Why yes, I am the lead photographer in this brand ( a tale of a epic fail)

As much as I would like to be a photographer 24/7, like a lot of people I am not in wonderful position of being able to fulfil that dream ( as of yet but in the future who knows). So I do have to have a "day job" because lets face it, all that pretty camera equipment is rather expensive and no one is going to buy it for me.

Not that I would mind at all if someone were to do that or give me free stuff... hint, hint :-) (worth a try).

Now some people might remember where back in the dim mists of time when I first got a camera, okay, maybe not so far back but we're in the digital age now people, even a few months can be a long time to some, let alone trying to explain to some of my nieces and nephews that when I was at high school I didn't have a mobile phone. Which did prompt the response of " I had no idea you were that old".

But I digress.

Yes, when I first got a camera, a friend helped me with some shots to start my portfolio. Which thanks to that awesomely entertaining device which can be found in every workplace, school, or building that contains more then one person, yes the rumour mill,  quickly turned from something innocent to me taking nude photos of her in my secret underground photography studio.

Quite why I would have a secret underground photography studio that I would tell everyone about was never explained, and I thought like most rumours it had died a peaceful death and got to that quiet place in the sky where dead rumours and conspiracy theories go when people stop talking about them.

Or so I thought. As it turns out it hadn't died, more mutated into a totally different monster.

Cut to last week, when travelling on the bus from work to the car park at the end of a long shift, I was talking to one of my colleagues in the new department I joined a few months ago and happened to start talking about photography. At which point they asked a very earnest question

" So do you do anything else asides from the topless model glamour photography that you specialise in?"

What.............? Was my first thought. No, actually it was more like

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!

My response was to ask them" I'm sorry what?" They responded by saying that they had seen some of my "other pictures" but doing the topless model glamour photography, that's what I specialised in wasn't it?

What was originally funny mind you, rapidly turned depressing when I related the story to some other people the next morning as that was what everybody all seemed to think my photography was about.

Topless model glamour photography.

Okay, before anyone thinks I am particularly slamming this kind of photography, I am not. It is more just amazing that people were thinking that because it's about as far from the kind of photography that anyone who knows me as a person should expect me to do. 

So after asking a couple of questions, it rapidly became apparent that nothing else about my photography was really known or talked about. No rumours about steampunk, nothing about cosplay, zombies, family shoots, parties, general studio work, weddings or even landscapes ( okay last one is a little bit of stretch as landscapes are not my thing, but there are some in my portfolio, if you get the idea). 

Nope, my photography is apparently famous for the one kind of photography, I have not actually done.

Which is massively ironic.

And also shows that my "brand" might need some serious work.

But this does mean if you now put all of the rumours together, my kind of photography is one where I specialise in topless model glamour photography in my secret under photography studio that apparently I tell everyone about.

So it does make me sound like a bit of a super villain actually.

Which is cool.

Maybe I can get some minions and sharks with laser beams :-)

Later folks 

If a shutter button is pressed in the woods, does it still click?

Well I was reminded this week that just like plants if you don't work on your "brand" when it comes to photography, strange things can happen.

And by strange, I mean.... well I'll get to that in the next blog post

This is a slightly rambling way of saying that I have been shockingly bad at blogging.... and posting and even keeping my website up to date, let alone my facebook page.

But curiously enough I have no problem with twitter.

( yes I know I'm setting myself up for many, many jokes there)

So this is a quick post to basically say, yes I know I suck at keeping things up to date but things are going to change.

No really they are......

Please stop laughing ;-)

Rumours, secrets and lies

I've been reminded today of a story from way back when I got my first DSLR  , ( I say when back when but it was only two years ago but oh it seems longer) that I thought was too good not to share

Oh and no names have been changed to protect the innocent/guilty/ or passers by because I'm not going to say any :-)

Anyway, yes it was way back when I had my first DSLR, my kit could fit in only a small bag and studio work was still a distant dream, I was trying to decide on a direction for my portfolio and what kind of photography I wanted to get into.

