Roseanne on Hampstead Heath by Neil Alexander

Last Friday I went down to London for Kelby Training’s “On location lighting workshop” with the legendary National Geographic and Life photographer, Joe McNally. Having been to David Hobby’s fantastic workshop in Leeds, where there were about 30-40 attendees, I was quite shocked to see an auditorium packed with more than 500 eager photographers. It was a somewhat less intimate affair, but equally as entertaining and informative.

I had been planning this weekend for some time, so I booked myself into a hotel and arranged three separate on location model shoots for the 24 hours after the workshop to try and put into practice some of the tips and tricks that I had gleamed.
For the first shoot I had intended on trying to shoot in Regents or Hyde Parks, but after a ridiculous email conversation with the Royal Parks people, I quickly decided to knock that idea on the head. The gist of the final email was “if you are aiming for your images to be published/promoted in the future, then we must treat you as a professional and therefore charge you £400 and insist on £5 million worth of public liability insurance”!
So I decided to go for Hampstead Heath instead. I’d done some extensive research online and found that there’s a really cool looking pergola over on the western edge of the park that looked like a real possible for a sunset shoot. It’s raised about 10 feet above the ground and runs in an east/west & north/south direction. We got there eventually about 8pm, but only managed about 15 minutes shooting time before the sun dropped down behind the tree line. We then left here and moved to a little hillock round the corner which still had the descending sun lighting it through the trees. The vibe here wasn’t all that comfortable – there were lots of single blokes milling around looking rather sheepish and it wasn’t until later that I found out that this was the “gay cruising” area of the park!

Roseanne on Hampstead Heath by Neil Alexander

In spite of all that, Roseanne was great, and most definitely game, and I got a few keepers. Somehow I’d managed to heavily underexposed most of the images, and I’m not sure why. I can only think that it can have been for two reasons; just the other day I’d been shooting in bright sunlight so had turned the brightness on the LCD on the back of the camera right up, and for most of the shots of Roseanne, I had positioned her in the sunlight and I’d been in the shade which I guess made the pictures look brighter than they actually were.
More to come…..

Roseanne on Hampstead Heath by Neil Alexander

Location:Hampstead Heath, London

Frankie by Neil Alexander

Last week, I hooked up with Frankie for another on-location portrait shoot. I decided on Alderley Edge as a location, specifically Stormy Point, which has a great view as a backdrop. As I knew this was National Trust property, and after the debacle at Lyme Park I decided very early on to clear this with the relevant authorities to save any mither. I contacted the people at the property directly in the first instance, and was referred to the media department at their head office. Having already spoken to them the other week, I had a good idea of the process. I explained in a concise email that this was not to be a commercial shoot, no money would be exchaning hands, but I would be using what they might deem to be “professional equipment”. It was explained to me that this would be fine, and they would waive any charges (how kind of them), but I would need their standard cover of £5 million of public liability insurance. Any attempt to reason with this ridiculous demand was met with silence. Had I been shooting inside one of their mansions, or even in a busy park, then maybe I could have understood that a level of PLI was required, but were to shoot in a completely out of the way area in the middle of the day during the week. The chances of us even coming across another person were slim, never mind the possibility of me accidentally koshing them over the head with a light stand.

As it transpires, I do have PLI but to nothing like that level. Eventually they agreed that on this occassion this level of cover would suffice, and would I please sign their 12 page contract.

Frankie by Neil Alexander

Now normally, I would have paid the location a visit or two beforehand just to work out logistics of transporting and setting up gear, and to give myself a chance to envision how I would like the final images to look. But for one reason and another, this time I didn’t. Which was a mistake. The last time I’d been here must have been around 20 years ago, and my memory has clearly gone a little hazy over the years. I was totally unable to find the spot I was looking for, and after about 45 minutes lugging around camera bag, lighting bag, a portable changing room that I’ve knocked up and light stands, in the blazing sun, I gave up! We turned around and headed back to an embankment that I’d spotted as a plan B on the way down, and decided to set up shop there. We still had a decent backdrop, but being in the middle of a field recently inhabited by cattle meant that we had to pick our spots rather carefully, if you know what I mean. Having said all that, I still managed to get images that I’m pleased with.

