Apple & Cinnamon Porridge

Apple & Cinnamon Porridge with Almond milk, Chia seeds, banana and honey. Always find time for breakfast, start the day off right! 😋🍌🍯🍴 #breakfast #startthedayright #porridge #appleandcinnamon #banana #ipad #water #5aday #fruit #healthyselves #healthyeating

A photo posted by @_ab_photos on Mar 16, 2015 at 7:39am PDT

Windmills on the horizon

Windmills on the horizon 💨 #windmills #cambersands #horizon #landscape

A photo posted by @_ab_photos on Mar 16, 2015 at 7:18am PDT

Heart Wall Decoration

Heart wall decoration 💛💙💜💚 #heart #wallart #walldecoration #stones #seaside

A photo posted by @_ab_photos on Mar 16, 2015 at 7:14am PDT

Violation of Reality

* For those who don't already know, I have just finished my two year Foundation Degree in Photography and Digital Imaging. The course was run by Bucks New Uni but I actually studied the course at Amersham College, which I had previously done a BTEC National Diploma in Photography. *

Well, here it is! The final piece for my degree exhibition! I have been waiting weeks to share this with everyone, but I wanted to wait until the exhibition was over.

Violation of Reality.
'In a medium whose very essence is the ability to reproduce the look of everyday reality, one of the surest ways of attracting the viewers attention is to violate that reality' (Paul Messaris)

We are subconsciously drawn to unfamiliar objects, even when they are only slightly different to the familiar ones. This work demonstrates how real objects and scenes can be manipulated into something far from real, to attract the public’s attention.

Created with a real landscapes, toy dinosaurs and male models, combined in photoshop to create a surreal, unfamiliar piece of work.

BMW on the beach

I have been using photoshop consistently since I started by BTEC course in 2010, which was 4 years ago! My skills have grown so much throughout that course and my Foundation Degree. It's now become my strongest point when it comes to photography. Even though I know so much about photoshop now, I still love seeing how people create their images in photoshop. So i've decided to share one of my photoshopped images with you, along with print-screens and short explanation of the editing.

BMW On The Beach

Printscreens:

 1. After opening the background beach image and cloned out any unwanted marks or objects.

 2. I added the car to the beach image, then masked out the unwanted areas (selected). I also horizontally flipped the car as it worked better with the ground.

 3. As I flipped the car image it meant I needed to flip the number plate and car number back. I also added a layer where I added more shadow with a low opacity dark brush.

 4. Using a curves adjustment layer with the curve right down, I added shadow to the image. This was done by masking out the whole image, then bringing back the areas where shadow was needed.

 5. I then did the same for highlights, this time the curve goes up in the middle, to brighten the image.

 6. Lastly I added contrast and brightened the image a little with a levels adjustment layer. To add contrast I bring in the black marker and the white marker a small amount. Then I brightened the image slightly by moving the central marker to the left.

I have explained this very briefly as I know if I explained every tool and technique it would be a very long post! This is just a run down of the layers on the final image. 

Hasselblad + Digital Back Portrait Shoot

As part of my University course i had to do a portrait shoot with a Hasselblad camera and digital back within the studio. I chose my friend Liam for the shoot as i feel he has a story behind his face. Looking at the images they just look like portrait photographs. The truth is Liam actually has metal implanted into his face after being attacked with a crow bar, his whole left cheekbone has metal somewhere within or around it to keep the structure of his face (i believe).

Snow, snow and more snow

This photo pretty much sums up my day; Sat at my desk, trying to do uni work but really watching the snow fall down on my road..

Taken with my new lens i got for christmas. Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8.. it is incredible. I've done two shoots this week and after all the stress i am really happy with them. (will post when all the editing is finished) Starting to get motivated to take photos again! 

Something different, but interesting.

Neil Armstrong, the astronaut... and photographer?
At the end of the day anyone can call themselves a photographer, qualifications or not. I was amazed when i found a page in my photography book of a photograph that Neil Armstrong took of Buzz Aldrin on the moon.

It is such an incredible photograph, without even meaning to be! An astronaut took the photograph with no history in photography and without even having a viewfinder on the camera. 

'Neil shot most of the photos on the moon, having the camera attached to a fitting on his spacesuit much of the time while I was doing a variety of experiments. I didn’t have such a camera holder on my suit, so it just made sense that Neil should handle the photography. He took some fantastic photographs, too, especially when one considers that there was no viewfinder on the intricate Hasselblad camera. We were basically “pointing and shooting.” Imagine taking such historic photographs and not even being able to tell what image you were getting. Unlike the digital camera era of today, in 1969 we were shooting on film, typically looking through a small optical opening on the back of the camera that corresponded with what the camera’s lens was “seeing.” But with our large space helmets, such a viewfinder would have done little good anyhow. So, similar to cowboys shooting their sixguns from their hips, we aimed the camera in the direction of what we wanted to photograph, and squeezed the trigger. Given that ambiguity, it is even more of a credit to Neil that we brought back such stunning photographs from the moon.'

I think the conclusion of this post is that i'm a geek when it comes to photography, which i think most people already knew. At Uni I feel like i'm constantly made to plan in detail my images, before i even take them. Then i'm told to re shoot them if they aren't quite right...but why? when in real life situations you don't have time to plan or re-shoot.

Beaconsfield Fireworks

Yesterday night my boyfriend, friends and me went to Beaconsfield Fireworks. I didn't take my camera as it had run out of battery and i had no time to charge it but my new iphone 5 came in handy :)
Since i haven't made a post for a while and i enjoyed the night and got a few good photos i've decided to share a few :)

Trax

Last weekend i went with my boyfriend and his friends to Trax, a drift event at Silverstone. I managed to get a few good shots of the cars in motion, but i have to admit some of the photos on my flickr my boyfriend did take! The photographs in the post i did take myself and i am quite pleased with them even though i didn't really know how was best to edit them.

