Alex Beckett Photography » portrait

Commercial: A long weekend

Alex — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:56 +0000

So I spent this weekend out with one of my commercial customers on a big shoot. Can’t say that much about it yet or post many images but I did get permission to put this one up quickly. Rest assured more from this shoot (both trials and triumphs) will be coming in the following weeks, oh and sorry to all those whose emails I’ve been a touch slow answering!

More adventures soon,
Alex

Holly: Smoke, Easter and a bit of Cross Processing

Alex — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:06:02 +0000

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

Fire

Alex — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:50:46 +0000

So for those of you that don’t know, I have occasionally been referred to as a pyromaniac. As such Holly bought me some new fire juggling clubs for Chrismas to make up for the ones that got stolen last year.

Last night I finally got a chance to play with them again and Sam got his fire staff out. A lot of fun and a bit of singed hair later and I decided it was time to get the camera out and catch a portrait of Sam with one of his favorite toys. More pictures on the way soon.

Enjoy,

Alex