Sky is the star in nude photo of my girlfriend!

A FIELD between Shiplake and Caversham starred as the backdrop to a photograph that was nominated for an award.

Shane Miller staged and snapped the black and white image, which features his nude girlfriend Francoise Wilkinson, in the summer.

She is pictured lying down in front of the field of rapeseed off the A4155.

The image was nominated in the nude category at the 10th annual Black and White Spider Awards

Mr Miller’s picture, entitled “Alien Birth”, was selected from 7,686 entries.



“I knew what I wanted to create,” he says: “I needed the field going away from me. I needed that sky. I was waiting for the light — it was a beautiful summer’s day and the rapeseed was perfect, still in that bloom of yellow.”

Mr Miller, who lives in Reading, took the picture using a Nikon camera and he says his girlfriend was a very obliging model.

“She’s a muse to me in some ways and that’s fantastic,” he says. “If I say ‘let’s go to the field’ and there’s this gloomy sky and it’s starting to rain she’s still there for me.

“The judges for these awards are from major publications and galleries around the world. While I did not win I feel fantastic about this and the work I am creating.”

Mr Miller’s interest in photography started when he was a boy and used to visit his grandmother at weekends.

“I have fond memories of my Nan, Patty,” he says. “I’d go around the corner to see her every weekend. Friday night was kippers and chips, then doughnuts warmed on the wood burner for Saturday.

“On the shelf in Nan’s front room was a Kodak Box Brownie, the first camera I knew. The cumbersome old thing had hardly any buttons or dials and was far from hi-tech but I found it fascinating. I’d spend hours looking through the lens at our back to front world until Nan called me for tea.

“When I was 13, my dad discovered the magic of photography. Before we knew it, the upstairs toilet was converted into a darkroom and the house smelt permanently of fixer fluid — rather like the vinegar from Nan’s  kippers!

“Dad taught me how to load my first film on to reels. I never thought that more than three decades later, I’d be the one teaching him!

“I remember my life unfolding through these pictures. In fact, thanks to Nan and my dad’s love of photography, I can tell my family’s entire story through photographs.

“All my ‘magic moments’ have been captured, from my first front teeth to dodgy teenage haircuts. Photographs are my legacy and that is why I love what I do with a passion. I create images that I believe will last forever, photographs that will be treasured.”