in and you end up with snapshots rather than decent compositions. We’re looking at running something pretty unique with them sometime in the future so if you want to know more or would be interested in joining us for an epic portrait photography adventure let us know!
The hardest part of it all was the cold and the weather in general, it would change from one extreme to another in the space of 20 mins. Which meant we had to be fast and careful. Especially with jade wearing thin dresses, Warm clothes were always just out of shot and the car’s heating was on ready to run inside. We went through many flasks of tea!
Modelling with the birds presented its own challenges on top of the others; the wind can really affect their behaviour and Jade had to keep her arm steady and hold onto the bird while not looking like she was concentrating on that. The birds were really interested in Jade’s free hand in the hope she had treats in it and she would have to move slowly as to not startle them.
We hope you like the images and would like to thank Wild Arena for having us up there, showing us around and allowing us the time within their tour to shoot with the birds. And thanks Jade for putting up with the cold and my terrible modelling!
If you like the vlog format and think we should do more of it let us know!