A Blisse Book Cover Blooms – My Studio Day with Matt S @mattsmodeltwt

It was a grey, cold and wet Sunday morning. I’d had about 4 hours sleep and a 2 hour journey ahead of me. I know it’s not a promising start to a story, or even a blog post, but I swear it gets better. The things an author will do to get gorgeous covers and promo images!

When I saw that victoriablisse.co.uk’s resident Dominant model was having a studio day, I was eager to book in for a little time myself. I’ve already had permission to use the gorgeous Matt S in a promo image, so the opportunity to get some custom made to my wishes was eagerly snapped up!

I turned up in Blackburn and made my way to Red Rose Studio, not hard to find though the wonderful British weather did it’s best to put a dampener on things as a proper northern drizzle was in full progress but I didn’t let it get me down. I plodded on regardless! I was glad to see a familiar face as I walked in through tall, metal gates into a courtyard. Matt S met me with a brave hug (my coat was soggy) and sent me up to the studio to dry off and warm up.

I was early (as is often the case, public transport makes me cautious) throwing a spanner in the works as Matt was already busy preparing for a shoot before mine. However, he took time to check I was settled and to get me a drink which I really appreciated. A warm and professional welcome. I got to meet the studio owner and photographer Dan Archer too, another wonderful welcome. Considering I’ve never stepped foot in a photographer’s studio before I soon felt right at home.

Now, I won’t mention that Dimitri, the photographer got lost and arrived a bit late…oops, I just did. But once he arrived we got down to business, the business of taking fantastic photographs of course!  Well, I say we, mostly I stood around and gave instructions sometimes got under foot, though now and then I got to join properly and actually help out…or attempt to help out at least.

I had a list of images I wanted to get. The main one is for a novel as yet unwritten, which is the continuation of Leo and Penny’s story Wallflower in Sexy Just Got Rich. Which I think will be called A Wallflower Blooms, hence the clever title of this blog. Which I have to attribute to my clever hubby Kev, he’s much better at the title thing than me.

Of course, I have to keep all the images top secret until they’re edited and played with and are ready to be revealed to the world but I do have a few photos I can share with you.

I took the first one sneakily as Matt was helping to get the lighting levels right. I took a stealthy ninja like photo. How handsome does this guy look in a suit? Even when he’s not posing, he looks good.

I must confess I took a second that he knew of then got far too caught up in the whole process and forgot to take any more. Which is probably a good thing, as my two photos are totally naff!

Between giving instructions I did get to join in the process. I got to hold up the big silver erm, reflective thingy at one point. Clearly a very important job.*coughs* Oh, and I actually appear in one of the photos! Can’t wait to show you that one, my modelling debut…or something like that.

Matt amazed me, truly. One minute he’d be laughing and joking or being slightly taken aback by my enthusiastic exclamations of love for the bit in Flash Gordon where (ooh, spoiler alert!) Klytus’eyes pop out. Flash Gordon is my favourite film, there was a lot of flashes going off, it was inevitable that someone would say ‘Flash!’ and I’d break out in song.  Anyway, back to my original point. No matter how crazy things got between shots, Matt was back into whatever pose was demanded as soon as the camera pointed in his direction. An amazing skill I greatly admire.

I appreciated both Matt and Dimitri being there, (well, the shoot wouldn’t have happened otherwise *LOL*) they both gave suggestions and brought actual professional knowledge where all I had were airy fairy ideas of what I thought would look quite good. They both had ideas for new poses, slightly different takes on the images I wanted and I am completely convinced there are so many bloody good photos because of them both. *Insert round of applause here*

I had a really fun time. It was interesting to work with visuals for a change instead of with words. Words hold my heart, of course, but it was fascinating to watch a different creative process happening right before my eyes. A lot of patience is required, it’s not as simple as point and click, it’s very much not that easy. It takes real skill to take good, impactive photos and I can’t wait to show you the ones Dimitri has taken. They’re brilliant.

The model needs patience too. Matt had to do the same pose, or slight variations on the same pose so many times through the whole process. He had the very bright flash in his face more times than I could count. And I know it’s bright because I accidentally got stunned by it myself once! I don’t think I made him contort over much, but he was having to stand very still-sometimes holding a heavy item- for longer than you’d normally do so. He didn’t complain once.

Thanks to Dan, Matt and Dimitri for a fabulous experience. I’d repeat it in a heartbeat!