The first ever Ilfracombe Photography Festival....

Part of this weekend involved a workshop led jointly by Ukrainian photographer Olga Vynnyk and Izzy – her muse. The pair had the ostensibly bright idea of using an incredibly beautiful and rocky cove just outside Ilfracombe on the stunning north Devon coast as the location – one that they had used before and to great effect. This outstanding plan assumed that the participants were all highly agile mountain goats, well accustomed to climbing down a steep cliff face before ending up in a highly tidal inlet. A perfectly hidden place for 18th-century smugglers landing the best French brandy and perfumes. But then, it’s a reasonable assumption that the smugglers of yore were so used to dicing with death from the Revenue that a path any self-respecting mountain goat, with the slightest consideration for its own welfare, would refuse to countenance would merely elicit choice phrases of contempt.

Out-takes

First thing. The obligatory shots of other workshop participants crawling over rocks.

Olga, taking the place of Izzy, for a while

We're getting a little more serious now. While Izzy was off gallivanting over the rocks Olga kindly offered to step in and play the modelling part.

Final Shots

I'll probably keep working on these - producing different edits every week I suspect. These are first thoughts largely using my default style settings in darktable - tweaked of course for each image. I think my favourites are the first and last. The first because a ray of sun gently lit up Izzy and the rock she was on - and the ridiculous hackneyed pose I asked her to pull. You've got to have a sense of humour... The last partly because I used a small amount of camera mounted fill flash - something I've not done for a long time - and it really worked with the iridescent colours of Izzy's dress - which was the intention. I like it when a plan comes together...

Thanks

... are due to Olga - who can be found at https://www.olgavynnyk.com/ and of course Izzy, who has a gallery on IG at @izzy.deangeles, and who between them never quite succeeded in killing their workshop guests. They injected much energy, expertise and good humour into an excellently organised and thoroughly enjoyable workshop. Even the climb back up the cliff had its moments... They're both wonderful people & I hope to work with them, together or singly, again at some stage.

...and thanks of course to the organisers of the festival, who worked incredibly hard to create such a wonderful first such festival in the town.

The Ilfracombe Photography Festival

https://www.ilfracombephotofest.org/