Tom's Photos: The Ninja Groundskeeper

The Ninja Groundskeeper

The Saturday before last I had my third shoot with the fantastic stylist Christianne along with the beautiful Annabel @ PRM and the super talented make-up artist Nazmeen both of who this was my first shoot with.

Our original plan was to meet at the station by the park we were going to shoot in, and for the most part that all went fine. I met up with the rest of the team at outside the tube and we went to the nearest cafe to get started with the make-up and sort out the first outfit. While the prep was going on there was the odd spot of rain and the forecast suggested that it would tip down all day.

The rain carried on for about 15 more minutes while we walked to the location. But, as you know... shoots I arrange seem to usually have some little thing wrong with them, whether it be the police being called to tell us off or a model not turning up, things happened and you just have to roll with it usually.

The problem with this shoot was that just about the second I put my camera bag down to get my equipment out a ninja like grounds keeper appeared as if from nowhere. This was apt as we were in a Japanese garden at the time, however what spilled from his mouth was a steam of rather annoying words. He was incredibly kind and helpful but as it turned out we needed to have signed insurance wavers to shoot there and we were asked to leave. The grounds keeper did give me a number to ring to see if we could get permission at the last minute but we got no answer and decided to move on.

As we were shooting in central London we had plenty of choices when it came to back-ups. We hopped back on the tube and made for Kensington Palace. And in hindsight the location change was for the best! Although I don't think any of us would have chosen the extra exercise given a choice, the location we ended up with was perfect!

The first and second locations were just outside Kensington Palace and the third and final was in the Italian Garden both of which we used on our last shoot but the images are totally different. It just goes to show how versatile a location can be, especially if you're running out of time. As the day went on the weather slowly improved and by the time we were on the last look the sun was shining again and it felt like summer had clung on, let's just hope it lasts a while longer! I don't think I'm up for cold weather location shoots quite yet.

Here are a few behind the scenes photos of the day!