London Photoshoot / in Madeira

A quick update about Europe so far. Had my photoshoot with singer Ami Richardson on Sunday. Much thanks to my awesome team (Ami Richardson, Kim Roy, Emily Quesnel, and Samantha Cole London) We started at Hamstead Heath and made our way into Camden. Got quite a bit of attention with Ami's giant red beehive sort of hair. My left leg was in an absolute mess from the previous night of hopping around London, and in typical Laura fashion, I got home at 5am....and woke up at 8am for the shoot :/ So Sunday morning I had one working leg, no voice, and felt like death. I am so proud of myself for making it!

We met at Emily's salon, "Holistic Hair and Beauty" in West Hamstead , where the makeup and hair was done. Then we headed off to Hamstead Heath and did a few pictures there. Of course we got many a stare from the folks walking their dogs, and kids pointing fingers "mummy what's wrong with her head?". At some point we saw a green jeep approaching and it was the park patrol!! We weren't supposed to be shooting there apparently (he assumed it was commercial?) so we said we were wrapping up, then quickly got back into it when they drove off. My leg by now was too messed up to walk on, so Kim found me a nice stick (named Sticky) to support myself on. When I was ready to shoot I would say "please hold Sticky". He currently resides at Emily's salon in a vase.

When I thought I was done with Heath, Ami and I spotted these two giant sheep looking beings from a mile away. We ran up to them and I asked their mum if they could pose with us. So one of the photos you'll see below is Ami with Fred and Darcy. Gorgeous creatures and so lovable! Many thanks to their mummy for letting us have a bit of fun with them :)

Soon after, we were making our way to Camden. At some point we were waiting at a bus stop and I was thinking to myself "Ami really reminds me of Helena Bonham-Carter with that hair and clothes" , low and behold Helena Bonham-Carter is standing next to us with her kids in a wheelbarrow. Now I never cared for celebrities, and I think that staring is rude....but I stared, mouth hanging open and everything. I thought it was pretty ironic that she had been on my mind and was suddenly standing next to me. So that was my super cool story that I'm going to KILL when I get back home :D

In Camden we went hunting for punks, but they don't like the sun apparently and we only saw them as we were leaving....got some girls to pose for me though. Most photos were taken around Camden Lock and again, much attention. Shot there for a bit then made our way back to Hamstead. I'm really fast-forwarding right now but that's only because I'm in Madeira at the moment and I am being rushed to get ready and hit the road. All in all the shoot went great and I met some absolutely cool souls. I'm going to update this again soon, I've got some wicked fast internet that I'm mooching from the hotel next door.

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Some behind the scenes pictures

Hair and makeup at Holistics

A whole lotta hair

Fred and Darcy , their proud mama taking a picture

Sticky the stick

Hair stylist Kim and I on our way to Camden

the entire restuarant was staring at Ami

Super team, and no my eyes aren't closed, they're just naturally squinty

2 days til Europe / Art competition / The Cave

One of my April resolutions is to update this site more often, which includes shooting more sets to have more pretty pictures with every new post. I've been busy creating novel covers and dipping my camera into cave water, so now I've finally had the time to sit down and write something.

Ok, first thing's first. My flight to England is on Tuesday and I haven't started packing my one red suitcase yet. I don't really own warm clothes so I'm hoping that "layering" will work. The following Monday I'm leaving the UK and heading to Madeira for a little more than a week. This is the part that has me most excited. Last time I was there was over 10 years ago, and I remember so much (remembering things is what Laura does not do best). Before I get poetic about the cobblestone roads and cute triangle houses surrounded by flowers up in the hills of Santana....ok....I'll move on to my next destination which is Lisbon. Will be there for about 4 days then back to England for a few more before returning home. All in all I'll be gone for 3 weeks, and I'm trying my best not to think about being so far from my son for almost a month. He's 2 and I always have this fear that he'll forget who I am if I'm gone for more than a week :/ Stupid I know, but thank God for web cams.

In other news, I entered an art competition earlier this year and recently discovered that my painting won. So from what the details said, I get $2500 and my painting blown up and pasted onto the wall around The Oval (stadium in Trinidad). That was pretty cool considering the fact that I rushed it the day before the deadline and actually completed it at the very last moment. I also was in some sort of top 10...or....12? hmm...top list of "young people to watch in the Caribbean" on tv. That was also pretty awesome. I feel like there was something else I was supposed to write about, but I guess it'll come to me in due time!

I've been working on two fantasy novel covers for author Alaya Johnson and her Spirit Binders trilogy, that was probably the smoothest job I've ever done. I also did a shoot earlier this week in Gasparee Caves. Basically Gasparee is an island right off of Trinidad, like 10 minutes away, and they have this beautiful cave that I haven't been to since I took my class there when I was 14 (I remember some of the girls called me McGuyver cause I was helping my father tie up the boat, and apparently that's something only ppl do on tv?). So quite randomly, the idea to do a fashion set there popped into my head. When I get great ideas I get a complete rush of adrenalin and start dialing numbers and organising. Within 2 days we were hiking up to the cave.

I brought a single strobe with me but my power pack was a bit of fail, so most of the shots coming up were with natural light only. One or two were natural light mixed with the coloured ambient lights that eventually turned on when tour guides discovered us :D I ended up stripping down a bit and wading in the crystal clear but extremely salty water. I was up to my neck for the first shot that you'll see here, and accidentally lowered the camera into the water. Not much, just like a few millimetres. I gasped, stood up, and sort of shook it around like a real professional would do. Anyway, it's not dead, just covered in cave scum. I think it's one of my favourite sets ever. I have some more interesting concepts in mind, but they'll have to wait til I come back. So now, here are some of the shots from my new set "The Cave"