When Ailsa Munroe was looking for a photographer to do some advertising fashion photography for wedding bridal wear, she approached me as we’d worked together many years before.
I first met Ailsa when I was photographing productions at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and she was working in the costume department. After spending many years designing theatrical costumes, Ailsa branched out into Bridal Dresses.
Having full run of the castle gave us plenty of time to set up lighting.
For the shoot we decided to set up a wedding scenario, so I contacted Sorn Castle in Ayrshire to see if they could provide the venue in return for use of some of the shots, which they agreed to. Ailsa’s budget was a little limited so she asked some friends if they would act as models. I always prefer to use professional models if budgets allow but I have worked this way before and if you choose the right people carefully it can work very well. Models, are after all real people themselves. They don’t come from some magic kingdom.
We make extensive use of the grounds as well as the castle interiors.
The main difference with professional models is that they know how to pose and will do this time after time for numerous takes. I remember many years ago, when I was first starting out as a photographer, I was showing my portfolio to someone in an ad agency and they asked if I had any experience of working with models, as if this required a special kind of skill.
In fact working with members of the public is often much harder as you have do all the work, trying to motivate them to do what you want them to do. In this case however, Ailsa couldn’t have chosen better as they both knew each other very well and were very natural together.
If you choose the right people, non-professional models can work well.
Once all that was set up, we just had a fun day pretending we were photographing a wedding minus the guests! I was keen to create a little drama and make good use of the location so we carefully set up and lit various scenarios around the castle and castle grounds.