Gregory Brown photo shoot outcome & pictures

Gregory Brown is a photographer, based in Battersea, south west London. Having worked in the graphic design and music industries, he finally switched over to photography full time when setting up his own studio in Battersea. With many years of experience in taking pictures, he is now regularly producing stunning photographs for his clients. This time, he graciously agreed to provide free photo shoots for two winners of the WannabeStar competition (May 2008 winners).

Specialising in model portfolio shoots, Gregory is used to working with both experienced and aspiring models, helping them create striking images for their portfolios. He also works with complete novices providing model portfolios which are used to display the model's versatility and looks when they look for paid work. Aside from being utterly professional, he also clearly loves his work – and this shows in his pictures! Click here to find out more about Gregory and his work - or follow the link at the bottom of the page to visit his web site.

The two winners of the competition were Roosje and Donna1988. Roosje, with her exquisite natural looks and very slender body, originally comes from Holland. Having been scouted at around the age of 15, she already had some modelling experience. She loves being in front of the camera, and signed up for the competition to get some funky and interesting shots for her portfolio. Donna on the other hand, has so far had no experience with professional photo shoots - and for her - it was a great opportunity to try it out.

Given the difference in the experience levels of the models, Gregory faced a challenge to design a shoot to match the needs of both girls. Teaming up with two excellent make-up and hair artists, Laura Mangini and Joana Eduardo, they prepared a fantastic shoot with some brilliant, creative concepts.

Laura is a free-lance make-up artist, originally from Italy, but now working in London. She has been doing make-up for a number of years now, having undertaken make-up and skin care courses with Armani, Helena Rubinstein, Diego Dalla Palma, Clinique, Carita, Shiseido, Issey Miyake and holds a diploma from the London School of Beauty and Make-Up. As a make-up artist, she is versatile and can accommodate anything from weddings to catwalk shows, photo shoots or simply a night out for any occasion – her background also includes work for Hello! Magazine. She has often worked with aspiring models, helping them create the concept and look for their portfolios.

Joana Eduardo has been in the beauty industry for 15 years and is also a beauty therapist. She has undertaken make-up and skin care courses with a multitude of cosmetics brands including Estee Lauder and Dior. Like Laura, she is also very versatile in the jobs she takes, approaching new challenges with determination; her working background includes make-up work in Spanish TV. The two make-up artists met at the London School of Beauty and Make-Up, and have collaborated on several shoots.

Both of the make-up artists looked forward to working with Gregory Brown and the two models, as this shoot provided them with an excellent opportunity to showcase their full range of creative skills. Having seen some pictures of the two models before, Laura also contacted one of the girls before the shoot to help finalize some ideas she had in mind.

The shoot took place on a late Thursday afternoon, carrying well on into the evening. The winners of the competition met up with the team in Gregory's studio. After introductions, everyone went through the clothes the models had brought with them and Gregory explained what he had in mind for the next few hours. The only hitch they experienced, was when Roosje realized that a stylist she had asked to provide clothes and accessories was not going to show up in time - but Donna came to the rescue - immediately offering to share the clothes she had brought with her. They were then assisted by Laura and Joana in choosing the clothes and mixing and matching the best outfits.

For the first portrait shoots, the make-up artists started with some natural looking make-up... and then went into a creative overdrive for the remainder of the shoot, pulling off some funky high fashion concepts!!

Gregory's studio is very varied with some interesting characteristics, offering many creative options to a photographer shooting there. Aside from several distinct sets, including the main studio area, kitchen set, lounge set, bedroom set... plus a natural light area with 24ft high windows, there is also an opportunity to shoot in the garden. Given that the weather was perfect for some outdoor shoots, Gregory decided to actually start there for the initial portrait / natural beauty shots. Using a long lens and wide aperture, he was aiming for a classic portrait look, with focus on the face and the background being nicely soft and blurry. The sunlight was ideal for this, allowing him to use the shade of a cherry tree for some pleasant dappled light as an added bonus.

(c) Gregory Brown

(c) Gregory Brown

Next on the schedule was a casual look, with Donna going first in street clothing consisting of a white tie-up blouse, dark pedal pusher trousers and pink Nike trainers, with strong make-up created by Laura and Joanna accenting her eyes and mouth. Gregory used a studio with high key white backdrop for this and helped Donna with posing suggestions. "Gregory had lots of helpful hints," says Donna "things, that you'd normally not think of, if you are not a professional model - such as exhaling softly to get the slightly parted lips for a glamour look." Gregory also brought in some props from his extensive inventory - for Donna, these included a trapeze and a vintage Jazz guitar.