Frankie by Neil Alexander

Now, I have made a point of trying to record camera and flash settings, but the more I’m shooting this kind of thing outside, the more I find that recording settings isn’t really practical – the light is generally constantly changing and so therefore are my settings. Though in general these were shot with SB900s and shoot through umbrellas positioned either side of Frankie. This was certainly the case for the top two, though I think for the middle one, I may also have used a ring for a little fill. For the bottom image, I struggled to light the full length of the model appropriately against the fairly bright background. I ended up using both brollies, the ring flash and a bare flash directed straight at her to try and bring out those funky tights she was wearing.

Natalie by Neil Alexander

As my Friday last week was spent dealing with the horror of a financial year end, and fortuitously I had a completely free Saturday, I arranged for another couple of testing shoots. In the morning I shot the delightful Linda on the beach by Hoylake (details in a future post), and in the afternoon I arranged to shoot Natalie (who is also training to be a make-up artist) and her 9 year old cousin in Buile Hall Park in Salford.
A few days prior, Garry, a fellow “tog” from Twitter had commented on my work, and asked if he could join me on a shoot to see if he could get more of a handle on the whole off-camera flash thing. Well I was a little flattered (I’m a lot more comfortable with strobes than I was 12 months ago, but still so much to learn), but also delighted to be able to try and help.
However as the light was constantly changing, and I also had a few more technical issues, I struggled myself to get what I wanted. So I hope that Garry managed to get something out of it.
Natalie and her cousin arrived with stunning ivy themed make-up. I decided fairly quickly that some dramatic lighting was required. For the top shot, I dialed out the ambient almost completely (1/250 at F11). I had one SB900 and a shoot through umbrella to her right, and one smaller one slightly off-centre to her left. I had also placed a snooted strobe behind her head to try and lift her jet black hair from the background a little. It was working well, but she moved around a little and keeping her head between the lens and the snooted strobe was a little tricky. Just by happy accident then that this occurred. I really quite like the way the flare throws a little rainbow into the picture that ends with green on her cheek to match the ivy.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad day’s shooting, and I’ve since ordered a couple of replacement hotshoes from eBay for the princely sum of $10 to prevent any further technical difficulties.

Natalie by Neil Alexander

Manchester sunset shoot by Neil Alexander

Last week I had the pleasure of shooting the delightful Amy once again. I predicted that we were on for a pretty decent sunset, and as such wanted to shoot in a location where we could use the colour of the setting sky as a backdrop. Our planned location had been turned into a temporary screening area for the World Cup, but fortunately I had a plan B. So from the top of the car park behind the G-Mex centre (not the most glam location for a portrait shoot) we had clear line of sight to the setting sun, and a steel staircase construction to use as our platform. Fortunately no park wardens or narky NCP staff this time. I could see right from the get go, that my little SBs were going to have work hard. Fortunately I’ve just added to my lights with an immaculate condition SB600 off eBay for the princely sum of around £70! (it’s in original box with leather sleeve and all manuals!). A test exposure to meter the background got me a nice bluey orange sky at 1/250 @ F22 (probably an hour before sunset), but it left me with total blacks in the foreground. Tried with an ND400, but that left me with too slow an exposure even at 800 ISO, though it wouldn’t really have made a great deal of difference – the contrast range was just too much. Oh, and it was pretty windy too up there, so anything on a stand other than a strobe was going to get blown over. We shot a little to get into the stride, and then waited until the sun was a little lower in the sky. By 20 mins to go, I was up to F8, and I figured it was time to get going. With one SB900 to Amy’s right, at about 45 degrees to her on 1/8 power, another slightly to her left on 1/16, both bare. I toyed with gelling them to match the ambient, but I wanted a stark contrast in the light. By now I had quite a harsh fairly unflattering cross light on Amy, so I supplemented it with an Orbis on camera (I’m really loving this thing) to add some more flattering fill to fill out the shadows from the cross lights. This was powered by my new SB600 pretty ramped up. The 900s I triggered with Pocket Wizards, and the 600 via it’s inbuilt CLS system using the 900s as a trigger.
All in all, am quite pleased with the results. For the top image, I played a little in Lightroom adding quite a dramatic vignette which I feel more portrays the scene as I’d envisaged.

