So what do you do on bank holiday Easter weekend in Cambridge? Easy, you go for a walk around Wandlebury Country Park with the gorgeous Holly and along the way try out a few techniques you’ve been dying to try for ages.

This is Holly taking a quick nap on a tree branch (yes I really am that boring…). The haze you see in the background is from a can of smoke. I’ve been meaning to try photos with smoke for a while but egged on by Drew Gardener this was the first chance I’ve had. Unfortunately the can of spray smoke is less than ideal: it’s thin and dissipates quickly. Unfortunately my smoke machine is mains powered and so wouldn’t work in an environment like this. Next plan is to get some smoke pellets and give that a go. Anyway the thin haze did create a small haze which I think actually worked fairly well.

For you strobists out there, the smoke was obviously behind Holly, I then used an SB900 to throw some light through it and emphasize the effect. With hind sight, I wish I had asked Holly to wear something different, but hey we were just out for a walk!

In the next photos I thought I’d try out some cross processing. I’ve been trying to get a collection of Aperture presets recently to give my photos different looks. The other day I figured out the Cross Processed look. Cross Processing dates back to the film days where a photographer would deliberately process a photograph in a solution intended for a different type of film. Read more about the process here.

Photos after the jump…

Here’s another couple from Wandlebury…

I think Holly is going to hate me for this one but I really love the grungy look it gives…

And finally one last one using the bricks from County Hall as some amazing leading lines…

That’s all folks. Hope you had a fab Easter.

Alex