My Blog

Ever get the feeling you're alone?  I've just realised that this place isn't exactly active yet so I'm going to stop posting blogs and pictures for no-one to look at and wait until a big more activity is going on.

My studio is on the South side of Edinburgh city centre where Pleasance meets St Leonards Street. There is plenty of pay and display parking close by for daytime shoots and I am happy to shoot on evenings, weekends and other 'unsociable' hours.

The studio is available for supervised hire (ie I will be there and am happy to assist if required but if more privacy is desired I'm happy to keep a respectful distance) for £10 per hour. The same low price is for everyone - students, hobbyists, professionals who don't currently have their own space. The shooting area is approximately 7m x 3m with white walls and a wooden floor (complete with paint spatters for an authentic industrial look) with a changing area, bathroom and kitchen.

The equipment which is available for use includes 2 x Interfit Stellar 150w flash heads with shoot-through white brollies, an IR trigger (for the lights) which fits onto most dSLRs, backdrops (with trains) in black, white and purple, gels in a wide variety of colours, a tripod, a large range of props (everything from dental speculums to wigs to fluffy kitty ears, but if you would like to enquire in advance about a specific prop feel free to drop me an email) and an assortment of fabrics. A Canon EOS 350R dSLR with 18-55mm and 50mm f1.8 lenses, Canon Speedlite 430EX flash with lead and IR shutter trigger is also available for clients who don't have access to a digital camera.

For enquiries and bookings please contact me by email at Tanya@RockstarVanity.com or by phone on 07737 549 774.

Ever had one of those months when everything is just crazy? June was definitely one of those for me. I have now moved my heaps of fabric, props, clothing and kit into my new studio (yay!) and am preparing for a little opening night gathering (date TBD). I am SO excited to finally be able to book shoots again after almost of month of being studio-less and a week without an electricity supply!

Unfortunately the computer gods are not smiling on me at the moment so I'm in the process of doing an uber-update from the computer in D's office and if that computer is required for other things, I'm stuck with the world's oldest laptop with it's broken touch pad. Ugh...I can't wait to have a fully functioning macbook again!

Technical difficulties aside, all is well and I've been busy uploading a whole heap of photographic yumness from the last month. I'm going to stick it all together in one big monster update, so here goes...



A little bit of random art involving the very lovely petticoat which Leyla Rose kindly gave me. When I'm feeling stressed, I put on a pretty skirt with the petticoat and high heels and the world starts to look better. Legs and feet are mind. I heart leg muscles.



Speaking of Leyla Rose, here she is posing with Missy Malone in a promo shot for their up-coming event, The Missy and Leyla Show, which is taking place on 10th July as part of the Glasgow Cabaret Festival. See more photos from the shoot on ViolentlyBeautiful.com, HERE.



Making his debut on ViolentlyBeautiful.com in horror mini-set Omerta is Fourthletter, my other (taller, more patient) half. I did not bully him into it. Much ;-)



There's another debut on ViolentlyBeautiful.com this month. Italian model AnaBelle strikes a few pin-up poses in Up In Smoke.

Now I'm going to take a little break for a few days and allow the excitement to build until 14th July...when I'm going to see Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction! Fuck yeah! I hope you're all having an awesome start to your summer :-)

Taking photos of a cat in a box entertains me. I am easy to entertain.

FINALLY (woo hoo!) I've got Fuchsia's last two sets of photos up on ViolentlyBeautiful.com.

More Fuchsia on ViolentlyBeautiful.com, HERE. Make-up by Meryl Elizabeth. Red glitter rocks!

My favourite photo from a recent shoot with Fuchsia and a LOT of glitter, confetti and sparkly stuff. It was awesome and I totally love the photos. Make-up artist Meryl Elizabeth not only worked her make-uppy magic but also very patiently assisted with shooting the glitter gun. Oh yes, we had a glitter gun. And it rocked. There are LOADS more photos which I have processed but haven't had a chance to put online just yet.

Today, as soon as the sun goes down a little, I'm off to clear out all my kit, props and coffee-related things from my studio in preparation for moving into the new place on 8th June. Luckily my husband and his strong arms are going to help with all the stuff-carrying but I think my car might protest a little. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with a studio-worth of stuff in our not very big flat for the next week. I have a feeling I might end up sleeping on my lighting bag under a blanket of backdrop fabric.

I'm going to post a proper omgnewstudio blog soon with details of it's location, what lives in it and how you can hire it (and me!) at a very low price. Hope you're all enjoying the sun and having a fab weekend.

I've really enjoyed my little holiday, lazing around and doing as little as possible, photographing gorgeous fluffy animals and taking a small step towards horror again after a few weeks of shooting only shiny, cute and fluffy things. Do the other photographers out there find yourselves going through these phases, being inspired to create things that are uncharacteristic of you? Tomorrow I'm going to be taking photos of a human model for a change and I'm really looking forward to it. It's been bloody ages since I've had a recreational art shoot and this will be the last one in my current studio before I move into the new place at the start of June.

Normal people worry when they start having dark thoughts all of a sudden that won't go away. I'm concerned that all I want to take photos of right now are fluffy kitties and sparkly cute things.

Why, God, WHY?!

Shai, my baby.
One day she'll eat everyone, but I'll be last.