Manchester sunset shoot by Neil Alexander

Manchester sunset shoot by Neil Alexander

Bex by Neil Alexander

On Friday, I had arranged for another portrait shoot with a local model looking to expand her portfolio in the grounds of Lyme Park. I tipped up with all the usual clobber minus the kitchen sink and scouted around for a few possible locations whilst I waited for Bex to arrive. Always one for then easy option, and laden down with camera bag, lighting bag & stands I wasn’t keen on straying a million miles from the car. I found a spot on the other side of the small lake by the main car park with nice reflections of an old building in a millpond like water surface as a backdrop. It was up on the banks by what appeared to be a seldom used path, and pretty much out of the way.
Eventually we got set up, and started shooting. For one reason or another it seemed to take me forever to get my lights & exposure dialled in. There was early morning mist over the water which was clearing pretty quickly as the sun began to burn it’s way through and I eventually tracked down my lighting issues to a malfunctioning hotshoe.
Just as things were beginning to roll & I was getting into my stride, a warden from the National Trust tipped up. He asked what it was that we were doing. I explained that we were simply making some photographs for our own portfolios and that there was to be no commercial use of the images. He point blank refused to believe me stating that my set up was “over the top” and that we were being too obvious. He radioed his control to verify this, and they immediately replied affirmatively.
A little narked now and determined not to loose a morning’s shooting, we looked around for an alternate location. As this was a TFP shoot, I didn’t really want to waste the model’s time by driving around to find another location out of the park, so we agreed we’d try and find somewhere a little off the beaten track, which we eventually managed to do with a minimal amount of gear carting.
On returning home, my first port of call was the National Trust website, where it clearly states in no uncertain terms that if you want to shoot photographs anywhere on their grounds solely for personal use, then it’s absolutely fine by them. Keen then to find out exactly why we’d been told No, I contacted the head office of the National Trust. Aware of the recent furore over images shot on NT land for commercial purposes appearing on stock libraries, I explained the situation and that it was solely for private use. I was informed that as it may have appeared that I was using a “professional” set up, this was why the warden had not believed me. Also, had I contacted the property beforehand to attain their approval, I wouldn’t have had this problem. Which is fair enough really, though it hadn’t even occurred to me that it could potentially be a problem. The very helpful employee then spoke to a colleague and then explained that in all likelihood, even if I had spoken to the property, they would have made it a requirement that I have £5 million worth of public liability cover. So I enquired where is the line that you draw that states that I need cover? Would one light have been ok? What if I’d not used any lights, but accidentally clobbered a sheep with my 70-200 F2.8? Actually I didn’t make the last remark, as I was seething at the total lack of common sense these large organisations these days. And now a little wiser. Note to self: better planning required….

Bex by Neil Alexander

The above shots were taken at the second location. By now, the light was pretty drab and it was threatening to rain. We got up on top of a hill with the Cage at Lyme Park in the distant background as I thought it could make an interesting accent. For the strobists, I used a full CTO gell on a shoot through umbrella on about 1/4 power as my key and popped the Orbis on camera for a little fill. I always forget to make a note of settings, sorry.

