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.
Here’s a few interesting photography related items for May 19th:
Here’s a few interesting photography related items, some entertaining, some not so much but all generally informative and worth a read:
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Swinging Tyre over the River Bollin by Neil Alexander
As part of my final A-level project for this year, I’ve been spending a lot of time round one of my old play areas as a kid. The River Bollin meanders from the hillsides on the edge of Macclesfield Forest, through deepest darkest Cheshire, crosses the Manchester Ship Cancal near the Lymm viaduct and gets swallowed up by the Mersey shortly afterwards. As a youngster, it was a great playground. Whether it was bike rides around the valley, mammoth bridge building with the Scouts or just pottering around with an OM10, this place holds a lot of memories for me. So it was I decided to venture back there and make some photographs.
On this particular morning, there were a few clouds in the sky pre-dawn, but it looked as if I’d be set up for some nice dawn light over the particular location I’d chosen. I played with a few compositions, and tried different exposures and then waited for the sun to rise, which it promptly did. Followed closely by really dense morning mist! I’d set up a composition on a fallen tree about 50 yards down the stream. By 5 minutes after sunrise, and long before the sun had got up over the far embankment I could barely see my own hand, never mind my proposed composition.
So I decided to try to do something with what little I could see. I moved a little farther back up the stream and chose this shot instead of a tyre on a rope hanging from a branch over the river. I wanted to try and soften the water with a long exposure, but I also wanted a really shallow depth of field. To add to my woes (I had already waded too far into the river, and the water had breached the top of my wellies – I hate soggy socks!) & as I appeared to have misplaced my 77mm ND filter, I realised I was going to have to use the 72mm ND400 on a 77mm wide Tamron 70-200mm F2.8lens. Now I’ve tried this before and it works, you just have to make sure that the lens is pointing upwards slightly and rest the smaller filter up against the lens front inside the lens hood, and you may have to crop out a tiny bit at each corner. (The hood for this lens is really long, so there may be a few light leaks from the smaller filter, but generally I haven’t noticed any) The problem I had was that the tyre wasn’t far off the top of the water so to get my camera pointing upwards it was practically in the river itself! Thank heavens I had my little Nikon View Angler thingy as composing would’ve required a snorkel.
Anyway processed in SilverEfex Pro. Exposure was 1 sec at F2.8 ISO200.
Here’s a few interesting photography related items for April 14th:
Limassol Shoreline at dawn by Neil Alexander
This last week I’ve been in Cyprus. Primarily it was a relaxing family holiday. We’re both self-employed, and it’s hard work being the gaffer, the tea boy & the office grafter all in one go. It’s like a perpetual juggling act, so when the opportunity comes for a break, never mind how long or short it is, we seize it by both ears and plant a big smacker on it’s lips! However, leaving a camera behind would be a cardinal sin. I normally use my LowePro Computrekker AW when I travel, but its a rucksack and loaded up, its heavy. And when you’re travelling especially with tired little kids, heavy certainly ain’t what you need! 
Therefore a roller was in order. After extensive research, I plumped for a Think Tank Airport International V2.0 and it was great. I wish I’d got the Low Divider Set too as I ended up having to remove all the padding and replace it with the divider set from the CompuTrekker so that I still had the space in which to fit a 17″ Macbook Pro.
After a lengthy velcro session, I had managed to get some semblance of organisation going on within my new Think Tank / LowPro hybrid and slotted the Mac into the space perfectly. Fully loaded with Mac the bag weighed in at 14kg, which was going to get me into trouble had it ever been weighed, but size wise, Monarch’s overhead lockers weren’t a problem.
In it I managed to fit:-
The locks are all of ingenious design and I was much happier leaving a bag full of gear in my hotel room while lounging by the pool than I’ve ever been before. All in all, a very cool bag and extremely practical for travelling.
Anyway, this is just a quicky to try and get me back to somewhere near my posting schedule (bandwidth was prohibitively expensive over there), so I’ll have plenty more images to show over the coming days…..
