My trip home..

So the last few days I've been back home in the Midlands. I go home every month from where I live now (near Newcastle, UK) to see the family and usually for the odd client job or two or a test shoot, because it's closer to London.
Monday Luc did a studio shoot at the local studio in Tamworth. He has developed a style in which he creates 'colour' movement and he's been building on this for the past few months, the pictures look fab from what I can see! I helped out in the studio (we help each other out on shoots, taking it in turns to assist when needed - it's handy!)
Tuesday I missed an appointment in the morning but later in the day we went to see an exhibition at Keele University (near Stoke). A student at the university (Kate) had organised mine and Luc's work to be featured. After about half an hour of trying to find the exhibiting venue, we finally found it in the ballroom! I was impressed by how many images were being featured.
Here's a few snaps -

A few of mine -





One of Luc's -



I did have a few more on my phone which I'll probably updated in time! However, im a bit too lazy and tired right now from my trip so I'll updated in a few days.

Wednesday I had a test shoot in the studio, concentrating on high fashion with this seasons trends. I had a great team... and if I think about it possibly the biggest team I've worked with - 2 models, 2 hair stylists, 1 stylist with 2 assistants, 1 MUA, my friend Charlotte, and Luc assisting as well as ME - that's 11 people in one studio room! The shoot went very well, and I am looking forward to editing!

Right now I'm back in Morpeth, had to sort out a bunch of ebay things to be posted tomorrow, I have editing to do over Friday and Saturday then I'm off to London Sunday - Weds for a commerical shoot for a clothing brand!

Seriously I am lacking in imagery in this post, I promise to charge my little compact next time so I can get my blog looking fab again. Plus this blog design needs a little working on AND i need to get my ass into gear and start posting more here!!

BEFORE I went home, and in February I went to Focus On Imaging event in Birmingham. I met Miss Aniela (the flickr self portrait artist), she noticed me whilst doing a talk for microsoft and came over to say hello! She got someone to take a photo of us.. here we are! (me, aniela, luc)




Right now I need my sleep, but i WILL update soon!

xx

I'm featured in Digital SLR Magazine this month (April issue), you can find it in all good supermarkets and book stores (WH Smiths, Borders, Waterstones etc). It's a great feature - 12 pages! and a great write up, it gives you an insight into how I work, what I've done so far and future plans etc.
I was also featured in the March edition of Practical Photography, which was another good article! This one should be out in the US and I *think* Europe now, as they are out a month later internationally. So all you international viewers, SLR magazine should be out for you next month!

There's also another good online article recently (if you can't wait to see the magazines ;) Colours Magazine did a feature on me a few weeks back. You can have a read of that here - http://www.coloursmag.com/?p=433
_

I haven't had much chance to update all my online accounts and my website is completely old (to me, anyway). It hasn't been updated from around September last year, so all the work on there is very out-dated, especially since I've been doing a lot of new work and experimenting.
2009 has been a good year for me so far, as I mentioned before, it was a big change as I moved away from home to live with my boyfriend and starting business here has been a lot more difficult being even further from London.. but suprsingly it has all picked up and having an agent in Milan has been great getting my name out internationally and I've been testing this year to improve my portfolio, I've also had a very important test with a big client recently, that has been very challenging but also eye-opening to see how big photographers actually work (It isn't that easy for us photographs, you know?! ;) )
Me and Luc are hoping to move to London at the end of summer so we can pursue our photography careers but in the meantime, I will be carrying on -testing, emailing, pushing, experimenting! One thing for sure is I know where I want to be, and I won't stop until I get there.

My email I use from now on is larajadephotography@gmail.com and my website is larajade.co.uk rather than.com, I've been recieving a lot on lara@larajade.com but I no longer use this.


Take care for now!
I will promise to update more, I have so much to show!

BIG UPDATE

Hello everyone!
I apologise for such a late post here, I have had so much on and to be totally honest the days I've had free I haven't even felt like working or being on the internet. Instead of jumping straight into work I've been discovering more about my health, which was quite poor last year and has left me feeling very exhausted and not being able to handle stress very well.

2009 has been a good start for me, it's very refreshing to start a new year with a positive. I went straight into it with a project called 'Lax Project' which is a combined photography project with my boyfriend Luc Coiffait (you can see his work at www.flickr.com/lcoiffait). The theme is basically 'fashion in abandoned places' and we travelled around the UK (Wales, Scotland, Newcastle & Birmingham) to get to some of the most interesting abandoned locations.
I have a backlog of a few thousand photos to go through and the beginning of the project can be seen on our flickr page - www.flickr.com/photos/laxproject. I have been quite busy with everything so therefore haven't been editing the work. On the other hand Mr Luc has been busy editing and his can be seen so far on the flickr page above.

I have just returned from a week trip to London where I stayed with my friend Anna (you may know her as a model from some of my work). Her and her husband Nat were kind enough to let me stay with them.
We did two shoots for Lifescape Magazine (fantastic eco-friendly health magazine) where I shot two editorials and two covers for the upcoming months.
The first shoot was in Hartwell House just outside of London, the location is a stunning mansion that has also been transformed partly into a spa. Anna was the cover girl and model for this shoot, Sandra Bermingham was the fantastic MUA and we borrowed clothes from a beautiful vintage boutique.
We got to stay in the luxury 'Lee' suite whilst we were preparing for the shoot and we had room service for our breakfast! The staff all made us feel very welcome and all of us involved can say it was one of the best shoots we've been on.