There was a girl who worked at the same place I did who was into modelling and offered to do some photos with me so I could improve my portfolio, get some experience and she could get some shots too ( hopefully).

So we had two shoots, one outside at a ruined abbey and one inside. I was happy with the results and both shoots were perfectly innocent.

However I had forgotten how quickly things can change in the workplace rumour mill.

So I was surprised to hear that the shoots had turned into "artistic" shoots.

Which seemed strange to me, but then things got weirder.

They then changed into me taking nude pictures of her. Which I found astonishing but the rumour mill upped the ante.

The final complete rumour was that I had been taking nude pictures of her in my secret underground photography studio.

Of course what no one was ever able to explain to me when I pointed out the flaws in the scenario was

1. If I had a photography studio why would I be working at my current workplace?
2. If I had a photography studio why would it be secret?
3. If I had a secret photography studio why would I tell people I was doing work in a secret photography studio?
4. Why would I have a photography studio underground?

It was probably the one time I ever wished a rumour about me was true!

I would love to be doing regular work in a studio anyway, let alone own my own studio!

Maybe one day!

the name of the game is resurrection

A great advantage of modern camera's is that you are no longer limited by film and how many shots you might have left one one roll

With memory cards you can keep shooting until it's full and then if needs be, delete any photos you don't want and start filling the memory card again. Now this is something that can provoke long discussions about whether this can help or hinder a photographer, especially with photoshop, because you no longer have to get it right when you take the shot.

But don't worry this isn't going to be a post about that.

Inspired by some recent playing, (now I say playing as honestly that is how I've found most of the useful techniques I know) in photoshop I decided to revisit some of my "in between" pile.

So what do I mean by that? Well that's to do with my technique of sorting photos.Now when I look at the photos taken after a session, I will always delete the ones that for whatever reason I know have failed and obviously work on the ones that have "worked" but what about those that fall in the "between". Well they usually go into the folder to be saved and rarely see the light of day again. Or at least until that point when my hard drive starts overflowing.

So I decided to start by revisting some of the photos I had taken of Marija, a photoshoot with a friend that really surprised me with the results. I went for this photo here. Now this was part of a sequence taken under a railway bridge just after she had started dancing. In a effort to catch her dancing I had boosted the shutter speed, however this meant with a combination of the shadow from the bridge and surrounding woodland when she moved too far back the photos got just a little too dark. As you can see. 

An attempt to turn the photo into colour just didn't work as despite working with photoshop there was just too much noise in the photo for it to look just right. So I decided to leave it as black and white. However this meant that it looked too dark even once I had lightened it. So I decided to go for a middle ground and colour popped her dress leaving me with this.

Now although better it didn't feel quite "right" or to put it another way that it had gotten to the point where I could be totally happy with it. So there justifying my original decision to leave it "alone.

Still it goes to prove that it's always worth having a try as it could have very easily worked and it did teach me a lot. It was also gratifying that although the finished "product" was not what I wanted, six months ago I wouldn't have been able to recover the photo even to this standard.

So I wonder what I'll be able to do in the next six months :-)

Teaching a slightly aged Dog new tricks

Ever since I have got my hands on my first DSLR I wanted to give studio photography a go. However to paraphrase kryten from Red Dwarf two problems faced me. Firstly that studio lights are expensive and secondly studio lights are expensive. Which is yes the same problem but so significant I thought I would mention it twice.

 Also where I live there was a depressing lack of reasonably priced studio courses. Most of them cost a fair amount of money for a depressingly short space of time actually in the studio and if I was going to spend that kind of money I would want opportunity to keep doing studio work. Not just do it once and then have to leave it until I had saved enough money to get lights of my own... or won the lottery.

