Niall Whelan Photography

This week was my first time to have the pleasure of working with the amazing Tillie Feather.  She was on tour in Ireland with Rachelle Summers and as luck would have it I managed to book them both for a morning shoot and Tillie for the rest of the day.

So after a super morning shoot where we got some super duo images, Tillie and I set off on a location shoot to a castle under renovation.  My friend Garret arranged access for which I am very grateful for the last minute opportunity to work in this unique location. This was a 3 story building with round towers (I’m not able to show the exterior for privacy reasons), so with the bright afternoon light we decided to start at the top and work are way down.

The top floor was the most “finished” with each subsequent floor in a much more raw state.  The floors were completely covered in dust, an so was Tillie within a short while.

I felt like a kid in a candy shop, great light, great venue, great model; but I was conscious we had limited time.  This location needs at least a long weekend to do it justice.  Maybe I’ll come back again?

We made our way down stairs…

The middle floor was mostly without floor boards, so you could see down to the ground floor in many of the rooms.  I had brought my new Flashpoint Mono light, so this was a good opportunity to try some interesting lighting.  Tillie donned a black dress and headed to the lower floor.  Since I forgot my C-Stand, I setup the mono-light on a step ladder and experimented with bouncing the light in the ceiling on the middle floor, leaving interesting pockets of light falling through the beams to Tillie and the ground floor.

Here’s a straight from camera shot of the whole scene.

And an edited image from the 70-200mm shot.

I’m sure the above image will find it’s way into a composite in the future, it feels cinematic without much work already.

We took a break and headed back up stairs and found some great sunlight still gracing the walls of the top floor.

Time for a costume change…

As the light was fading we headed out doors, but to do this place justice we would need more time.  It was getting very cold, so sets were brief and I ended up trying to include the ominous evening clouds in this last image.

This was an amazing shoot and Tillie was a trooper to try out all sorts of shots and challenges.  Shooting a new location with a model you’ve never worked with should be a daunting endeavour, but this was just the opposite.  I can only hope to repeat the experience in the near future.