It had been around 6 months since I was last in London and I was having withdrawals from the manic pace of the city. Plus, in London, there are so many more models that I can choose from compared to my city. But was I going to go down just for the day or make a day of it..?
I chose the latter. I decided that I wanted to shoot a couple of models and stay the night too. I found a great looking hotel with views of Tower bridge and sourced a couple of models. Then I booked my train ticket and bought a roller bag for lighting gear. Originally I had thought about hiring a studio, but the cost compared to a hotel, with Tower Bridge views.. There was no comparison! Besides, the hotel was a 15 minute walk from the station!
The day came, I packed my bags and was on my way. Quickly I realised that I wasn't a fan of camera equipment on public transport. Running to the toilet was a game of get it done quick and get back out. Everyone has x ray vision and can see what's in everyone's bags can't they! And they'd definitely know equipment value too right..? Of course not. But tell my brain that!
The journey was seamless and I arrived in London with an hour to spare before I could check in at 3pm. My first model was due at 4 so I decided to have a little solo lunch date. And it was so good! A Korean chicken burger with a cocktail in a glass shaped in an icecream cone and a smoke filled bubble ontop if you were curious..
My first model's train came earlier than she had expected so I finished lunch and got to the hotel to stand for 20 minutes to check in. I hauled everything to the room and opened the door thinking Tower bridge should be behind me. As it turns out, my view was actually of the hotel and surrounding buildings courtyard. Great. The doors didn't open. Even better. And to top it all off, there wasn't much space to move really. Everything I had preplanned in my head had vanished. I messaged the model and told her I'd meet her outside as I racked my head on what we'll be doing instead of the ideas I had.
The gear I had packed was a pair of AD200s and a Godox speedlight, A few light stands, collapsable beauty dish, silver umbrella, and some rouge attachments. Basically a kit that was as light as possible and fitted into the roller bag, which isn't the smallest, and I wish I had more, but I knew I'd had to make do.
We got some pretty decent results at the end of it. Essentially I ended up using a combination of snoots and grids, beauty dish, and bare flash. Not ideal in the slightest but what can you do!
For the setup below, I used all 3 lights. The key light had a steel green gel in a Pixapro beauty dish with grid and sat on an AD200 and K&F light stand. Fill was a blue gel on a bare flash placed to the model's right, and the ambient looking lamp light was a rust gel on a Speedlight and placed in the lampshade as the colour from it was dreadful. We have some daylight sweeping in from the main window too, which was pretty bright, so a little effort to keep balanced. I was really hoping for dramatic skies too but they didn't happen at all!

Featured image setup

A 23mm Viltrox prime lens on my Fujifilm XH1 gave me a great field of view, even though I was basically part of the wall trying to get the shot, with flash being triggered by a Godox X pro F trigger. 

I left outfit choices down to the model Vixx and she brought along a wide range of outfits and lingerie. She chose this white set and the gel uptake on her skin etc just works really well! I set white balance to flash as I know I'd be playing in post and with some colour adjustments and general retouching to get my final shot.

If you have any questions I haven't addressed then feel free to comment or drop a message and I'll answer the best I can! 

In all, it was a super successful shoot, and I was fully exhausted by the end of it. My train was early enough in the morning that the only part of London I got to see was the train station, a restaurant, and a Starbucks for coffee! I still have an itch I need to scratch!