When All You Need...

is a little black dress and a wowzer model

So today I'm sharing a look from my last trip to France, in October of this year. And a shoot that will stay with me for a long time. Absolutely one of my favourite shoots this year. Easily in the top 5 and, possibly, one of my favourites of my career.

Why so? Well, it represented one of those things I love about this vocation: serendipity. In preparation for the trip, I'd posted on Insta notes about my availability and a previous model I'd worked with in Toulouse, Catalina, got to work on promoting me to her other model friends. Who needs an agent, eh?

Kelvin was one of her fiends that made contact. Originally from Medellin in Colombia, I was immediately struck by Kelvin's presence. Sublimely photogenic on her book.

We began backing and forthing on Insta in broken French then Spanish, her native language. Eventually, we got all the details nailed down and so it was that we met at my Toulouse studio base, Studio Le Carré. Etienne the owner was on hand with his hopsitality once more, with everything set up.

Now, communicating in a foreign language is fine on the internet as you're sat behind Google Translate or ChatGPT. In person, it's a different matter. Like many people, I speak small amounts of a few languages, enough to get by. I do a lesson a day in French but had let my Spanish slide. Which makes directing a model difficult if they speak almost no English. But hey with gestures, mimicry and phone translation you can get by.

Of course, the other worry is when I'd shot with Catalina, she was quite new. My how she's blossomed since, but I figured the other models she was hooking me up with could also be relatively new. So it was a worry, I'll be honest.

But damn! Right out of the blocks, Kelvin hit the camera with a barrage of presence and attitude. Part way through the first look, her friend Gabi arrived with some extra bits that Kelvin had forgotten. This turned out to be the point at which the shoot really took off. Gabi spoke excellent English and acted as both DJ and translator for the two of us. Everything kicked up a gear and this set is one of the results of that!

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