Hey!

This week’s Chatty Tuesday comes straight from my heart because it’s something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

What do you do when you start to wonder whether to add an employee to your small business or not? Would the pros of having another person on board outweigh the cons?

I knew I had to choose this for today’s Chatty Tuesday episode because it fits perfectly with a big surprise I have been dying to share with you! For those of you who want to be the first to know, you’re going to have to watch the whole video to find out, although I’m sure you can guess ;)

Tweetable: “Your business is here to give you freedom in the form of time and money” #ChattyTuesday @alexbeadon

Welcome Lizzie to the Alex Beadon Photography team: @lizziebeadon WELCOME to the @alexbeadon team! 

I’m really looking forward to reading the conversation in the comment section afterwards. Knowing what all of your opinions are on each weekly topic has added so much interest and intrigue because we all have different experiences and veiw points to share, and through sharing we all learn!

So, if you haven’t joined in on the conversation in the comment section yet – you’re missing out! Head on down to the bottom of this post and leave your opinion and contribution!

Let’s discuss, my friends! Leave your comment below!

The post How to hire employees for your business at the right time appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

Hey you!

Oh my gosh, this past week has been so busy! Not only are my Photoshop Actions about to be released for Elements users (yay!), but I’ve been reading the book “The Artist’s Way” and loving every second of it! It has been so inspiring!

This week I leave you with a Chatty Tuesday video that gives you TEN short photography-related question & answers! They are all raring and ready for you to watch in the video below:

Don’t forget to choose one of the questions and leave your answer in the comment section of the blog post:

• “What mode do you normally shoot in? Like in general as well as professionally when you are on shoots?”
• “When you first began taking self portraits, did you ever feel silly going out with your tripod and camera especially if there was people around? If so how did you overcome this?”
• “I’ve been thinking about investing in a reflector. Do use one? Do they help with harsh light when shooting outdoors?”
• “Do you focus manually or use the AF system?”
• “What is your equipment or go-tos for lenses, remotes, external flash?”
• “Do you have a studio?”
• “Do you have any tips for finding good locations?”
• “If you had to pick one really nice canon lens for wedding photography, which one would you pick?”
• “I am interested in buying my first DSLR camera – which do you recommend?”
• “Do you shoot in RAW or JPG?”

Big hugs
xoxo

The post Ten Photography Tips From Me To You appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

Someone in the Facebook comments asked how it was edited, so I thought I’d let you into the step-by-step process. This is one of those images that I spent a lot of time editing, so I unfortunately can’t go into full detail on what I did because it would take such a long time.

Here’s a quick summary of the edit:

1. I first extended the photograph to turn it into a square.
2. Then I added taller flowers to replace the phone pole and create an “alice in wonderland” feel to the image.
3. I added additional clouds for atmosphere.
4. I added extra hair for volume and drama.
5. The main photoshop action used on the colour was “Scarlet Love“.
6. After that, it was subtle colour changes here and there to create the purple tones in the flowers that I was looking for and also the additional colour in the sky. The secret here is the use of opacities and layer masks!
7. To finish it off I used Alex’s Sharpy as the final sharpen.

Here you can view the changes step-by-step:

You can buy “Scarlet Love” and “Alex’s Sharpy” in The Inspired Store today!

The post Watch this image evolve in Photoshop appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

Hey you,

Ahhhh! This week has been insane. A huge new announcement, a new addition to my family, and major breakthroughs which I will be blogging about soon!

How about you? Did you have an inspiring week? Any breakthroughs? A-Ha moments? Whatever it is – celebrate it, baby.

Let’s get straight to this week’s topic - How important is it to make your subject feel comfortable in front of your camera? How comfortable do YOU make your subjects feel? And how could you make them feel even more comfortable so that the photo shoot goes even better?

That’s what this week’s video is all about – creating comfort in your customers. If you want to know my two top “secret weapons” to helping your customers feel at ease, this video is for you, my friend!

Enjoy the video and I can’t wait to hear all of your thoughts and suggestions for Shawna in the comments below!

Stay inspired

xoxo

P.S. Happy birthday to my amazing sister, Lizzie – I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! <3

The post How to make your subject comfortable appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

I knew I wanted to create something a little bit crazy today. So I did. It’s a self portrait entitled “Extraterrestrial” and if you want to show it some love you can find it here on flickr, 500px and facebook. Today’s Chatty Tuesday episode goes behind the scenes of this shoot, an inside look into how it was shot and how it was edited. I hope it inspires you to take some self portraits of your own! Huge hugs xoxo

Did you enjoy this video? If so pass it on!

