Happy Christmas

I would like to wish followers of my blog a very Happy Christmas and hope you all have a fantastically busy 2010 modeling and taking photographs.

I will try to make a concerted effect to keep the blog up to date more next year with news of my shoots and projects that I'm interested in.

My mail address has changed and if anybody wishes to contact me for anything to do with photography please use schotzphotos@googlemail.com This is so I can stay in touch with everybody when my wife and I are traveling in our motorhome.

Busy Busy Busy

I had a very busy November with 4 shoots in 3 weeks. Now I'm taking a rest until The New Year when I can come back with renewed vigour and lots of ideas for shoots.

Black and white will rule again and the 'Vanilla' images will gradually disappear from my website and model portfolios.

I had been letting the wrong things dictate which direction I was heading in but have recognised the need to get back to where it all started for me two years ago with art nude photography.

Sick and Tired

Despite feeling like death warmed up I went ahead and did a shoot with the amazing Natural_happy_girl who came down from Southampton. By the end of the day I was feeling very tired but also very happy as it was one of the best days I've ever had in the studio. NHG is one of the funniest people I've ever had the pleasure to photograph, her energy and humour kept me entertained all day and we ended up getting some great pictures as a bonus.

Best ever shoot

Sunday I had an amazing shoot with model and MUA Ryo Love. She is the most creative and remarkable person I have ever had the pleasure to work with and together we produced the most colourful work I have ever done.

Latest

Tasha Callis with dark wig natural blonde hair


Have been busy with two new shoots. A new model to art nude Tasha Callis and a favourite of mine Lottie who I have worked with once before. This weekend is going to be ground breaking for me as I am working with a model who is a fashion model and an MUA. It will be very experimental and I have high hopes of adding some radical fashion work to my portfolio.

IvoryFlame

Holly aka IvoryFlame has written the following words about the above picture on her blog which I'm very happy about and although they were unprompted by me describe the image beautifully.


I love this image by photographer Scott Chappell and model Red Dove; it strikes me as having so much story behind it, the falling hair seems to represent such a personal journey, holding onto years of change and growth, it looks alive as it swirls around the model, in some ways it feels like it's taking over, but her soft, peaceful pre-raphaelite face tells me it is about love, not battle. Maybe she was some kind of wild beast that has had a spell broken and is now turning into the beautiful woman she was underneath, rising sleepily from her enchantment to a new life. That's what I love about it, it gets my imagination going with different naratives, and that's always a sign of a great image for me.

New website

I have created a new website for art nude photographers which has taken all my spare time this week.

It has 67 members so far and will remain a small community which is easily manageable. New members and their work now have to be approved after I was contacted by some very dodgy characters asking about the site.

Models are welcome but the site is mainly for discussion between photographers who specialize in working in the art nude genre.

http://artnudephotography.ning.com

Times are quiet

Having a quiet couple of weeks away from photography sourcing new props for my next shoot with Raphaella on 7th September.

So far have bought enough stuff to clutter up the spare bedroom and got my eye on a beautiful glass table.

Camera dispatched

A courier collected the Canon today and it felt like saying goodbye to an old friend. Tomorrow I will take the Bowens to Robert White for an assessment on the damage. Finding it very hard to choose between the Red Dove pictures, I love them all and feel that they have helped me develop more as a photographer and improve my Photoshop skills which are still very limited.

Red Dove Project

Had my shoot with RD and all was going well until I fell off a stepladder and busted my trusty Canon 1Ds along with an expensive pair of vari-focal glasses and a studio light. Managed to finish the shoot with spare camera but feeling very sore and have a black eye and a shoulder and arm that feels like it has been through a mangle soI have literally suffered for my art. Oh well onwards and upwards I'm sat here waiting for the insurance office to open so I can bang in a claim. The shoot went well enough to get some good pictures (see above). Now I have 3 weeks before the next one to recover and hopefully get the camera repaired.

The Red Book

The book came back from Cewe today and got to say it's not bad. Some of the pictures are darker than I would have liked but they can be adjusted.

Red Dove

I have a shoot arranged with Wiltshire based model Red Dove for Sunday. Got some great ideas for the studio shoot so should be worth a peak.

The Red Book has been sent to the printers. It's only 42 pages but a lot of work went into it, hours spent editing so hope it lives up to my expectations.

Just noticed I seem to have a thing about RED at the moment but I'm sure it's just a passing phase. It's the colour for danger isn't it? Had my fingers burnt already recently, don't want to make the same mistake again.

The Red Book

I am in the process of producing a book of images called The Red Book. It is a compilation of the work I did over two days on Portland Bill, in The New Forest and my studio with Chrissie_Red. Hopefully one day it will form part of a bigger book of my work as an art nude photographer and I'll see a copy of it in Waterstones.

My interview with Univers d'Artistes is now online.

http://www.universdartistes.com/2009/07/from-english-coast-scott-chappell.html

ChrissieRed

Chrissie stayed with Sue and I for the weekend and we had a great time shooting on the Dorset Coast and The New Forest as well as a quick studio session before she had to leave. Thanks Chrissie for making it a very special weekend.

September bookings

I am thinking about booking shoots for September and would like to hear from models who possibly I haven't worked with before. As always I am open to ideas and suggestions about how and where shoots take place but I'm really looking for a challenge so it could be anything from nude to fashion.

Interview with universdartistes

I recently did a Q&A with Jan Murphy from http://www.universdartistes.com it will be interesting to see it published online. It was my first experience of doing something like that and I'm hoping it could lead to further exposure for my work. I still have some way to go before I regard my work as gallery standard but that is the target I have set myself.

Latest photo shoot

Aimee a fabulous local model who came at very short notice when the model who was booked became ill. It was one of my shortest ever studio shoots but the pictures came out just as I envisaged them.

Bideford

Just got back from holiday in Bideford Devon.

The highlight of the week was a photoshoot with Claire at Framington. Discovered on old ship washed up on the shore when I turned off the main road to Barnstaple to get away from a tailgater. I wish I was able to thank him now if it wasn't for his crap driving I'd never have found a real diamond of location. The cafe sells local ice cream which I can recommend.

The week went by without any major issues after the irrate neighbour apologized about his outburst within two minutes of us arriving.

May be a return visit to Bideford will happen one day but me thinks a larger house will be the order of the day next time.

Holiday

Arrived yesterday at our holiday home in Bideford and was confronted by an angry neighbour, not the best way to start a weeks break.
I'm not sure if the house was designed as a starter home for midgets but we have bigger beach-huts in Bournemouth. To say it's disappointing would be an understatement. The view from the lounge is very nice though, when the tides in.
The bedrooms are VERY small and I'm sure the beds are rejects from Bed-R-Us.
Today we will do a bit of retail therepy to try and forget a bad first night and hope things improve for the rest of the week.

10th June 2009

Sunday aventuryn (Katya) came to my studio for a test shoot. It was a fairly frantic evening with lots of ideas from a Cabaret theme to shredded material but we had a lot of fun.









Monday a fabulous model called quietly _filthy (Essie) endured a 5 hour train journey to Poole and we are both very happy with the results. I can't speak highly enough of Essie she is one of the best models I have ever worked with.





I will be on holiday in Devon next week and have a shoot booked with Claire from NM which I'm looking forward to.