The second shoot was in Radlett, London. We had Vershana modelling, Sandra doing make-up and we had a designer 'Baruch' (upcoming designer that has some fantastic clothes). We shot around the train station and surrounding areas, playing with the natural light that was pouring through the tress. It was a perfect set up for a summer editorial!

London was a good experience for me, I managed to meet a few good contacts on the way too. We went to dinner with Roberto Aguilar (www.photoaguilar.com) at Eight Over Eight, a beautiful Asian restuarant in Chelsea. (highly recommended by the way!)
Lifescape magazine brought a few good contacts my way - watch this space!!

I am testing for Lavazza coffee over the next few weeks so I'll be very busy but please keep an eye on my blog and my flickr for new updates very soon!


Lara.

Actions/Texture Sale, Limited Time Only!

Im having a limited actions/texture sale for a very limited time. The prices won't be this low again!




Paypal address - larajadephotography@googlemail.com
You will recieve actions via email
You recieve textures via post (please pass me your address when sending money)

Lara.

Life

Is going incredibly well..
Started back at university today, we are specialising in the subjects we want to - I have taken fashion photography and moving image, as I've always had a dream to get into filming and taking my vision that one step further. It will take a while but I am determined to learn and give it a go, as with everything!
My business is going well and I am living in my little house and supporting myself..
I have a new love in my life who is incredibly supportive and lovely, he's basically a male version of me, haha. (see our pic below) :)

So yeah, updates soon with behind the scenes, have LOTS to catch up on. Can't wait to show you new shoots!

in case you were wondering..

No activity much online due to a few things. Me & Ant split up after a 4 year relationship, quite hard at first but now Im more focused and I feel it's going to benefit everything in the future. There's no point being with someone when you are total opposities, and although it seemed a 'happy' relationship, it wasn't, it never was. Just thought I'd clear that up. Had to move to my mums for a while but moving back to my place and supporting myself there for the next two years.
Have big plans for the future and feel like my head is a bit clearer now, I feel incredibly free and have so much to show here (when the time is right).

Take care everyone! x

Busy busy busy!

This is probably been my busiest week yet with shoots, although I absolutely love doing photography I am soooooooooooooooooooo tired right now I could just fall to sleep anywhere and sleep for a week.

Last week I had two client shoots - Yinsey, a lovely bubbly girl from Canada who had come over to London for a few weeks, she was so fun to work with and confident even though in Hyde Park we got stared at! It's funny, you'd think people in London would be used to it, but in fact in my hometown in the Midlands, people don't even look!
On Saturday I had a shoot with Kharine, who travelled to me from County Durham, a 4 hour journey away! She was fun to work with and we travelled to the forest near my house, we also shot at the lake. She's a fantastic person to be around.

I ended up cancelling two of my shoots for tues/weds that week due to the fact I was so tired and the weather just wasn't working, although I re-arranged, im a bit dissapointed since I love shooting and I hate letting people down..

On weds (6th) Tom Powell (who you probably know from my gallery last July, a photographer from London) modelled for my book cover shoot. I am creating a book cover for a client (details will come soon) and the description fits him perfectly. It was so great to catch up with him, even if the shoot took an hour!
On the same day I met up with Jamie Lisa, a model/actress/singer from London, I envy these people with multi-talents!! Such a beautiful girl too! We shot in my town (Tamworth) around the castle area and into the park bit and again, even though there were people staring she was so confident in front of the camera, it makes my job so much easier!

On the 7th-8th I was in Swansea, Wales with Leah Mabe (MUA) to shoot in a boutique called Sac59, they have some wonderful bags in there and we were shooting their 'Littlearth' handbags, the new 'eco-fashion', they are all made out of recycled materials including american car numberplates! The model was Sam Gerrard (who was on series 2 of Britains Next Top Model), she was such a joy to work with and so easy at posing in front of the camera, not to mention down to earth.
I stayed over at Leah's house and we ended up being up till 4am chatting about ideas and eating jam on toast, I swear me and her have been seperated at birth, her mind thinks exactly the same as mine and she's such a fun creative to be around.
On the 8th we travelled into Swansea town and shopped (I am such a Primark lover and purchased some beautiful tops and scarfs! - so much for working!). We then travelled back to my house and got back around 8PM (the train takes around 3 and a half hours), we then had dinner and started editing the photos from the previous day and creating magazine prototypes for potentional submission.

On Saturday (9th) I met up with Analiese and her husband Nat, they recently got married and I asked if I could work with them to build my wedding portfolio and do a few fashion photos with Anna. I could not believe how lovely they were! The stayed at a hotel in the town centre and I shot them around Tamworth Castle and the surrounding areas, by the time we ended up outside the church it started raining (as usual!) so we had to call it a day.
In the morning we met up again and we shot some fashion photos over the lake near my house, Leah did some beautiful hair & make-up and combined with Anna's fantastic clothes, I think the shoot was a success.

So now I am editing the book cover shoot and I am looking forward to my lie in tomorrow. I (& thanks to Leah) have so many behind the scenes photographs to show you, I will show you when I get each set edited.

Take care for now!!