Natural Apartment Lighting...

Afterwards, we headed back to Markus’ apartment where he shot Ashlynn using only natural light. His dog was confused why Markus couldn’t play.

Can only assume that Markus wasn’t pleased with how the window shots turned out as I never saw any.

This simple backdrop, however, had interesting results.

Pulling Ashlynn’s hair back and adding lipstick definitely had a dramatic effect.

Afterwards, we visited a vintage shop that Markus recommended where I found a sparkly evening dress for the Marine Corps Ball and we had a yummy lunch. Then we went to the IMG London office to meet Luis Domingo, Ashlynn’s account manager. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Veronica spent the day on a photo safari.

Check Out Those Burberry Shoes...

The next day, I took Ashlynn to Hackney for a test shoot with Markus Lambert. A former hairstylist, Markus turned to photography about six years ago; he kept Ashlynn’s hair simple with no make-up. The clothes were from Zara and H&M; it hadn’t dawned on me before meeting him that photographers return the clothes after a shoot, but of course it makes sense. I had originally intended to leave Ashlynn, but ended up walking around the neighborhood with them as Markus took these cool shots.

The one item here that Markus owned were the shoes: £1,700 hand-painted Italian leather stilettos from Burberry. Ashlynn thought they were wonderful, but only wore them for this one shot.

I was very impressed with how quickly Markus worked; he knew what he wanted, got it and moved on to the next shot.

I love how her hair is in motion but her face is in focus.

Our Topshop Girl...

When we arrived back at the studio, Lukasz was busy getting Ashlynn’s hair just right.

Ashlynn didn’t really want us to watch, but she allowed me to capture Lukasz in action. She had a great time; it helped that she loved his music and how he made her laugh.

Check out those piercing eyes!

Jimmy was especially impressed how Lukasz worked with light as this background was actually white, but you’d never know it.

Just outside the studio was a derelict old ship called the Royal Iris from Liverpool. Built in 1950, the Beatles performed onboard in the 60s. Jimmy would have loved to have explored this old ghost ship, but I was relieved that it was just far enough away from the dock to convince even him that it wasn’t a good idea.

While we were busy out in Woolwich, Veronica took a train to Cambridge to visit David, who seems to have adjusted well to university life.

A Fun Studio Test Shoot...

On Sunday, Jimmy and I took Ashlynn to East London for a test shoot that felt quite official. Not only was the studio in a cool building full of artists, but make-up artist Magdalena Sommerfeld-Benrot was there...

...and also stylist Liza Jugolainen. Once Ashlynn was ready for Lukasz Suchorab to start shooting, Jimmy and I left to hang out at the café next door.

Liza had picked out clothes that she thought would go nicely with Ashlynn’s coloring from Topshop, one of Ashlynn’s favorite shops.

The clothes fit perfectly and the styling looked very natural. Everyone involved did a great job!

It was great fun to receive the finished photos as I had no idea what to expect. I especially love this shot!

Frozen Sing-Along...

That evening we surprised the girls (or perhaps I should say kind of surprised as Ashlynn managed to guess where we were headed) with tickets to a Frozen Sing-Along (Disney’s latest animated movie is a sweet story about sisterly love) at the Prince Charles Cinema near Leicester Square.

I felt bad that I’d forgotten to have the girls wear their Frozen t-shirts as many folks were wearing costumes. Surprisingly, there was only one other teen in the audience.

We had a blast! Besides singing along with the songs, there were lots of opportunities for audience participation. We definitely hope to go to more sing-alongs here on future trips.

Poppies at the Tower of London...

Our next stop was the Tower of London to see the poppies, an art installation in honor of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. From across the Thames, we could see the crowds, but not the poppies.

Once we walked across the Tower Bridge, we caught our first glance of the poppies.

It was quite an incredible sight.

Volunteers placed the first ceramic poppy in July and the final of the 888,246 poppies (one for each British or colonial soldier killed in the war) was placed on Armistice Day on November 11.

The crowds were insane! Close to four million people visited during the five months of the installation. Here’s some cool aerial shots via BBC.

When we realized that we were basically stuck between crowds trying to head in two different directions, Jimmy decided it was time to take evasion action. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of tromping through the plants, but eventually made an escape, too.

Back in London...

For our October break, we headed to London. For the first time, we flew into London City Airport, which was an easy commute into the city center. On the way to our hotel, we walked past this crazy house entirely made out of wax; we happened upon the artist one night and he was there melting it as it’s only supposed to last about 45 days.

We stayed at the CitizenM Hotel in Southbank and loved it! The rooms are incredibly small--just the width of the bed--but very hip. The lobby is set up like a living room, which was also very cool.

The location of the hotel was really convenient. We were near Borough Market, where we found some great vegetarian food for lunch.

Then we headed down to the Thames and London Bridge.