Ode to the Rape Seed Field

Ah, the first signs of summer. Throughout Britain, the fields turn yellow, and photographers everywhere can be found flocking in droves to shoot in the rape seed (canola, for our American friends who can't quite get their head around this particular homonym). You can barely drive past a field in flower without finding a bare naked lady prancing around in front of a camera lens. ;-)

So yes, it's been done before. But with good reason, because you can't really go wrong shooting in rape seed. So, this year was no different - in fact I ended up shooting in local rape seed fields several times. It was always going to be difficult to better the version I created with Dave A Davies a few years ago (see here), and as I've mentioned before, I'm always reluctant to create the exact same concept twice.

This year, I'd already shot in the rape seed with my clothes on (can you believe it?) as mentioned in a previous blog entry. I also shot in rape seed several more times this year, and tried to do something a little different each time.

I did another shoot for the Guild of Erotic Artists at their event day in May (the same day I also did the saxophone body painting shoot). I kept it fairly simple, based on the idea that you really can't go wrong with a nude lady in a rape seed field. These are a few shots by different photographers from the shoot. It's a bit like a game of 'spot the difference.'

By Mike Crawley

By Dave A Davies

By Rik Franks

I also shot in the same field with Liteangle on a different occasion. I tried to give a different 'feel' to this version, rather than repeat the same look, and the post-processing is by myself to reflect that. Image below.

This wasn't the last time I shot in the rape seed this year. I waited for it to go to seed, and the poppies came out, giving me a whole different concept: Poppies

I still have more ideas for shoots in the rape seed fields, so I expect I'll be flocking to the fields again next year!