We’re just back from Norway (I expect Hywel will post shortly with a few samples, but to find out I’d have to go ALL THE WAY downstairs to ask him, and I’m a bit tired….)

And wowzer, it was a tough, tough trip. I always look forward to RE location trips, they feel pretty much like a holiday normally, despite the fact that obviously we have to make sure we produce enough good work to make the trip cost-effective. But this one was a proper challenge. We were staying up above the arctic circle, where it never gets dark (great for photography) but apparently, never gets warm either (not so blooming great). The utterly super Katy Cee and I devised all sorts of ways to keep a maximum number of clothes on for as long as possible during the rigging process but there was no getting away from the bitterly cold wind. We built shelters out of reflectors, raced indoors between sets, and even resorted to heated hand warmers stuffed into our underwear, but nothing actually made us warm. So I imagine we were a bit grizzly at times, and inclined to get grumpy when there was lense-changing/light adjustment to be done.

So I want to say thank you to a rather un-sung Restrained Elegance hero, Steve. He and Hywel were sharing the photography/rigging duties throughout the week, and he was just fab – always sympathetic about the cold, fast as possible with the rigging but still always happy to try our more ambitious ideas (Katy wanted a hair hogtie, I wanted to be semi-suspended from a tree half way up a rock…) Thank you so much Steve, I can’t imagine having managed the trip without you.

I also want to say that Hywel was great too – never trying to make us do more than we were capable of in the conditions and letting us stop work for endless cups of tea even though he doesn’t drink the stuff…. But it feels a bit weird to go on about how marvellous he is on his own forum . He is though 🙂

And joy-to-the-world, I just love Katy Cee, for reasons that I’m sure will become clear when some of the behind-the-scenes pictures appear 🙂

Hooray for Restrained Elegance location trips – and we’ve still got three to do this Summer! I really hope that you like the Norway pictures and videos as they start to appear.