Bonita at St John’s Church
After my first studio session with Gia and attending my first portfolio builder event I knew I needed to organise my own shoots and build my portfolio in the way I want it to look. I put out a casting call for any models who would like to collaborate on alternative/gothic/grunge style portraits and I was so happy when Bonita replied.
We had originally met at the Brum Portraits Easter Bunnies event where we realised that we lived really close to each other, so when it came to this shoot it was easy for us to meet in Halesowen. I’ve been wandering around St John’s church for years since I grew up in Halesowen and it seemed like the perfect backdrop for a Gothic shoot.
On shoot day I woke to heavy rain and was really glad when Bonita still wanted to meet. We had a few hours before we were due to meet and she suggested an umbrella would look cool if the rain didn’t stop - I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought about it myself. After dropping my daughter at nursery I popped to the shop and found a clear one with black trim, hoping that it would let light through if the weather stayed dull.
We met by the front doors to the church and when I saw Bonita’s outfit and her hair I was so excited because her aesthetic is amazing. We got into shooting really quickly, starting by this gorgeous Gothic side door. These started out as test shots to see what the light would be like and whether I was too nervous to choose the right settings, but straightaway I knew we were going to make something special:
Thankfully the rain began to clear and we were able to shoot without much trouble and I got to see straightaway how well Bonita moves as a model. She’s always changing up her pose by the tiniest movement that gives you a whole new image and it made it so difficult to choose which to edit because they were all gorgeous. I wanted to practice moving myself around to build a narrative with different angles in the same spot and I think we really achieved this in these previous 4 images, giving an idea of setting with a gorgeous close up too.
I had originally planned to do 2-3 different locations across our shoot, but after these were taken in just a couple of minutes it seemed right to explore where we were in more depth. I had an idea of what I wanted to capture but Bonita’s outfit naturally created a narrative of a witch wandering around the churchyard, which worked so well. I also got to practice transitioning between spaces with these walking shots:
I think this previous set is my favourite, which is really hard to say because I love absolutely everything we captured. I was still getting to grips with how dull the day was and how to expose these shots properly. What I didn’t realise until editing is how well colour theory plays out in these images; the reds, green and oranges are all complimentary colours on the wheel and this contributes a lot to making this coherent set of images.
I had spotted this little area around the front railings of the church where there were no graves behind as I was really conscious of being respectful here. Initially I asked Bonita to stand in front of the little pillar so that the leaves could wrap around her and she smashed it, and I think the close up shot we got of that image might be my favourite overall (but I’ll have changed my mind by the end of the post because there’s too many great images to choose from). We were getting so many great shots so quickly, everything just worked. So, I asked Bonita to pop the other side of the railing to give a bit of layering and because I always forget that landscape shots exist because I love portraits so much:
While we were taking the above images Bonita told me she’d bought these metal finger tips and I thought they were amazing! What was even better was as we wandered over to the next location the sun finally started to peep out and I managed to get the following close up shot with the metal casting shadows on Bonita’s face and I absolutely love it: the colours, the light, the texture, the pose, the jewellery… just everything about it. To create the image after I asked Bonita to look as though she is going to walk through the gates and I think she nailed it, it’s cute and creepy.
Now the sun was out I wanted to try and make the most of it so we found a few dappled patches where it was coming through the trees and you can see below how cute this turned out, and I even remembered to take a few landscape shots here, I adore how the metal is gently pushing into her skin:
From here we moved a little further up under this tree and the light and the texture looks amazing! I love the little gravestone in the background that anchors the image to the location and the tiny dapples of light on the tree.
The biggest problem I was having at this point was how harsh the light was becoming and quite a few images became really overexposed to the point where I couldn’t edit them back (although I think they will lend themselves nicely to a cheeky B&W edit).
I’m such a sucker for a close-up portrait shot that I forget to get wider environmental images, too. It also doesn’t help that I use an 85mm lens which doesn’t naturally lend itself to wider shots so I have to work at it a bit more, which I don’t mind because this lens is so dreamy and I could do with the exercise. I like the shot through the graves and one of the things I will take away from this shoot is to find more things to use to add depth to the shot because I love the framing of the headstones and the texture and shape of the tree in the first couple of images:
The image below is an example of the type of shot I don’t take a lot of because I get obsessed with beauty-type images, but I will definitely be working harder at them in future. The sense of movement is great and it’s a great transitional image that moves the narrative across locations - these are the linking images I need more of. I also love the large headstone in the left corner, and the depth the crosses create.
Once the sun had started coming out more strongly we moved back down to where we took the few images by the railings to see if we could catch more light and I love these first couple of shots. Bonita’s skin looks insanely perfect with no editing help from me. She then suggested we use the bench and get the church in the background which I was so glad that she suggested because I didn’t want her to get her dress wet. I think she looks incredible in both shots, but the backlit hair creates a sharper line than I would have liked, but overall they look great.
Bonita then asked me if we could get some shots with the windows included which was a fantastic idea and again the main area I need to push myself in. I adore how they turned out; you get to see more of the church itself and I found a way to add framing and depth with the little plant by the cute side door.
By the end of the shoot we’d been going about an hour and a half and I was shattered and sweaty from being in my really unflattering raincoat, and coming down from the adrenaline excitement of doing a shoot that was working so well, so I was really happy when Bonita was coming up with more ideas to shoot. This is the front gate to the church and if I was doing this shoot again (which I would really love to do) I would have started at the gate and created a story line moving through the church. Bonita really wanted to include this cross because it’s a really cool feature and I think it works so well. If it wasn’t for Bonita and her willingness to put forward cool ideas I also wouldn’t have shot through the gate to create the cross overlay either.
Overall I am still buzzing from this shoot and getting to spend time with Bonita. I’m incredibly proud of the images we created together and I can’t speak highly enough of Bonita. You need to go and check out her socials below.
Thanks for taking the time to check out these images, it’s always appreciated! If you’d like to work together than please get in touch.
Model - Bonita (Instagram)
