Chloe Valentine. On a beach. At sunset. In a red bikini.

Coudln’t really go wrong, could I?

Chloe and I had been planning to do another shoot. When planning our first shoot she’d sent me some photos of the sort of thing she wanted to get, and while we got some good shots, we didn’t really get the style she wanted. She was hoping for smiling shots, backlit with bright sun, and we had a dull overcast day and quite a lot of mud. Wasn’t really going to work. But a few days later, the weather had turned nice and sunny. Then she posted a simple mirror selfie in this new red bikini, saying she couldn’t wait to do a shoot in it. So I said we could always head to the beach for the next shoot if she wanted to. So that became the plan.

Meeting up got a bit complicated on the day, as Chloe’s friend Lauren was coming along too, but also had to be at a family meal, so we had to fit around that. Would have made things a lot easier if we could have rescheduled the sunset a bit, but the sun doesn’t really work like that. They made their way separately to Exmouth, and we met up there, with only perhaps 15 or 20 minutes to go before the sun would set. Chloe had managed to grab an ice-cream on the way to the beach, so I just started shooting as she ate it.

Then we started with the real shots, mainly with the sun behind Chloe, trying to get it shining through and around her hair.

Chloe decided to get in the water next, which looks good, but was freezing cold. Making things look comfortable and fun when they’re anything but is all part of being a model! Us photographers usually have it much easier.

Got a couple of quick shots of Chloe and Lauren playing about.

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We spotted some rocks that would be good for some silhouetted shots against the last of the light, and I grabbed a bit of Baywatch style as Chloe ran to get there.

Then a bit of Chloe on the rocks.

With that, the light was really running out. I was having to push the ISO up to get any shots still, so went a bit Lomography style with the processing from here on – it can make bad shots look like they’re supposed to be that way.

A few torchlit shots also look bad, but in an interesting way.

And we’ll end on Chloe climbing on a lamppost.

It was a short shoot in the end, very pushed for time, knowing we could only get good shots in the short time the sun was falling, but before it got too low. But we got some wonderful shots, and had a fun time getting them.