All posts by Laurence Winram

Portraits

Harris Distillery

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Harris Distillery Portraits

These are shots of Donald and Peter, two of the new distillers at Harris Distillery. After taking shots of all the distillers in their work at the distillery I took shots of them going about their own lives.

Donald like most folk on Harris has a boat and does a bit of fishing so we took a wander down to the bay by his house. Like a lot of folk on Harris he was very laid back and perfectly at ease in front of the camera.

Peter is a coastguard so he can be got up at any hour of the day or night to deal with emergencies. He easily wins the award for the most enthusiastic member of staff, I couldn’t get him not smiling. I took shots of his stepson, Cameron with his ducks the last time I was over.

Shooting on Harris was the most rewarding job I’ve done last year, especially at the end with the amazing ceilidh with the band Skipinnish for the grand opening. As I had to meet and photograph so many people it felt like a big family get together with over half the population along for the night. I so hope they ask me back to take more images, it’s a job that feels like a holiday!Harris distillery portrait Harris distillery portrait

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Movember shoot

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Movember shoot

Get yourself a Movember portrait!
Send your Movember ‘tashe pals along to the studio (63 Brunswick Road Edinburgh EH7 5PD) on Friday 27th November between 5pm – 10pm for your very own Movember hi res Football card portrait wearing one of my provided vintage Toffs football tops.
Add yourself to the event;
https://www.facebook.com/events/1529347844053681/
(please no beards! It’s a ‘tashe thing) Mo sistas welcome though, I have fake ‘tashes for them.

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Emma

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Emma

From a recent shoot in the studio. Still trying to explore nude photography. It’s hard not to repeat yourself and you need to be very organised in advance with what you want to do otherwise it’s easy to waste the time you have with a model.

I especially like the effect of the tilt shift lens, it lends a slightly more impressionistic slant to the shots.

Some of the images are for sale on Artfinder https://www.artfinder.com/product/emma-iv-130/

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Emma VI
nude girl crouching B+W
Emma I
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Emma IV
naked girls back
Emma V
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Ayla Rose Nudes

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Ayla Rose – Nudes

I have been shooting a few more nudes recently on the back of my Shadow project. Ayla Rose is the first professional nude model I’ve photographed. The shoot worked out very well, it made a real difference having a model who was so familiar with the process and who was so professional. I love the opportunity to be completely free with form and light. I’ve always felt more in tune with painters than most photographers and I feel photographing nudes for me is about as close as you can get to painting.

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Nikita

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Nikita 

So Nikita is a model I shot for a client of mine the other day. She was very into doing some personal photos and came to the studio for a session. We spent ages messing about with double exposure, fabric, feathers, the lot! I love experimenting, especially when the subjects are into it. Shot a few of these on my new 85mm tilt-shift lens which I totally love. The crow was shot with daylight alone, a nice change for me. Nikita and the crow is for sale as a signed edition print on Artfinder

The double exposure image, Nikita II will be added to my Shadow series. It’s also on Artfinder

Nikita and the crowNikita II

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Double exposure prints for sale

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Double exposure prints for sale

So I just added this image, ‘Mihaela I’ and a few others for the time being to the Art Finder website. It’s available for sale as a signed edition of 30. They have been selling at the exhibition in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary but an online gallery is good to offer this to a wider audience. This one out of all the images in the exhibition seems to be the favourite. I’ll post a few others that may not have been seen. Check out the Artfinder site here. I’ll be adding to that gallery a lot more.Mihaela I

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it’s all in the stars….

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Filmed this in the grounds of Menzies Castle by Aberfeldy in Perthshire. 13th August 2015
The sound you hear I recorded on my phone at the time I was shooting. I thought it was a deer but I’m not sure. Any thoughts?
It was wonderfully spooky, especially with the mist rolling in. The traces you see are satellites. The occasional flashes are the meteors.

Shot as single frames on a Canon 5D Mk III then put together in Final Cut pro X

Portraits

Exhibition looms!

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Exhibition looms!

I have been asked to exhibit some of my work at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in July. I am intending to show the images from my recent Shadow series, mostly double exposure nudes. To that end I’ve been shooting for this in my free time. It’s a lot of fun playing with ideas and creating just the feel I want. A lot of the images have been of Sophie who originally modelled for me in commercial projects a few times. I didn’t realise at the time but she was the perfect model for this series as she has worked as a life model in the past and is an artist so understands the creative process perfectly. That makes a huge difference when you’re working on something personal as it often involves a fair degree of searching around to find the right direction.

Two of these have been shot on my home-made tilt shift lens, I love it’s etherial quality. The double exposures are easy to produce but very hard to get just right.

Anyone women interested in modelling for the series please email me on studio@lwinram.com

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so now I’m doing this talk…

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Public Talk at Napier University 

I’ve done this kind of thing before, a talk in front of a roomful of semi interested students who don’t always have the choice about whether they want to be there. It’s actually generally a fun thing to do. I feel a strong sense of obligation to help out students as it was professional working photographers visiting and talking at my uni that made all the difference to me. It left a big impression. So that’s why I like to do the same for students now and it usually ends up with me blurting out every possible bit of advice and pitfall to avoid I can possibly muster in a non too eloquent manner.

This time though, Sophie Gerrard, photography lecturer at Napier Uni has asked me to talk to her final year students but has also made the talk open to the public…. and they’re calling it a lecture….. It all sounds a bit grown up and serious! They’ve even made a poster for it! (At least I’m looking svelte in it, being taken 12 years ago – with me standing on the bubble cable release)

It’s supposed to be about being a commercial photographer, which is fine although I’d much rather talk about personal projects as they consume about 98% of my brain. However, I’ll strike a balance and go over both. One of the problems is that it takes many hours to prepare properly for a talk and I’m always so busy! I’m trying in my spare time to collate new info and images to make it as fresh as possible but if you’ve heard me talk in the past you can cough loudly and yawn when I start telling one you’ve heard before. Questions at the end.