The post Self Portrait Video Blog: Extraterrestrial >> Chatty Tuesdays appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

Hey friends, I’ve been feeling so inspired by Showit’s awesome Videos of the Day. They pretty much rock and are oozing creativity. So I decided to inject some creativity into my own Chatty Tuesdays videos. And BAM! This was created. I hope you enjoy it!

All you need to do exactly what I did: 50mm lens. your camera. scissors. cereal box. pen. all photos taken at f/1.4 at night.

The post How to create heart shaped bokeh >> Chatty Tuesdays appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

I hadn’t done a test shoot in forever. It made me sad, because they are my favourite kinds of shoots. They are the shoots that I am free to experiment, do as my heart desires, a total failure would be absolutely okay because no one’s money or expectations would be on the line.  Unfortunately here in Tampa I don’t have my regular team to work with, since they are all back in England. Admittedly being in a new place has thrown me for much more of a shock than I thought it would. When I’m back in England I do get nervous before shoots, but I’m so accustomed to my surroundings and the people that I find deep comfort in them. Here in Tampa I have never done a shoot before, so I found myself incredibly nervous even in the organisational process of it all. I was trying to put together a photo shoot, but found myself with no contacts to go from, no where to start. It reminded me of the very first time I ever organised a shoot in England. I forgot how hard it can be to be new and to put yourself out there when no one knows or cares who you are. It is so important to organise personal shoots, though, that you can never let these trepidations stop you. At the beginning it’s all about conquering that fear of not really knowing where to start. At the end it’s all about meeting new people, creating something beautiful together, and walking away with gorgeous images that you can be incredibly proud of and know that your network is now just a little bit bigger :).

So, as I said, I brainstormed this beautiful idea in my head of a shoot that I really wanted to bring to life. The only problem was finding a team to help me put it together. A make up artist, hair stylist, model and someone to take charge of the wardrobe. I got in touch with a variety of people through Model Mayhem, but it never worked out. Two weeks went by. Each week there was a shoot planned for the weekend. And each weekend the model had cancelled last minute. Not cool.

As much as I’d love to blame it on others I realised that I needed to take control of the situation. The first thing was to get in touch with a different model who would (hopefully) be much more reliable. The second thing was to set it up so that it would be a test shoot, just the two of us getting together to shoot. This way I would get to know the model, she would get to know me, and I could figure out our “chemistry” together while shooting. My grand plan? After judging her capabilities as a model and our chemistry, I would decide whether or not she was “the one” for the actual creative shoot I had planned in my head.

And so, I was nervous to meet her, I was nervous to photograph her, and I was nervous to be in the city surroundings. I was nervous in general. Obviously, as soon as the time came the nerves faded away and were immediately replaced by pure excitement for the shoot. She showed me all of the clothes and shoes she had brought in her suitcase. I chose the few looks which I thought matched my style, and we went from there.

I’m staying in an apartment building, and decided to do the shoot directly in the surrounding areas – which, surprise surprise, are even more apartment buildings, busy roads, etc.. And even while buried in the city I found myself gravitating to the small areas of greenery that there were. There is something within me that is so moved by nature, and I feel like it’s such a huge part of my style and creative process – so much so that I never even noticed it.

I took the following two photographs on the front step of an abandoned store, next to a small patch of grass. I took many photos that day, but these two are my favourites. And they seem to stand out alone in my head, like a whole separate shoot. They simply don’t match the rest of the photos we took that day, hence why I’m publishing them alone. I adore the emotion expressed, the colours captured, the femininity, the softness. To me, they are perfection, and I love them.

Beth was beautiful and so comfortable and confident in front of the camera, which I really enjoyed. I honestly can’t wait to work with her again and I have already started my plans for what shoot would work best with her look :).

I’m so happy to have the opportunity to share these with you today:

Both of these photos were edited with a mixture of actions from the brand new action set, THE CONFIDENCE COLLECTION. Make these actions yours today here.

YOU:

Do you have an idea of a shoot that you would like to bring to life? Something that is personal and just for your enjoyment as an artist? Have you organised it? What difficulties have you gone through with it? Tell me about it. <3

The post The Process of my Tampa Photo Shoot appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

To watermark or not to watermark? With the rapidly rising popularity of photo-centric-sharing sites like Pinterest and Tumblr it’s becoming more and more common to see people posting things that don’t necessarily link back to the artist or creator of the photograph.