Roosje went second in a very funky pair of white shorts and skimpy black blouse, the make-up again very strong, using diamonds and a very high contrast look. It was topped off by adding some strong colour and glitter to the tattoo on her stomach. After initial fashion poses, Gregory brought in a large white double bass as a prop. For this part of the shoot, Gregory and Roosje leveraged Roosje's previous modelling experience alongside with Gregory's ideas for the posing, to get the best out of the pictures.

(c) Gregory Brown

(c) Gregory Brown

Although it was already getting late in the day, everyone was exited and pushed on to get to the final part of the shoot. For this, Gregory and the two make-up artists had some high fashion concepts in mind. Making sure that the make-up looked its best, Laura and Joana worked carefully on every detail so that Gregory and the two models would have the chance to pull off some really stunning shots. Looking back at this part of the shoot, Laura says “Gregory really wanted to see some creativity and with the permission of the models we just invented looks à-la-minute!”

Donna looked absolutely fabulous in her shock blue evening dress and bare feet. Gregory added some props to the set - a silver fit ball, red love heart and large swathes of orange material which complimented her hair and complexion, and worked well as a complete opposite to the blue dress. This was then followed by Roosje posing last in a black evening dress - a simple little black number with a strap over one shoulder. Starting with some simple poses, Gregory then used an old movie camera and a mannequin as props, allowing Roosje to experiment with the posing. It was clear from the way that Gregory arranged the set and the props, that he knew how to best set the scene for the shoot – but he was also very sensitive to the mood of the models, giving them a lot of lattitude to show off their best side.

(c) Gregory Brown

(c) Gregory Brown

(c) Gregory Brown

And that last shoot pretty much wrapped up the evening, with some final comments from all the participants below...

"The shoot was great!" said Donna "The best part was having the pictures taken - really loved being in the spotlight. Not having done any modelling before, I found the make-up part challenging - you really have to be very still for a long time. But the outcome was great - very different to what I normally wear. And the hair was very wild and punky on the second shoot. I loved every style of make-up I had!"

"It was a fun shoot, " said Roosje, "and I loved it - the make-up, the posing in front of the camera - everything! My muscles got a bit tired from the different poses... but that's not unusual after a long shoot - the outcome was worth it though!"

Laura and Joanna were pleased with the outcome as well. A lot of creative energy and hard work had gone into this shoot, with several different styles being applied during the session. “The experience was fantastic! It was a long day but we were very pleased with the result. We were not expecting to create 3 completely different looks for the shoots but we managed to do it!

“Roosje was absolutely stunning, her prior experience really shone through – in many of her previous pictures she had done before, the look had been very much that of a “pretty girl”. We definitely changed that this time - with a “crazy” make-up, like the second one, she really got to change her “pretty look”, and deliver some fantastic pictures.

“And we could not believe that was the first experience for Donna! She was very good, the expressions – how she dealt with the looks, the make-up and the poses during the shoot, everything was amazing…well done!”

At the end of the shoot, while the models were changing their clothes, the make-up artists spent some time with Gregory to look at the pictures from his camera – and just could not stop saying: “Oh, this is good… This is perfect… This one is wonderful… if we think we need to choose the 10 pictures from all the ones taken today - we just do not know were to start!!!”

And what about Gregory? Well, for someone who had orchestrated this fantastic shoot, he was really being too modest for his own good… although one could see he was obviously pleased with the outcome. “There were quite a few excellent shots that would look great in the models' portfolios - especially after adding some PhotoShop magic to it. I am very happy with the outcome," says Gregory "none of us had worked together before - except for Laura and Joana, yet we managed to have a fun evening, fantastic cooperation between everyone and some great results in the end!"

At that point Laura added her final comment: “The impressive thing was that we co-operated together as if we had been working with each other for years! We really like Gregory’s style and we hope we can have a few more opportunities to work together!”

(c) Gregory Brown

(c) Gregory Brown

To view more of Gregory Brown's work, visit Gregorybrownphotography.com (Please note as Gregory works a lot with artistic fine art nude, some of the images on his website contain nudity) If you are interested in working with him, or want to make use of his studio, contact Gregory Brown on 0207 801 0180. Laura and Joana are always available for further collaboration with talented professionals. Should you want to see more of their work or get in touch for professional enquiries, please visit the websites: lauramanginimakeup.fortunecity.com and lauramanginimakeup.jimdo.com

Should you be interested in participating in a photo shoot like this - please check out WannabeStar competitions - it's all FREE!