I can tell you that it is virtually impossible to do a still life photography shoot when you have a large and determined cat like Mr Bear in the house. There’s something about the set-up – the pristine white foam background boards, the glossy, clean paper, the interesting little objects that are painstakingly arranged ready to be photographed – that makes the whole thing simply irresistible to him.

I tend to do a very extensive product shoot about once or twice a month; I like to capture things (makeup especially) when they are in pristine condition, before I’ve mulched up the lipstick or put a great whacking big fingernail dent in an eyeshadow palette. In a way, it makes no sense to do things this way around because I only end up liking – and featuring – about an eighth of the products that I shoot, but I like to have a lovely, clean still life on a plain background for when (if) I need it. And the ever-evolving little catalogue of pictures stored on my computer reminds me to get on with testing things out – to pop a new bronzer into my handbag or shift some different cleansers into priority position on the bathroom shelf…

And so yes; still life shoots happen once or twice a month and usually take the whole day. I’m bloody sick of looking at beauty stuff by the end of it! But Mr Bear never fails to be curious – often he pads off with lipstick on his nose or blusher on his paws, or he likes to knock the products over and watch them roll off the edge of the table. Which is disastrous when it’s a beautiful new lip gloss or messy mascara wand!

I like to think that he knows what he’s doing, though; it amuses me greatly to think that he might be purposefully lying there, posing away, trying to get himself into prime place in all of the pictures. I don’t ever have the heart to move him, so the day’s shoot often takes far longer than it should. Especially when he crawls over the entire length of the set and promptly falls asleep…