DMU Contour Fashion Swimwear Photoshoot

DMU contour fashion has a long history of producing eye-catching and unique pieces of lingerie and swimwear so when Laura Taylor, final year contour student, asked me to shoot her final collection, I jumped at the opportunity.

Her collection consisted of six pieces of colourful swimwear inspired by the people and animals of Kenya, and made from fishnet mesh and lycra.  We were also lucky enough to have the beautiful Carys and Katherine modelling the garments for us - both were an absolute pleasure to work with.

The original location for the shoot was supposed to be a rooftop in Leicester city centre but our well thought out plans were foiled by the ever reliable British weather and we ended up shooting in a rather uninspiring unused room above CandyStripe. In my bag I had brought some gels, planning on using only the 1/4 CTO for our outdoor location; but luckily there was also some other colours in there allowing us to compliment the vibrant garments with gelled speedlights.

Recently I've been particularly inspired by the photographer Jake Hicks, otherwise known as the Gel King (check out his work and you'll see why the nickname is fitting and deserved). Alongside producing stellar work, he also shares some of his lighting set-ups and techniques to help others understand how he creates his images - I'd highly recommend subscribing to his facebook page. The lighting for some of these images is inspired by his tutorials - in particular his 'technique tuesday' on creating a key light using both a hard and a soft light source.

Overall, the shoot was a lot of fun and I'm really happy with how the images turned out. I had the opportunity to add some new lighting set-ups to the repertoire and meet some creative people. Looking forward to playing around with coloured gels a lot more in the future!