But two things recently changed that allowed me to revisit my goal of doing studio photography. Firstly my parents bought me a studio course for my birthday and secondly I found a studio near Derby, Bright Light studios which runs regular Time for print/networking/social evenings. ( which is a complicated way of saying you have models, photographers and make up artists all turn up, photos are taken, the models get them for free to use in their portfolios if they wish, the photographers also get them to use and basically nobody charges anyone) Still with me? Good. 

So I decided as the next night was only three days after my studio course that it was worth a try. Now the studio was the first "proper" studio I have ever been in and it was amazing. They have several different sets, including a white area, a black area, and a studio "apartment" area. Now for the night we kept to these sets, they do have more sets that I didn't see and didn't really want too, as these are sets can be used for slightly more "adult" photography, which I'm sure most of you will get what I mean. If you don't ask your mother :-)

Now the evening isn't "totally free" to photographers, you have to pay £10, but you do get £5 off if you book the studio or sign up for one of their model workshops within 28 days which considering the size of the sets and equipment you get to play with is more then fair. 

Secondly I was pleased to discover as I spoke to some of the other photographers I was far from the only "rookie" which was quite heartening as I was worried I was going to be the only one among a group full of expects. Not exactly a thought to put your mind at ease.

As there were several photographers there, we were going to be taking turns in shooting and rotating between available sets and models. So I thought I would take some time to watch some of the other photographers, see how they worked and then give it a go.

Did that plan work?? Erhhh no...  The plan rapidly went out the window as I was picked to be 2nd up and found myself face to face with one of the models with the kind of looks that would usually instantly make me tongue tied and I was supposed to stand there and give her directions?

If this was a cartoon, this would be the point where you would have the sound effect of a really large and loud gulp :-)

However fortunately the models were very patient and I gradually found myself relaxing and starting to have a lot of fun. Well it was hard to maintain a serious demeanour when one of the models finding out it was my first time in a studio started singing about how she was taking my cherry ;-) ( if you don't know what that means either ask your mother about that too :-) )  The staff at at the studio were also very good, giving bits of advice and also constantly moving around to make sure each photographer was having equal chance to work with each model, not just once, but in the different sets and different outfits.

Another thing to mention is that you had all of the lights set for you, so even if I hadn't been on that workshop it wouldn't have mattered that much. Or to put it another way I would have just been pressing the button with no idea whatsoever how certain things worked.

The whole evening blew by far quicker then I anticipated but I was fairly happy with the shots I had taken ( whether the models would be a matter for later and the next blog post)

Now the important points.  What did I learn? Well a lot and that I need to do some work on improving my confidence in giving direction. Not all models are mind readers. ( and every model who reads this will now be going well d'uh!)

Would I go again? Yes, I certainly would, the studio was fantastic, the staff were great and the models and other photographers were all awesome.

Is it worth it? Well let's see £10 for three hours, with a complete studio and three different models who also had a make up artist as well. I think we all know the answer to that one.

In fact the evening went so well that my friend, from Dancer in the dark on the left here, is considering coming to the next one as well.

Now it would be foolish of me to say (and not to mention dishonest) that hey I've had one night in a studio so I know everything. I don't but that's part of the joy of photography there is always sometime new to learn and always ways to improve.

The main thing is that the night has opened up some rather interesting possibilities that I didn't have before so if you are reading this and sitting there wondering if you should try something new with your photography my main advice is to go out and try it.

The worse that could happen is it doesn't work but if it does, well who knows where that will lead.

I'm over here by the way

With my long rumoured but still yet to be seen website hitting another delay due to some programming bugs, mainly due to me trying something clever but it turning out of course it turning out to be the polar opposite, I've decided to move to something else that I've long been thinking about but never quite got off the drawing board.

I've created a facebook page.

Okay so on the grand scale of all things internet not exactly earth-shattering news but still a rather large step for me in the my grand scheme of things.

Oh and what schemes..... grins to himself, and mutters under his breath about how I'm about to get up to something fun!

The benefits of course is that it will enable me to start showing off my photography more outside of my circle of friends (hopefully) while still maintaining the ability to control feedback at least a little if it gets especially negative. I'm firmly of the opinion that if you're going to feedback to someone at least make it constructive.

