Follow the light
by Debbie Deboo

This shoot was one of those that evolved. It started out with a completely different concept and team. Sohaib Syed the male model had approached me, the photographer with a concept which I agreed to but when we couldn’t find a location that suited the concept we cast about for other ideas and I remembered a friend of mine had offered me the use of a sailing club. So we came up with a sort of romantic steampunk idea using a rowing boat on the water.

The morning of the shoot and things weren’t going well. The female model and the MUA dropped out because of illness and I was desperately trying to get last minute replacements rather than cancel. My friend at the boat club managed to get me an MUA who was studying make up at the local college and I was lucky enough that one of my model friends rearranged her plans for the day to help me out.

We were also picking up Tina Calder who had designed and made the steampunk waistcoat the male model was wearing on the way to the shoot.

We got to the boat club and although our contacts there were very helpful we discovered we weren’t allowed to use any of the boats in the water. We hummed and ahhhed about composites as they’re quite tricky to pull off well in post production but decided to go for it. So what you have in most of the photos is the boat and models in the boatyard with the sky and sea from a seascape I took in Donegal.

The concept evolved during the shoot. The two models were Bonnie and Clyde figures, lovers and outlaws leaving the country and trouble behind them for a new life overseas.

Models Sohaib Syed and Lisa Mills
Clothes and accessories by Naomi Hazley and Tina Calder
MUA Kirsty Kidd
Location Carrickfergus Sailing Club