Media Mayhem!

In the blink of an eye, I found myself surrounded by two piles of inanimate objects. In this case, it was three pairs of killer heels (didn't I already mention how highly they feature in my life?), about fifteen pieces of neck and arm adornments, three pairs of jeans, and various bags and boxes. Two problems were obvious to me, my indecisiveness and secondly the amount of choice.

I found my "choices" now by the front door awaiting the arrival of Claire (Claire Barber PR), who appeared like a vision with her basket resplendent of little red riding hood, brimming with yet more "inanimate objects".

If you saw two blonde girls, tottering on their heels, carrying a huge silk wedding gown, a beautiful bridesmaid dress, vintage veils a flowing, Louis Vuitton luggage, a cow print holdall and an rather large inflatable penguin, you must have been in my town yesterday!

Yep, that was us en route to the studio of one of Britain's Top Photographer's Les Pringle.

PR guru Claire, keeps my email box full with media requests, so those photo's I've been touting around for the last year are no longer fresh...or truthful :-)

After another addition to my family and a few more worry lines, let's just say some new true life shots were required. The "boudoir" photo session of last April isn't cutting it anymore, nice while the memory lasted and I shall always have the photo's to prove I did once have a body worthy of the lens....ok so "those shots" for my husband's eyes only, but a girl can dream.

Anyway, I digress, as usual. So Claire and I arranged the plethora of objects we had lugged into Les's studio, and deposited them all over his viewing room sofa and floor. Les can tell you in second what he likes and dislikes from the vast selection of outfits and accessories laid out before him...told you I was indecisive,hence the very full studio !

Then I saw the sign! Oh my goodness,no it can't be, no heels up the stairs or in the studio, what was I to do. Before I started hyperventilating Les assured me it wouldn't be a problem I just had to carry the heels and tip toe on the backdrop, over to the lens....phew panic over! and Armageddon avoided.

What fun I had, Claire asked Les if she could take some shots of him in action, he had no objections, so Claire was able to catalogue life behind the lens, behind the lens.



As a fully qualified ski instructor too, Les is particularly knowledgeable about the full workings of one's skeleton and muscles hence he told me how to stand, where to put my weight add into that his photography skills and he knew where to put my chin and nose too! After about the first hundred clicks of the camera I felt a little more relaxed.

Claire was a great help, I'm sure she's worked on a movie set before, comb in one hand and powder poised in the other. Claire filled my LV luggage to make it look like it had some shape, she omitted to tell me the filling was my heavyweight handbag containing Filofax, Ipod, mobile, make-up bag and every single thing a mother of three carries around. Tottering on my 4 inch heels trying not to mark the floor, I had to look as cool as a cucumber carrying a bag, that Mike Tyson would struggle to lift let alone carry.

Wind machine blowing, the curls I had endeavoured to put into my hair fell out in seconds, but after the heat of those lights the wind was a refreshing change. Oh what fun we had.

Les, the true professional had me turning this way and that, holding my arm here and there and he knew how best to show off the beautiful oyster coloured silk gown I had borrowed to encompass the wedding theme. Many thanks to Truly Madly Deeply bridal boutique in Whitley Bay for the loan of this gown and the veil....thanks again Debbie.

So after the day was "wrapped" Claire and I shot away for a much needed caffeine injection, whilst Les worked his magic on the raw images. Within ten minutes he had got what must have been 200 shots down to 17 ......then his hard work had to begin, I know he's a photographer and not a magician, so my requests for him to airbrush 2 stone and 10 years fell on deaf ears :-)

He then invited Claire and I to watch his professional wedding screen show in the private viewing lounge. Oh my we were blown away at the utterly amazing images and emotions packed into this presentation. No wonder this guy is on the Europe's best...check out his work.

Anyway as they say "it's a wrap".....thoroughly exhausting day but we had such fun.......not sure I would fancy being a model for a living (well if I had the face and body), but boy are the final cuts things of beauty.

If you are ever lucky enough to use the services of a top photographer, please please don't hesitate, just go for it, you will be more than pleased you did.