It's not nice to be on the other side of negative feedback as the last time I answered a question in a camera group forum can atest.

Which also leads me onto another issue facing my photography right now. The Photography club I had joined as suddenly closed. I had only attended one meeting but it was still annoying mind you. So if anyone has any suggestions for a good camera club in the east midlands area, please let me know

Anyway, I have already placed a little easter egg as it were on it, displaying some photos that haven't gone on my main facebook page.

I wonder if anyone will notice :-)

Whitby wonders

They say weddings can be good for networking. Well the wedding I shot back in March certainly lead to one payoff that I certainly hadn't been expecting.

The bride put me into contact with another photographer she was friends with who attends a club in the Nottingham area. Now I have been looking for a decent club for a while, the first one I had attempted to join  was a bit of a disaster and the only other club nearby well if I joined that I'm certain I would have lowered the average age by about 30 years or so.

So this photographer was running a trip to the Whitby Goth weekend, now although this would be a bit different for me as I didn't know anyone from this club and I haven't really done any street photography before I couldn't resist the temptation as it would give me a chance to network and also get some rather different shots for my portfolio.

Mind you there were some bad sides. Firstly it was a long trip to whitby made longer by multiple roadworks and secondly it was a early start. A Very early start. In fact so early my first thought on waking was " Shouldn't it be illegal for this time to exist on a Saturday morning?"

Still arriving into whitby we moved down into the town centre seeing in the distance the church and the abbey where we felt fairly certain we would find some attendee's of the weekend. Now for those who don't know the weekend is held twice a year and has become a major draw for photographers. However this is somewhat of a double edged sword as a lot of people complain about the swarms of rude photographers sticking lenses in their face! So we were all determined not to be one of these sets of people. 

However we were quickly taught why these complaints are somewhat justified as when we stopped and had our first bash at politely asking people ( a whole family in steampunk costumes) we were stunned to suddenly find ourselves surrounded by at least half a dozen photographers who had appeared out of nowhere, swooped in and promptly disappeared without saying a word to the subjects. In fact one of the firls from our group got smacked over the head by someone else's lense, who was then promptly more concerned about his gear as opposed to her head!

Now the swarms of other photographers really, really got to each of us at somepoint because it was just getting well stupid. See this is a photo I took of the church, what you can't see is the young girl posing in the door. What you can see is the dozen or so photographers all trying to take pictures at the same time!

I even saw one photographer massively overstep someone's personal space and had his lense almost touching the poor girls Face!

Still as always it's the bad things that people complain about, or bad photographers in this case and not the good ones. I'll admit I was a little nervous at first about trying to go up and ask people for shots myself and used one of the girls from the club as a "in" until I had built my own confidence up.

 Initially I thought we had a lot of time in Whitby but it seemed to just shoot by. We didn't even really stop for lunch. We just grabbed a quick drink and some rather yummy homemade gooey cake that really gave us a needed sugar boost for the afternoon.

We found most people were up by the church which is famous for having a staircase with 199 steps that you have to climb to get to the top which doesn't sound like a lot and it didn't seem like a lot until my 4th or 5th time heading up there when my legs suddenly decided to protest. Which although bad then was nothing to the next morning when I ended up walking like a complete and total zombie.

Still no pain no gain as it was this last trip up the stairs that gave me the last three shots which I consider to be my "shots of the day"

Now the next weekend is in November which I seriously want to attend as I am now much more confident in my skills in street photography and I really want to get some more shots for my portfolio, as short of several sgteampunk and goth obsessed people joined my work or church, there's nowhere else I'm going to be able to get shots like that! 

Revamp, renew, reschedule

After my fun trip to Whitby I realised that it was time that my portfolio needed a serious revamp, which would in turn enable me to finally "launch" for want of a better term my website.

However this is not as quite as easy as it sounds because I have a lot of photos.

And when I say a lot, I mean a almost full external harddrive packed with pictures.

