We only "discovered" the stepping stones when we photographed a wedding in Gargrave followed by a beautiful reception at nearby Coniston Hall and the couple concerned requested a photograph of the bridal party on the stepping stones. That was in September - much warmer than March!
This particular shoot was a little out of the ordinary in that Yorkshire TV had told us that they were coming to film it - if nothing more newsworthy hit off - for their regional "Calendar News". So we arranged to meet Bethany and her mum slightly earlier than the TV crew were expected and decided to get the shots we needed in the bag before we had TV cameramen in the background etc. Unfortunately something they thought was more exciting did crop up and so they didn't make it to our shoot but that didn't stop us having fun - although I think Bethany was a little disappointed not to have made it onto TV on this occasion.
They have asked us for a list of dates and times we will be elsewhere so that they may show up but this is not at all straightforward for us as we do need the parents permission to have their child appear on TV and it also involves the crew interviewing the parents about the project - plus it can be a bit daunting for the child involved. We have photographed Bethany in the past for a Childrens' magazine cover and knew that she would be the perfect child to cope with all the attention without getting giddy or stressed about it.
So here below we have the set up used for the shoot. Bethany was to walk across the stepping stones (in this case with a brollie as it had begun to rain!) and Andy was to get his shot showing the river meandering off behind her. The flashgun you can almost see on the tripod in the middle of the picture on it's own was to kick a little bit of light back onto Bethany's face ("fill flash" is the technical term) to avoid her eye sockets etc. looking dark.
Here's just one of the resulting pictures (not that you can see her eyes for all that hair!). This picture was taken just prior to Bethany falling into the river! When I say falling in she didn't actually go right under or anything dramatic like that more stepped off/missed the stepping stone and ended up with the water going over the top of her wellie boots! With this picture we've also put a desaturated effect onto it for those of you who have been asking if all the book has to be in colour. These are only a selection of the shots we took and the one I think we are going to choose for the book isn't included here but I don't want to spoil the surprise for Bethany and her mum and dad before they see all the pictures at their viewing session - which isn't booked in for a couple of weeks yet.
Here we are with Bethany and her mum Wendy trying to pull her boot off in order to empty out the water! Just following this we had the most amazing hot chocolate (supplied by Wendy) and as Bethany said "My mum makes the best hot chocolate ever!" We'd have to agree with her there!
We spent a little more time with Andy and Bethany competing against each other to see who can skim a stone furthest across the river. Andy won and I'd be dead meat now if I didn't mention in passing that he managed to skim his across the river to hit the bank at the other side! He mentioned it at least half a dozen times on the way home so I'm guessing it was one of the highlights of his morning along with shooting Bethany - which was one of the highlights of our week last week!
Our thanks got to Bethany and Wendy for being the most brilliant "sports" with the shoot - which with drizzle and falling into the river proved to be a bit cold and wet for all of us! So sorry the TV crew didn't show - hopefully one of them might see this and think what a good time they missed!
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