For example, if someone wanted to add one of my photos on Tumblr they would have to right click on the image, save it, and then upload it onto Tumblr. Whether they give me credit or not is left completely up to them, and is sadly, more often than not, totally forgotten. And so I see my photographs wondering around the world of Tumblr. Creditless.

I know this really angers countless photographers, and rightly so. It is their photographs and they are free to feel whatever they want on the matter. But whenever I see an image of mine on Tumblr followed by hundreds of notes, comments and reactions – it makes me happy.

I feel like my images take on lives of their own, fulfilling their life purpose by being shared and viewed by eyeballs all over the world. They are somehow making the world a prettier place, a happier place, a better place. So it’s hard to be anything but proud and happy. The last thing I could think of to be is mad.

But something happened this week that really got me thinking. I stumbled across a GORGEOUS image on tumblr. Oh my gosh, it was pretty much life changing. I loooooved it. I stared at it, enjoyed it, cherished it. And I had to figure out who the photographer was. Normally I click on the image in search of a photographer’s credit, but I always get led back to more curation tumblr blogs, which is of no help at all.  But this time the image had a watermark. It was very small, discrete, and I didn’t see it until I looked for it. This small watermark gave me the website of the photographer. So I typed it in and was able to check out her entire portfolio and got to enjoy her creations even more.

And then I thought to myself, I may not mind if people share my images online, but it would make me very sad if someone wanted to discover more of my work and were unable to due to lack of credit.

So to make a long story short … I’ve decided to add a watermark to all of my future images. I’m still experimenting, but my intention is for it to be incredibly small and discrete, as to not get in the way of the image, but prominent enough so that if you were looking to see who took the photo, you’d quickly be able to find out :).

One last thing before I love you and leave you: To those of you out there who don’t use watermarks, or don’t want to use watermarks, but are worried about people saving your images and claiming them as their own – let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time my photos were stolen (DUN DUN DUN!). A few people had mentioned that maybe I should hold more responsibility, as it could “easily have been avoided” had I watermarked my images. I would like to point out that my photos that were stolen WERE WATERMARKED! Watermarking your images will not protect you from image theft. It was very easy for this man to save my image, and clone out my watermark, and add his own watermark. Yes, a watermark may deter some thieves, but it won’t fully protect you from them all. Nothing will. It’s one of the cons of posting your images online, but I believe that the pros of posting your images online strongly outweigh the cons – but that’s up to each individual to decide for themselves.

I want to know – what are YOUR thoughts on watermarking? Does a small, subtle watermark really bother you? I’m interested to know what you think of it all! Do you watermark your images? LET ME KNOW, LOVELIES! <3

The post To watermark, or not to watermark? appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

ONE. My national rail card! TWO. My camera, the Canon 5d mark ii. THREE. The best strap I’ve ever had, I received it as a present and love it. Find a similar version online here. FOUR. Hair clips in case I need it or my client needs it! FIVE. Mac Pro Lash Mascara. Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm for days like these. SIX. Memory cards galore. SEVEN. Remote control – Canon RC-1 EIGHT. Extra battery, always charged (just in case!) NINE. Lenses: Canon 50mm 1.4 and Canon 28mm 1.8 TEN. My pretty little iphone. ELEVEN. Passport if travelling. TWELVE. Handy pen. THIRTEEN. Camera cord to upload to my computer.

Grab your own version of this wallpaper here on Bobbi’s blog.

I think it’s so important to find things to keep in your bag that will always make you feel totally confident and prepared. My back up battery, always fully charged, and my memory cards always keep me feeling prepared for my shoots – just in case something goes wrong! And for me, I absolutely ADORE the Kelly Moore Bags, I have the black classic and I really adore it. It’s very girly, and much more “me” than my old bag (which looked something like this). I’m also loving my new strap, which was given to me as a gift from my cousin. It’s so comfortable and you can find one similar here. These two things have made me feel so much more “fashionable” while shooting, which may not matter to some people – but it’s awesome to look good when you’re feeling so good shooting and keeps me feeling comfortable and confident :).

And there you have it, my beautiful Kelly Moore bag, filled with all of the things that I carry along with me on a shoot. BAM! What do you carry in your bag? What kind of bag do you have? Is it comfortable? SHARING IS CARING! I love you guys, hope you have a beautiful week.

The post Take a look into my photography bag : Thirteen things. appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.

What does this image make you feel? Does it make you feel anything at all? What words come to mind? Talk to me about this photo.

PS This is a blast from the past. You can see the full shoot here.

The post What does this image make you feel? appeared first on Alex Beadon Photography.