So it's taking sometime.

However it has also taught me something interesting. That my skills have seriously progressed since I got my 500d, which I'll admit doesn't seem like that much of a revelation really as it's kind of the level of look the grass is green or the sky is blue! But even though I knew that it took me actually comparing some of my first portraits with what I've taken recently to realise just how far I have come on.

The short list I have come up with my new portfolio is suffering from two problems mind you, the first is that for a short list it's not so short. The second is that I have no idea what format to present it in. 

Of course I have the website but it's the actual physical presentation of the portfolio that is stumping me a little bit right now. Now I was leaning towards a photobook format but then of course the problem there is in order to update it you would need to get a whole new book printed.

So I was thinking about a folder but looking at some prices it would cost more then getting a photobook .

Of course the last option would be to use a ipad or other tablet but then again I don't know if that would really work showing photos in a electronic format.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll solve it eventually.

In time for the next revamp, he, he, he, 

Getting a Head

Photography is not a cheap hobby.

There I've said it out loud. the big dark secret of photography that everybody knows but don't realise they know until they actually get into it.

In fact when I got my first DSLR I joked that I had managed to find the only hobby that was more expensive then games workshop! Although thanks to ebay that hobby is now helping to fund my photography is some rather strange circle of life thing.

Anyway, one thing I have found is that regardless of the type of photography equipment you are buying, there is a rather large gap in the costs between the "basic" and more advanced items. Which of course leaves you with the inevitable dilemma of whether to buy a basic item now or save for a more advanced item.

I recently was due to attend a photography course and found that I would need to take a tripod, now I did have a tripod but it was quite old and although it worked it wasn't quite the image I wanted to go for attending my first course with a tripod nearly as old as me.

So I went shopping. Online shopping that is back to the same website, wex photographic where I got my 7d from. Now I had made my mind up to go for something "mid range" because if I was going to invest in a new tripod I wanted one that would last me a while. Fortunately as they have a system where you can streamline results both by price brand and customer ratings, I soon found one in my price range that seemed to have a lot of people raving.

A few clicks of the button and waiting one working day, I arrived home to find my new tripod waiting for me. After happily unwrapping it and setting it up in my bedroom ( only space we had in the house at that point thanks to decorators. Goodness knows what the neighbours were thinking), I proceeded to get out my camera to attach it to the tripod so I knew precisely how to do it for my course.

Or at least I tried to attach it to the tripod.

You see in my excitement of buying a tripod and my complete lack of experience with the latest tripods for cameras you see there was one piece of important information I had overlooked.

Most tripods now, don't come with heads, For those of you unsure what that is, it's basically the bit that you attach the camera too.

So now I had a tripod for my camera but no way to attach the camera too it.

When I mentioned this to my parents they suggested to send it back and asked if the website mentioned this. I went back to check and no it didn't mention it didn't come with a head.

But then again it didn't say that it did.

It was simply due my inexperience that I had never looked closely enough at the picture of the tripod to realise that there was no head. It also never occurred to me that tripods would ever be sold without a way to attach it to the camera.

With the course fast approaching and no time to mail order a new head, I was forced to go into Nottingham to a camera shop there to buy a head which unfortunately due to it having to be able to hold a 7d ended up costs more then 2 thirds of the cost of the tripod.

So the tripod wasn't quite in my price range as much as I thought. but at least I now had a complete tripod ready for my course.

If I had needed it mind you because as it turned out the equipment list for the course was wrong. We never needed a tripod at all.

To quote homer " D'oh!"

And I suppose it also highlights a issue buying items online, it may have cost more in a high street store but at least a staff member would have been able to tell me to get a head.

Later folks!

That there chicken and egg

Okay, so wayyy back, well not that far back but it seems like it just after I had got my canon 500D, I was deciding on how to start a portfolio/expand my bank of images as it were.

