Anna by Neil Alexander (Click for larger)

We met up around 11am and headed down to a spot on the edge of Ashley in Cheshire by the banks of the River Bollin. It’s an area that I’m quite familiar with having shot many landscape images there before – this one being my favourite. Knowing the area helps hugely when I’m trying to pre-visualise the final image, and this in turn aids me with composition and lighting at the time of making the image as I already have quite a clear vision in my mind’s eye of how I want the finished product to appear.

I had Anna turn sideways on to me with her back to the tree and then lay her arms along the branch behind her to provide a leading line into the frame. I then lit her with a Nikon SB900 flash inside a 76cm Lastolite Ezybox HotShoe softbox camera left and a grided SB900 camera right. It was one of those days when the sun was constantly in and out of the clouds, so the purpose of the softbox was to provide a soft controllable light on Anna, but it meant that I only shot when the sun was behind the clouds. It gave me more control over the amount and direction of light that fell on Anna, though to be honest most of the time the sun was behind the clouds it diffused the light so much and so smoothly that this light didn’t really effect the final image very much. It was only when the sun went behind really thick cloud that I noticed the light visibly decrease and then the Lastolite came into play. The other light behind Anna did generally make much more of an appearance. To this light I applied a small home-made grid which focused the beam coming from the unit and allowed me to direct it squarely at the back of Anna’s head. This gave me sufficient light to bring out her hair and to separate her head from the tree more. All shot TTL and the above was made using the 70-200 at 1/250 sec, F2.8 ISO 400. The final images was then imported into Lightroom and processed in Nik’s SilverEfex Pro2.

Here’s the set up shot:

Model shoot set up (Click for larger)

Finally as a little Brucey Bonus as it’s the end of the month, here’s a few links that have caught my eye over the last month. Worth a few mins if you’ve got the time……:

• 29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE
• Nicholas Alan Cope Photography
• 21 Photographs And Lighting Setups For Every Occasion | DIYPhotography.net
• JONATHAN CHRITCHLEY – FINE ART OCEAN PHOTOGRAPHY
• Photopreneur’s Big List of Stock Photography Sites (categorized)
• BRIANGRECH studio | photography & design | Award Winning Maltese fashion and advertising photographer
• 15 Misc Portrait tips

And FINALLY…….
If you’ve visited the site lately, you’ll undoubtedly have noticed a wee change…… I’ve moved over from my previous theme to a Graph Paper Press theme and will shortly be incorporating this into a new PhotoShelter site (It’s all part of my grand plan…). However in the meantime, things are liable to change, shuffle about, fall off, go back on and generally get tweaked here, there any everywhere, so apologies in advance. Obviously as many of the changes as possible will be done offline, but sometimes the only way to change bits and pieces is whilst stuff is running live.

TTFN

• 20 Surefire Ways To Increase Sales In Your Photography Business
• A Top 10 list for manifesting Success
• Using Call Sheets to Enhance Your Production
• Antony Crook
  Stunning work from Manchester based photographer.
• Fashiontography: Monotone Symphony by Phil Poynter
  NSFW
• Useful Photoshop Tips And Tricks For Photo Retouching
• The Greatest Landscape Photography Spot In The World
• How to Use the Healing Brush and Patch Tool in Photoshop
• 45 Totally Awesome Tutorials And Techniques To Become A Master Of Photography
• Michael Donovan

• Drew Gardner Photography
  Award winning photographer from this side of the pond.
• Photography | Latest updates on Sulia
  Sulia’s Photography Channel has been a great addition to the information streams that I keep up with. It doesn’t really replace any of my own Twitter lists, rather it supplements them very nicely.
• aaron hobson || c i n e m a s c a p e s
  “close quarter panoramics.  open ended narratives”
• The Road to profitable Photography – Shakodo
  How much should you charge for a photo?
• 7 Tips for Photographing a Conference
  Should you ever be required to shoot a conference, here’s how to do it.
• Lava Light Galleries
  Stunning lava photography
• Snowy Winter Photography – Noupe Design Blog
  Looking for some inspiration to keep you shooting in the midst of this harsh weather?
• Strobist: How to Photograph Christmas Lights
  An oldy, but appropriate for the time of year nonetheless.
• Street Photography: Peter Jenkins
  A very detailed article on your rights as a photographer in the UK, and how to cope with ignorance from the public / Police Officers
• Substituting an Umbrella for a Ring Light
  Another useful tip from Monsieur Hobby

• ‪The Poetics of Pictures‬ – Chris Orwig : John Paul Caponigro Blog
  Fantastic presentation from Chris Orwig
• James Appleton Photography
  Inspirational landscape photography
• Reduce Noise With Multiple Shots
  Simple yet effective for reducing digital noise in your images.
• Andre Ainsworth Photographer: Portrait Photography
  London based event photographer
• Photoshop: High Pass Softening
  Another effect for Photoshop for portrait work
• Eight Fast Tips for Better Glamour Photographs
• HighContrast: fashion photographer
  Manchester based professional photographic collective.
• 500 Photographers
  500 photographers is a weblog that posts 5 active photographers a week for 100 weeks. The photographers can be from any discipline within the photographic range, but they have to be worth looking at and have a certain level of quality. When we get to number 500, we will have a deep database of great photographers.
• Photo Attorney
  Very useful resource covering all aspects of the law for photographers. Based in US but also covering UK and worldwide aspects
• John Swannell – Photographer
  British photographer with amazing landscapes, portraits & nudes. One of a few who has photographed the Queen. Started out as David Bailey’s assistant.
• Peter Yang Pictures | NYC
  Peter is a regular contributor to Rolling Stone, ESPN Magazine and Wired, among others. His work has been recognized by American Photography and Communication Arts, but he would never tell you because he is too modest.

James Appleton Photography

Peter Yang Pictures | NYC

• 13 Places Take Beautiful Motion Blur Shots
• Business Day Thursday: How I Sell My Wedding Services
• 20 Eerie Black and White Seascapes | Light Stalking
• B.MOORE VISUALS – Entertainment and Concert Photography by Brad Moore
  Stunning concert photography from Scott Kelby’s right hand man
• 10 Landscape Photography Tutorials to Help You Shoot Like A Pro | Tutorials
• José Ramos
  Stunning landscape photography
• Top 10 Composition Tips in Photography – PictureCorrect
• Chuck Stevens Photography
  some stunning nude photography. NSFW
• Julia Boggio
  Some great portraiture from London based photographer Julia Boggio
• 5 Common Mistakes Aspiring Travel Photographers Make (+ How to Avoid Them)
• Alt Perspective: David J Nightingale | Brian Matiash PhotoBlog
• The Law (in Plain English) For Photographers | PhotographyBLOG
• Photo Printing/Framing Tips
• The Photo Essay: Give it Your Best Shot

B.MOORE VISUALS – Entertainment and Concert Photography by Brad Moore

Mike Dowson – Fashion photographer

Julia Boggio