Posing with some Classics - and a Dune Buggy
Lily adores Hawaii and makes her home in Honolulu during part of each year. There is no shortage of modelling opportunities in the islands, and here we see her in a swimwear session, posing with a locally registered VW split screen camper van. This 1960s camper was already a classic when Lily was born, and she evidently enjoys being photographed in the company of such exotic vehicles.
This next swimsuit session sees Lily posing inside another beautifully preserved VW camper. This has the hallmarks of a publicity picture, the vehicle being identical to the one on the cover of the book, carefully placed between Lily and the open door. Susan Redman's book, 'My Dream Kombi', makes the connection between the iconic vehicle and classic beachwear, since the Kombi is referred to as a 'surfers' wagon'.
Many owners consider their VWs are only complete with the addition of a couple of surfboards on the roof. Lily's mischievous smile indicates that she is enjoying the experience immensely, although she appears to be an unlikely ukelele player. In fact, the instrument provides another Hawaiian reference, being originally introduced to the islands by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira.
Lily's choice of surfboard carrier in southern California is this Polaris beach buggy, provided for the lifeguards of the San Diego Fire and Rescue Service. The Golden State is another favourite location, which Lily considers a second home, and we have already seen from
@E-DigitalFantasy 's pictures how much she enjoys her visits to San Francisco Bay!
Bart Ramakers is a highly acclaimed Belgian photographer who describes himself as a 'contemporary photographic storyteller' whose 'cheerfully anachronistic works' are inspired by old master paintings, opera, movies and literature. His photographic style is characterised by human interactions, often with large numbers of subjects, and there is generally some kind of narrative or dramatic theme being depicted. The intensive working process is rather like shooting a movie, especially when a large cast and special effects are involved, but the resulting pictures reduce the work to a small number of key still frames.
His picture of Lily posing beside the red sportscar is unusual in being an individual portrait, although her attention is focused on the chick beside the front tyre. The title, 'Little Red Rooster' is a reference to the popular song, but in Ramakers' storytelling style, it becomes a reference to both the car and the chick, and perhaps he is implying the presence of more than one chick beside the car?
Again, we have a 1960s classic car, which is either an MG Midget or the nearly identical Austin Healey Sprite. The picture is carefully co-ordinated with the strong shade of red balanced by the complimentary greens of the grass. Further red highlights are provided by the poppies and Lily's belt and her lipstick. Indeed, Ramakers' use of colour is almost Impressionistic - this is surely how Monet would have loved to paint Lily! But in typical Ramakers fashion, we are denied any explanation for the encounter between Lily and the chick, and we can only imagine how the storyline develops from here.
One of my favourite Bart Ramakers pictures is entitled, 'Fast & Furious'. The title is a film reference, again the 1960s classic sportscar is an English one, and the photograph was taken on 20 July 2014. The triple wipers are working hard against driving rain as Lily slides the gear lever into third, to pull some extra torque from the V12 of a speeding E-Type Jaguar.
Like a freeze frame from a movie, the faces of the girls are a study in concentration. They are dressed up for a night on the town, and they are united in pursuit of something undefined. Lily's face is highlighted by the interior illumination and we observe the details of the wooden steering wheel, the rain droplets on the windows, the chrome windscreen surround and door handle, and the chrome plated revolver in the passenger's right hand. We register only a fleeting glance, and there is no explanation about where they are going, or why. Such is Ramakers' narrative style.
'Springtime at Cruxton Abbey' is a photo manipulation which continues the theme of Lily posing with classic cars. Yet again the car is a product of Coventry, this time a late 1940s Sunbeam Talbot 10 saloon. The manipulation has five main components, which are, Lily, the car, the house, the trees and sky, and the background viewed through the car windows. The figure was extracted via a layer mask, which captures all the peripheral strands of highlighted hair. The original source shows Lily's right hand resting on a wooden cartwheel. This is conveniently at headlamp height, although the new use of the pose resulted in Lord Wragg demanding further applications of chrome polish on the headlamp!
Each successive layer of the manip is increasingly defocused from the one above, providing a gradual effect to the depth of field and a sense of distance from the foreground. The lower area which would have contained the wheels, feet and driveway is cropped out completely, thereby avoiding any issues of light and shade on the ground. This also allows some flexibility in forcing the architectural perspective, to make the building appear more convincing.
@Wragg himself debuted as a Lily manip artist only yesterday, presenting a charming manipulation on the classic car theme as part of the celebrations for my birthday. He decided that a topless car required a topless girl, and so he placed Lily behind the wheel, in a manner designed to reveal her breasts, including the skilful lighting adjustment on the left breast, seen through the quarterlight.
The figure of Lily was taken from the Marin Headlands session, photographed by
@E-DigitalFantasy on 13 October 2015, which appears earlier in this thread. In the interests of consistency, and recognising Lily's enthusiasm for the marque from my previous picture, Wragg found a beautiful example of a 1951 Sunbeam Talbot 90 convertible, for this scene. Having arrived on the rally field, Lily discovers that you need to get out of the car in order to raise the roof...!
Thanks for the picture, Wragg - you and Lily certainly have very good taste in classic cars!