My biggest fear apart from the nerves is that it’s full of photo nerds that want to talk about gear! Zzzzzz. sorry guys!

If you want to attend this stream of consciousness then you need to RSVP Sophie Gerrard the lecturer co-ordinating it at Napier.

RSVP for a seat S.Gerrard@napier.ac.uk

Where Napier University, Merchiston Campus lecture theatre B2

When 5.30pm 26th May 2015

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The Dorcas Creed

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The Dorcas Creed

My good friend Matt Armstrong came by the studio with his new  partner Helena the other day and this happened! Fortunately Matt and Helena are broad minded and creative people who embraced the notion of a portrait like this. I stretched invisible head across the set passing it through the middle of a single candle. I didn’t foresee the image being exactly like this but when Matt held the horns in front of the candle it became clear what would work. I can’t decide if Matt looks just like Gilbert of Gilbert and George fame, or is it Philip Larkin? Regardless I think they look suitably bohemian and members of a group of whom’s creed it would be ne’er impossible to fathom. The style of the shot I thought was reminiscent of Man Ray. I’ve always loved that period of surrealists and Dadaist art.

In an earlier incarnation Matt was a member if the most excellent Kaisers and is always dressed immaculately in threads of a vintage no later than 1974.BLUE3493-2-candle-lit-portrait-with-horns

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Sophie

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Sophie

Recently I’m becoming aware just how much a sitter brings to a shoot. If someone is happy to sit for me then I’m happy. But I’ve found that when they share something of a similar artistic nature it adds so much more to the image. I suppose that would seems obvious to most but for whatever reason I’m now becoming much more aware of it.

Sophie is an illustrator and her artwork has a pretty dark feel with a heavy dose of weird, so she was well in tune with how I see things. She didn’t have to have to play a part in our shoot, her strength of character loomed large the whole time, in fact I’d say it dominated the shoot. I did intend to use some of these for my double exposure series but it soon became clear that there would be way too much going on to add anything else to her images.  I wish all my sitters brought this much to a shoot!

Prints of these and others available direct from me or on the Saatchi website. Once again, any women happy to pose do get in touch.

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Tara

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Tara – Amazing shoot with Tara the other day. She was very clear about how she wished to be portrayed, in a strong and confident way. We had all kinds of ideas, some more impractical than others but when she turned up with this sheep skull I knew it would make for a powerful image. I also liked the more traditional seated pose. It’s not as dramatic but I think it still shows her strength of character. As ever, any other women who are interested in posing for this series please do get in touch.

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Michael Wildman

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Michael Wildman – Had the pleasure of shooting my friend Michael today. I first met him several years ago in the Cameo bar. I liked his hat and asked him if he and his partner would like to come down to the studio, the rest is history.

I’ve been looking to expanding my experience with portraiture and also wanted to see if I could produce images of him that lent themselves to my double exposure technique. I ended up not doing much with that as Michael has such a strong presence I didn’t feel anything other than straight images were what the moment suited. Michael is a fine art photographer himself with a strong sense of what constitutes a worthy image. This to me is a bit of a double edged sword that brings a lot of intensity to the moment but can feel intimidating too. As it turned out by the end of the shoot the direction of the images left both of us with smiles on our faces.

Such is Michaels presence I thought I’d shoot just the one wide view, those eyes seem to fill the shot! And of course this image might satisfy some of those lighting geeks curiosity. I’ll post a couple of the favourite ones later.

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Nicola Daley as Hedda Gabler

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Nicola Daley as Hedda Gabler

Had the pleasure of shooting Nicola at Hedda Gabler in the studio the other day. The production will run at Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre. 

It makes such a huge difference when you have a team on a project like this. I love it when the actors turn up with a hair and makeup person as well as with just the right costume. It means I can spend my time on the lighting and feel of the shot and not be running about looking for safety pins and hairspray! And having a talented actor helps of course. Nicola had no problem getting the intensity of the character across. The students on placement seemed to enjoy standing in for Nicola too, bunch of posers!

Actor Nicola Daley as Hedda Gabler for the Lyceum theatre
Nicola Daley as Hedda Gabler
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Mihaela

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Mihaela

Another for the Shadow series. Signed prints for sale on Artfinder. When I was out shooting the background bushes image I had some guy come up to me asking why I’m shooting ‘dead trees’. I did explain how it would be used but his face never gave that look of understanding of what the hell I was on about. I just have to live with it that someone out there thinks I shoot dead tress for fun. I just should have said I was a twitcher, is that less weird?
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Mihaela as Cerynitis

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Mihaela as Cerynitis

Amazing shoot in the studio the other day with my photographer friend Mihaela. We had no plan to shoot anything like this but I think that makes it all the more rewarding when you get a worthwhile result. I love working with arty people, they get what you are trying to do and add to it. She was the one who suggested using the antlers. I love how her neck almost forms a deer skull. #antlers Always looking for new models to work with, do get in touch.

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Portraits

Isle of Harris Portraits – Cameron

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Portraits from the Isle of Harris. – Cameron (please do share this!)

Portraits from the Isle of Harris. - Callum
This is part of a series of portraits commissioned by the Harris Distillery being built in Tarbert on Harris. The wanted portraits of the islanders in their natural environment.  National Geographic was the mood they asked for.                                                    This was the shoot I enjoyed the most of the time I spent on Harris. Cameron and his family were so welcoming and open to ideas. He was very patient while we attempted to herd the ducks into some kind of order which was as you’d imagine, like trying to drink soup with a sieve. Lovely people. I love my job!