Tankspace - Sink or Swim

In my last Post I grumbled about struggling to edit pictures on time, and that I was still working on images that I had taken 2 months ago.

I was mostly talking about that charity shoot event, but I also had another photshoot which took place even earlier than that. In November last year, I took part in a photoshoot at a place called Tankspace (located somewhere in Nottingham). I posted some images Here, and I made a more detailed post Here explaining the set-up to how we captured the images

...but after all that, I promptly put the rest of the images on the backburner. It was a very busy time with other photoshoots talking place, and starting a new job, and xmas crap getting out of hand.

I finally manged to set aside some time to get this sorted, and not a minute too soon, as I am back at Tankspace for a 2nd time this coming weekend...

Due to the previously mentioned unusual set-up, there is an opportunity to get some really interesting images. Cue lots of effortless and graceful floating around in the water, with carefully placed fabric to add some atmosphere.

When I say 'carefully placed', that is a lie. In truth, its really hard to set the shots up how you want them as the water is moving around constantly, and there were plenty of shoots with dresses billowing the wrong way, or fabric drifting in front of the face of the model.

And credit to the model too, in this image Amy is currently holding her breath and holding a pose that looks effortlessly beautiful, while trying to keep the fabric in an interesting position... its not easy!

Some models of cause found this easier than others, Lauren (above) had great fun undewater, twisting and turning and make interesting shapes. We spent most of the time trying to get her to slow down... we couldn't keep up!

This was a sharp contrast to Freyja (below). When I was talking to her before she got in the water, she informed me that she actually had a deep phobia of being in water... the phrase "straight in the deep end" came to mind

It was obvious when she first got in the water, that Freyja wasn't comfortable, and she wasn't even prepared to open her eyes... but credit to her she kept trying, and towards the end of her 'stint' she managed to relax

Even this fairly basic pose feels otherwordly, and all because of the effect of being underwater

I'm pretty sure in a previous life Lisa was a mermaid or a water nymph, or a flippin' fish or something, she looked so completely at home underwater. I took so many images on this day, and for most models, I managed to get a handful of decent images... for Lisa, almost every image worked.

She always looked so natural, so graceful... it took ages to whittle down the hundreds of photos to just 10 or so to properly edit.

Just look at that, the light, the pose, the colours, the eyes... everything works.

Its these images that make all the effort and time spent worth it

Anther model who felt at home in the water was Liv. After a few shots of her swimming back and forth, she grabbed some white fabric and took it into the water with her. THe aim was to get it billowing gently behind to add another element to the shot, and she eventually achieved it (although I have a thousand shots that didn't work lol, thank heavens for digital cameras!)

Are you bored of beautiful, graceful women?... well here's a big hairy bloke!

Having a male model always bring something different to the shoot, and I always enjoy working with men. Too many photographers out there only want to work with pretty young ladies, and I say if you aren't capable of getting a decent shot with a male model, then you can't call yourself a photographer.

Michael's a big lad, and the 'tankspace' might look big, but it is smaller than you might think. Trying to get him all in was hard work, so I decided to use the 'side-light' as a point of interest, and asked him to reach out to it... I think that works quite well

And now I'll end on another shot of Lisa looking effortlessly graceful.

I'm pleased to have finally got this series of images finished, and its a good thing too, as I'm heading back to tankspace this weekend with the usual motley crew. There will be some new faces, and an opportunity to try out the 'rain set', so watch this space.

I just hope I can editd them in less than 3 months this time!

Thank you for reading, I hope you found it interesting.

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All Photos taken by @dannewton unless otherwise stated.
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