My Dog Owen, well he had proven very useful and to this day he remains the most happy of models I have "worked with" to be photographed ( if somewhat uncontrollable but that's a different story.) However I was more interested in taking pictures of people.

Now of course irony being what it was, if I had got my DLSR just a couple of years earlier I would probably have had more then enough opportunity to practise taking photos of people. However with most of my peers at church now happily married, options were not as forthcoming as I may have hoped.

So after reading just one or two ( or a lot if I'm honest) magazines I decided to follow some advice that there are several websites out there such as model mayhem where aspiring photographers, models, make up artists etc can link up as it were and use it's others skills for free ( or time for print) and help each other expand their portfolios.

Now I tried one and immediately ran into a road block as in order to join you had to have pictures of two different models. So basically a website where you were recommended to go to help expand your portfolio or even help start it, insisted you needed pictures of two different models to join.

Hmmm, seeing where the title of this blog post has come now?

It I had pictures of two different models I'm not likely to be wanting to join this website now am I?

Now admittedly, this may be intended to keep any tom, dick or harry with a camera joining the site but it does kind of create a large hurdle for anyone with genuine interest.

And before you ask, no they wouldn't accept pictures of Owen, as it was adult human models only, not dogs..... ( oohhh, gonna step away from the obvious jokes there :-)

But in hindsight this is a issue that must face every photographer when they start out. In order to create a portfolio or get work, you need to have pictures. But you're only going to get a pictures to go in your portfolio if you get work.

Talk about a catch 44 situation. (it's like a catch 22 but only twice as bad :- )

And don't even consider the issues of trying to be a wedding photographer!

It was suggested to me that I could try street photography, but I had a feeling trying to photograph random women in the street who I didn't know, was a scenario which could only end in tears.

However, maybe it was time, tide, the fates or just one of those things but I was soon presented with a opportunity to work with one model.

Still waiting on number 2 though.

Any volunteers?? :-)

Later folks

The pick of the pile 1# Jump to it

If there is one problem with digital photography ( and I hesitate to call it this mind you) it is that you don't have to be as considerate as you used to with film cameras. You can keep pressing that button and taking photos until your memory card is full and even then you can simply delete what you don't want and start again.

Now I'll freely admit that not all of my photos are perfect (far from it) but I have started to fill up my external hard drive at a rather fast pace. Which means a photo has to be something that grabs my eye before it reaches the top of the pile.

So that is all a roundabout way of saying this is a first in a series of blog posts where I will be presenting some of my best photos that have caught my eye, or other peoples eves. The first is " Jump to it".

This was one of the first occasion where the ower of my new Canon 7D met the raw energy of some of my nieces and nephews. And neither disappointed.

This guy is one of my nephews and although the picture started as all colour I decided to try colour popping using photoshop elements and this is the result. A unintentional heavy use of the burn tool created the rather dramatic sky ( it was actually quite sunny that day believe it or not). 

The 7d's fast FPS rate captured the action fantastically and it was actually this first attempt at capturing action " mid flight" after I had persuaded him to try jumping off the seat ( in my defence it didn't requite much persuading) . It was also his leap that lead to his sisters wanting a go and actually lead to my Sister and our Mum jumping off the seat as well.

Their jump was just as successful even if the landing was not. And before you ask I don't think I'll risk putting that photo up as I'm not feeling that brave! :-)

Later folks

New Beginnings

Hello, welcome, greetings....etc, etc.

Welcome to the new blog for CJ Beaumont Photography.

The purpose of this blog is very simple. It will be a outlet for me to show off some of my latest work in photography, mention some musings and show off what I consider to be my best work.

It will also be a outlet to let people know about what I have found to work for me when it comes to photography, what wasn't as successful and what should have really stayed deep in the deepest depths of my imagination.

Please feel free to leave any comments. I'll reply to any serious or constructive feedback as soon as I can because unfortunately photography is far from being able to keep me supported alone so I have to rely on a "day job" .

Which one day I might even talk about as well.

But that's for the future. Now is a time for beginnings, so please read on!