Finally, I’ve managed to go through the thousands of images I shot last year and select my favourite image from each month. I meant to do this last year, but what with one thing and another, I never managed to get round to it, but this year I’ve forced myself to set aside sufficient time. It’s been quite an interesting exercise all in all, and I can really see how my skills have developed over the year. Unfortunately though, there are only 11 images rather than 12 as it appears as though June was a very lean month for me photographically speaking. Don’t ask me why! I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning, nevermind why my image count for that month is rather low. I haven’t applied any particular selection criteria (composition, lighting, technique etc), other than they are my personal favourites. Anyway, I hope you enjoy….
For a full slideshow, go here – http://gallery.fillfactorphotography.com
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - January - Dawn in the Peak District
The above image was shot on a trip up into the Peak District very early on a January morning. It was very cold, but all in all quite a successful jaunt, apart from my run in with a rather irate bull who wasn’t too keen on my disrupting his breakfast! Read more here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - February - Dawn in Dunham
This was taken again early in the morning, just after sun up as you can see. I’d had a fairly fruitless excursion to this point, seemingly driving around endlessly looking for “that shot”. I’d been about to call it a day and head home to the warmth when I rounded a bend and saw this group of trees in front of me. Eventually the sun crested the horizon, and I positioned myself so that it was right behind the middle tree. At the time, I wasn’t convinced it was all that great an image, but having since gone back into it and applied some new HDR skills that I’ve acquired from Trey Ratcliff (the HDR guru), I’m much happier with it now.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - March - Fans leaving Old Trafford
Over the years, I’ve shot thousands of photographs of football fans for various assorted projects with different cameras and films. It’s only recently that I’ve been using a DSLR for this, as its not guaranteed that you’re even going to be allowed to get a camera into Old Trafford these days. So when actually going to watch a game, I still often take a film or a P&S camera with me. However for this game (if memory serves it was the Liverpool game where we got hammered ) I’d decided that bravado was going to get me past security (there was no way I was going to miss the game, or leave my camera at the turnstile), which was just as well as I manged to get a whole bunch of keepers before and after the game. More here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - April - Sunset over Rostherne Mere
This image was from a trip out to Rostherne Mere near Tatton one spring evening. I had intended on making some images in the graveyard of the church behind me here, but I got chatting to some old dear who was tending to a grave, and she suggested that I go round the other side of the church and look at the view there. I knew that this little lake existed, but I had no idea how you got to it, until she pointed out a path through the undergrowth. So I packed up my gear and wandered off, accompanied by her little dog and discovered this view. It was lovely and peaceful here and I must have stayed for a couple of hours as the sun went down. The whole time I was there, I had the little pooch for company – it must have been wondering what the hell I was doing, but it didn’t mind me rambling away and was actually a really good listener.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - May - Dry Dock, Malta
A family holiday to Malta in May produced this image. It was taken around dawn in the bay of Marsascala. I used the bow of a boat to make the foreground, and the waterline and harbour of Marsascala as the background. For more from this trip, go here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - July - Bridal Shoot in Wiltshire
In July I took an on-location lighting workshop with the inspirational Terry Hewlett (www.terryhewlett.com). We shot primarily with Terry’s Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit, and it proved to be an invaluable learning experience. Read more here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - August - Sunset over Southport Pier
August saw me paying several dawn & dusk visits to Southport pier with a view to capturing the pier at sunset. More here
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - September - Faked sunrise over The Wishing Bridge by Lymm Dam
In September, I was commissioned to produce an image of Lymm Dam. This image was taken on an initial recce to work out what and when to shoot. The light was so grey and drab that I thought I’d have a little play and see if I could re-create a sunrise over this little bridge. More here
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - October - Sunset over Lymm Dam
This is one of the final shots I produced for the above commission. Original post here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - November - Model shoot in Stockport
This image was taken as part of a shoot for the Boundaries project that I’m working on. More here
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - December - Car shoot in the Yorskhire snow
Around New Year, I was over in East Yorkshire shooting a little here and there. This image was taken just as the light was beginning to fade, and is one of the first good images I’ve taken with my new Lensbaby Composer. It was a relatively long exposure as I wanted streaked car lights in the background. As it turned out, I was just about to pack up when a snow plough came around the corner lights blazing. It was going quite slowly, but my exposure time was long enough to produce a nice long blur.
Anyway, there you have it – my personal favourites of 2009. Here’s hoping 2010 is even better!
