On reccie with Charlie

Having been commissioned to shoot a series of pictures for a local florist who wanted images to enter in a national floristry competition, I decided it would be best to reconnoitre a couple of suitable locations.

Also, as one part of the series involved a model wearing a dress ‘built’ by the florist, I asked the model – Charlotte - to come along with me.

I’d already been through to one of my favourite locations - South Queensferry - that week; another reccie I’d arranged to do with members of a band who have asked me to shoot some promotional pictures with them – that project is still in the pipeline and loosely ear-marked for the beginning of August. So, with that visit still fresh, I decided to take Charlotte to my current ‘next most’ favourite location, Blackness. I say current ‘next most’ favourite, because I do tend to chop and change my favourites about as often as I change memory cards.

Blackness has a number of plus points which tick all my boxes for a good location: it’s gorgeous; it’s generally quiet; it offers lots of options. Blackness boasts an old castle which was used as a military base as recently as the 2nd World War. It sits on the Forth and offers a great point of foreground interest for excellent shops up and down the estuary. It has great beaches; woods, open grassed areas and a harbour where boats from the local yacht Club are moored.

I didn’t take either of my Canon camera’s as I didn’t expect to be shooting anything but, when we got there, Charlie couldn’t resist getting into character, and I couldn’t resist shooting her with my ever present compact. The little camera did really well, I thought and, well, Charlie always does a great job.