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Model shoot with off camera flash by Neil Alexander

I’m getting more into environmental portrait shooting again lately, and loving every minute of it. After going to Leeds the other week for a workshop with the legendary David Hobby (@strobist), I decided to order myself an Orbis ring flash to play with using this primarily as an on axis fill. I left the workshop positively brimming with ideas and eager to experiment. So I’ve been flogging a few of the model forums of late, and have hooked up with a few willing subjects who are going to test for me over the next few weeks.
These images are from the most recent outing down to the Bollin Valley not far from where I live with the wonderful Steph Owens In total we probably spent about 4 hours at 2 or 3 different locations, and luckily the rain held off until we were packing up and heading back to the car. Competing with the sun however proved to be quite tricky. It was one of those typical British summer days where the sun was out ‘n’ about, but there was also plenty cloud. So no sooner had I got my exposure and flash settings right, then the sun would disappear. Rather than wait patiently, I’d then try to reconfigure for the changed light, get it down, and bam, the sun would come out again. It proved rather challenging all in all, but I learnt a lot.

The top image was shot under a bridge where the river and the footpath go underneath the Motorway. I placed Steph half in the shadows and used an SB900 on a large shoot through umbrella camera left to try to lift the shadows so there wasn’t too much contrast, and then used the Orbis as an on-axis fill just to add a little soft light to fill in the gaps.

Model shoot with off camera flash by Neil Alexander

For the second image, Steph was in the middle of a rather precarious & rickety footbridge over the river. I placed her with her back to the sun, and a large shoot through brolly with an SB pointing straight at her. Nothing very fancy, but it did the job.

For the bottom image, the sun was up high camera right, and there was next to no room for a light stand camera left, so I dug out a reflector and bungeed it to a tree. I had to improvise with a gorilla pod wrapped round the fence next to the tree to keep the reflector at exactly the right angle, and then used the Orbis on camera again to produce that lovely soft fill.

All in all, not a bad afternoon’s work….

Model shoot with off camera flash by Neil Alexander

As part of the A-level I’ve been embarked on, I’ve been working on a project based around the theme “Boundaries”. In light of the recent goings on with completely innocent photographers being tarnished with the “terrorist brush” (see numerous articles on the BJP for example – here, here or here), I chose to focus on the suspicious nature of people, and how often their snapshot vision of a scene is interpreted in a completely incorrect manner. So I decided that to try and highlight this flaw, I was going to shoot a series of potential crimes in progress, in various locations, with different models and lighting. I garnered a rather alarming looking list of possible offences, and tried to construct scenes in my head and then on paper for how I would like the result to look. These images are the final selection that I have submitted as part of my coursework.

105A Assault without Injury by Neil Alexander

56 Arson by Neil Alexander

28 Burglary in a dwelling by Neil Alexander

37.2 Aggravated Vehicle Taking by Neil Alexander

92B Possession of controlled drugs by Neil Alexander

19A Rape of a female by Neil Alexander

Misty trees by Neil Alexander

I’ve finally come to the end of the project I’ve been working on on the River Bollin in Cheshire and these are the final images I’ve chosen for the series.

Macclesfield Forest by Neil Alexander

Bollin Valley by Neil Alexander

Swinging tyre by Neil Alexander

River Bollin by Neil Alexander

River Bollin by Neil Alexander

• Take a view – Landscape Photographer of the Year
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  Great National Geographic photographer interviewed in the latest Photonetcast podcast.
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John Rylands Library by Neil Alexander

The other weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to get into John Rylands Library in Manchester on one of their occasional photographic tours. This means that you’ve got an hour to go pretty much where you like and shoot with whatever you like (lights, tripods etc). Normally you are allowed to take photographs inside the library, but tripods and strobes are strictly forbidden. The library was originally designed by Architect Basil Champneys in 1889, took 10 years to build and was commissioned by Enriqueta Rylands in memory of her husband John Rylands who was a Manchester based entrepreneur and philanthropist in the 19th Century.

John Rylands Library by Neil Alexander

The architecture of the building is absolutely stunning, and today it is operated by the University of Manchester as a public library. The same unfortunately can’t really be said for the lighting. Away from the fancy new entrance, its really quite dark and dingy inside. Right from the word go, I knew that HDR was the way to go – any scene you looked at was a combination of really bright highlights and dark gloomy corners. So these images are a series of 7 frames (a little overkill) tone mapped in Photomatix and then layered and tweaked a little in Photoshop CS5.

John Rylands Library by Neil Alexander