This image is from the first time I met Becky, AKA Leaf. It was last year, in the summer sometime during a trip to Wales to visit my friend the wizard that is Kestrel, and to shoot for the first time with the whirlwind that is Silk. Leaf came out for a trip into the hills with us and showed us an abandoned farmhouse that she knew of.
We only shot a couple of images together, but it resulted in what is probably one of my strangest, yet beautiful shots. As we walked around the rooms a door opened into a scullery/kitchen room, there was a table with crockery piled high, and all sorts of old kitchen things, an old kettle, a toasting fork, everything covered in cobwebs & dust.
Perhaps the most unusual thing though was the skeleton of a sheep, minus its skull. I guess it must have got in and the door closed, leaving it to live out its days in a kitchen of an empty house. Poor sheep! I found out later that the skull had been liberated by a fellow photographer.
Odd ideas entered my head, and before I knew what I was saying I had asked Leaf if she fancied spooning the dead sheep, and with absolutely no hesitation she said yes! Crazy woman!
Again I find that decay and dark rooms and the naked, but non graphic form mix so well together, the inclusion of some bones makes it all the more odd, but strangely fascinating, to me anyway.
I'm on the floor in the dust too in this image, so I could get the low angle of view that I wanted, and as ever I shot as wide open as I could at f2.8 Other details if you are interested are @80th sec at 1250 iso, the focal length was 35mm.
I just want to say thanks to Leaf for this shot, there are not many models who would jump at the chance to hug a dead sheep just for a photo, and not only did she do that she made the image look so incredibly peaceful, and unusual.
If you have any comments I would love to hear them!
Thanks for reading :)
Rob
Tewkesbury & Gloucestershire Photographer
