From their Abbeymount Studios, Edinburgh listing:
“SparkleWear is based at the textile studio at Abbeymount and run by Isabel Lohss-O’Sullivan. Reflective hi-vis vests made with hand screen printed materials and from upcycled garments and fabric. Using bright and reflective inks and some added shine and sparkle – from sporty to fitted, from sequins to gents’ tweeds – every piece is hand-made and completely unique. Do hi-vis in style!”
My long exposure photographs of circus artists (as seen here and here) caught the eye of Isabel. She thought the effect would be perfect to promote her high visibility hand-made vests.
She rented a studio at Out of the Blue Drill Hall and found a willing model in circus artist Lucy of Rowanbank Environmental Arts. I had asked her to bring as much black fabric as she could, since the effect only works against a dark background.
This sort of photograph takes a lot of experimenting. First one has to set up the lights properly, avoiding any light spill onto the background. I used a couple of Walimex LED lights and two speed lights. One behind our cyclist model Lucy and one in front. Having set up the lights properly was only half the battle. Lucy and I had to have the proper timing. I needed to trigger the shutter as soon as Lucy entered the frame and she needed to time her ride to get to the other side when the speedlights would fire in rear curtain sync mode (i.e at the end of the two second exposure).
The photograph below is the one Isabel chose.
Once we knew we had the shot “in the can”, we stared experimenting with different poses to see what we could get.
In spite of the fact we had a job to do, we all had a wonderful time creating these images, and, most importantly, Isabel was happy with the final result. Having seen Isabel’s vests from up close, they are very well made and she has a good variety of designs. Have a look at her Etsy shop!
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