Have a look at the rest of the set of photos here.

Handmade Bracelets

Above is a collage i recently made, the photos were taken using my iPhone and edited on instagram. I made it because the original bracelet the charm was on broke :( so i found some thread in my mums sewing basket and googled how to make a friendship bracelet. 

After creating this bracelet i was so pleased with it i wanted to make more, so i went on a shop to find more colours of thread. As i haven't had a lot to do with myself the past few weeks i decided to make one for my boyfriend and photograph the process of me making it for this blog post. The bracelet was really easy to make just time consuming. I even found some pages from google showing you how to create an adjustable ending to the bracelet. The wonders of google. 

Late night drives

I honestly am useless at updating my flickr, blog and facebook page. I have been on holiday twice this month and have hardly been using my camera apart from when I'm working. 

On Friday 27th July my family were given the sad news that my Grandad passed away. It was very sudden and it was due to old age as he was 92 years old! My family are coping so well with it but for the first few days I found it difficult to be sat at home because my mind began to wonder and that's when reality would hit me. So after returning home from my boyfriends one night I felt I had to go out and do something, for a while I have wanted to venture to somewhere high up and photograph the town, so I did. The photographs below are not the best quality or interesting, but it was more for me to get out the house and do something I love. It was definitely a challenge to remember what settings to use when doing night time landscapes. 

When I realised that end of town wasn't that interesting to photograph and the photos weren't amazing, I relied on good old litchfaktor technique because its easy and fun way to capture the lights. 

Final Major Project Exhibition Piece

These are the two pieces i created for my final major project exhibition for college called 'Unexpected'

We all judge someone on our first impressions, its not until we get to know them that we realize out first impressions are not always right. This is something that has always kind of fascinated me and i decided to challenge myself and try and present this through my images. 

After a 2 year photography course, these photographs don't exactly show the height of the skills and techniques i have learnt but to me they are the end of an era and a milestone in my hopefully ever growing photography work. 

Photoshoot

So i did my first shoot for my Final Major Project yesterday and i am so happy with the images that i quickly edited them and got them up on Facebook and Flickr. 

I haven't created the final image or the other shoots yet but i'm sure i'll be uploading them as soon as they are done. 

The photographs are of a friend of mine Sarah and her Mk2 Golf, Gunter. There are a few images of her dolled up and a few of her looking casual with her car. This is all linked to my theme for my Final Major Project but these images basically show the different sides to her. 

The location of the shoot was a place in wooburn green, my boyfriend suggested it as its a place him and his mates sometimes go skating that's undercover. You can't see much of the location in the images but i thought it was a really cool place to photograph in, there was one or two guys wondering around but they didn't really seem to mind. 

These are just some montages i put together on my IPhone but if you want to see them properly and in better quality along with the other photographs have a look on my flickr page :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/alex-beynon/

Modestep

Once again i was at WAMA last night photographing, this time round Modestep were performing! It was such a busy night and it was getting pretty difficult to get around the venue without getting bashed into, but i think everyone just put up with it because the music was incredible! 

After last night i do wish i stopped and enjoyed the music a bit more. Then again at the end of the day i do get paid to take photographs, see people i know and hear incredible music. 

The whole point of this post was to share my favorite photo of the night, as always with these events i don't realize that I've got the shot i wanted or even that i took the photo at that time, until i sit down and look back through them.

'Show me a sign' is Modestep's new song that was being performed when i took this photo. Pretty much everyone in the room had a light on their phone or their lighters up, pretty cool to see!

someone raise a light up

light up the sky above

if you're with me now, show me a sign

(put your f*cking lights up)

Sundays

Cold sundays when the boyfriend and friends are working on their cars results in me sitting in a car keeping warm in a massive jumper while taking photos on instagram. Day of rest!

Labradoodle

Just a few shots of my boyfriends labradoodle - Hetty. I dont really have that much to say about this set of photos but i wanted to share them. :)

Snow is falling

Everyone is talking about the snow thats now arrived in Wycombe. Since my original plans got cancelled because of the forcast of snow i ended up having a quiet night in home alone, but when the snow started and i looked out and saw my street so white and peaceful i couldnt help but brave the cold and get some snaps.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alex-beynon/

Event photography

I've decided not to post examples of the photos i took at the Vibrant Entertainment event on Friday 27th January (if you do want to see them they are all on there facebook page).

This time round i had figured out 2nd curtain sync for my flash and i tried it out when photographing groups of people. It took a while to get the hang of and a few times it didnt work out that well but they are getting better.

I wanted to share my favourite photograph from the night, i was trying to capture the coloured lights and their movement so i had turned the flash off and left the shutter speed on around half a second. Purely because of the timing of the lights and the settings of the camera this photograph was created, not intended but i really like it and its now the profile photo of the organisers facebook.

Olmpus om10

Mike's dad let me borrow his Olympus om10 35mm camera. So to test it out i used some out of date film (expiry date - 2005) just to have a play around with the camera and how the film turns out.

Our cars were getting pretty filthy so we decided to clean them today, not the best idea considering how cold it actually turned out to be. While we washed the cars i took some photos using the camera, then once we were done washing the cars i got the film developed at asda and put on a CD.

Even though the women had scanned the film in backwards so all the images were the wrong way round and half of them had been cropped some of them turned out pretty good and have a really cool vintage grain look to them!

Quite chuffed really, ended the day with a clean car and some cool looking photos :)