Published Work - Walsall Council Website Header Image

So a few days ago, i was contacted on flickr asking if one of my images from a recent landscape session at Park Lime Pits in Rushall near Walsall  could be used on the Walsall Council Website as their Banner image (with credit!) So of course i agreed. If you head over to www.Walsall.gov.uk you can now see one of my photos as their main image!

Below is a screengrab of the website, and you can see the original image too, and a link to my Flickr feed

Thanks for reading.

Andy

See the full gallery on Posterous

Pixie - The Dark Side

A quick update from my last shoot before i went on a family holiday for a
week (more photos and info on that to follow!)

This shoot was with the lovely Pixie Stitches, a model i would happily work
with again and again as she has such a vibrant personality and amazing look
to her also. The location was Park lime Pits, a local nature reserve near Walsall, West
midlands, which i had scouted previously to see if it was suitable for
working there, it is a blend of open fields, woodlands, lakes and streams
with access to several bridges and canals also. The photoshoot was split into 2 separate 'themes' the light side and darker
side of Pixie, with this being the darker side, featuring latex and PVC
wear, and very harsh lighting in contrast to the other theme.

We set up under a railway bridge (cliché i know!) with a mini
speedlight-esque setup using some of my favourite off camera flashguns, a
couple of old sunpak manual stepping guns and some wireless triggers, and of
course some invaluable gorillapods to use as light stands!

We went for a really stricking visual style, harsh lighting and broad
shadows to really give it a gritty urban feel, utilising a wide angle lens
for some of the shots and shooting from high and low gave a unique look to
each image, processing was done in Adobe Lightroom 3.4.1 (which i am now a
convert to moving from Adobe Bridge and RAW (i should also point out, this
email is sent using the excellent mapimailer export plugin for lightroom!))
For the final editing, a cross processes style preset was used along the set
of images which i custom created to really give the final shots a bit of a
punch to them.

Thanks for reading, enjoy the photos, and as always, feedback is welcome.

Andy.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Published Word - The Field Magazine, June 2011

I was fortunate to have work featured in the last issue (June 2011) of ‘The Field’ A British publication on country life.

The article and image were in their ‘Naked Strewth’ section on my work for the current 2011 Pin Up for Heroes charity calendar, featuring Miss September from the calendar, Sarah White, which i shot on location at a local railway museum called the Chasewater Stream Railway.

Andy.

Jodi - Fairy in the meadow

A shoot from a few weeks ago with Model Jodi. (and the last one i did on my
trusty old Sony Alpha 200 before it decided to die half way through the
day!) This was shot on location at a nearby nature reserve called 'Park Lime Pits'
in Rushall near Walsall. Although i have lived in the area all my life i had
never visited the site before and was very pleasantly surprised, with wooded
areas, several lakes and streams as well as some beautiful open grasslands
and meadows, considering it is only a mile or so away from the large town
centre it is quite a beauty spot! The theme was a take on fairies with an almost gothic twist with
spiderwebbed wings, but still keeping to a lighter theme. The model was Jodi
Hannon who i had worked with previously, We found several suitable areas to
shoot in and it was a slightly cloudy day with bursts of sunshine, so only
small amounts of fill in flash was needed. Sadly just as we got to the open
grassland and meadows my camera ceased to function so the shoot was cut
short although we still managed to get a few decent shots out of the day! Enjoy!

Andy

See the full gallery on Posterous

Mat and the flash

A recent shoot with my good friend Mat Christodoulou as he was setting up a
facebook profile and wanted a swanky profile picture. We did 2 sets, one
with my good 'ole ring flash and a second set featuring a rather disturbing
Harlequin Venetian mask! This is the first set of images, the whole shoot took less than 15 mins and
we had some very pleasing results. A simple strobist setup was used with some of my trusty old Sunpack
flashguns. Front was a 12r Ringflash mounted on camera, and two standard
guns either side for side lighting and backfill, all manually controlled (No
TTL here!) Apertures at around f11-f16, 160/s shutter, ISO 100, shot on a
Sony Alpha a350 with a 18-55mm SAM lens and a Minolta 35-105 lens. Enjoy!

See the full gallery on Posterous

Free Photoshoot competition!

As i have now hit 1500 Likers on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/darkslidephoto it is time to unveil  the details of the competition to win a Free photoshoot!

 

This includes a 2 hour shoot, and 20 edited images from the day for you to keep, plus 2x 8x10 prints of your choice, plus the opportunity to be featured on several photography blogs and websites.

 

To be in with a chance of winning, it is simple, send an email to andy@darkslidephotography.co.uk with your most zany, whacky idea for a photo shoot, this could be anything you wish! So go wild! Hows about a spooky ghostly shoot? Gothic and vamperic? Or something more glamorous like Hollywood pinup? Or maybe just some portrait shots for your family or loved ones? The only limits are your imagination!

 

You have a choice of having the shoot at my home studio in Walsall, West midlands, or on location, again within the Walsall / Birmingham area, so you will need to be able to travel or be local to enter.

The shoot will take place anytime between the start of July to end of August, and will be agreed on by both myself and the winner. You will also need your own clothing or outfit for the shoot itself and be able to do your own hair and makeup too.

Good luck!

 

Terms and conditions,

 1.       You must be over 18 to enter the competition

 2.       You can be male or female

 3.       Modelling experience is not needed.

 4.       Submissions will only be accepted by emailing directly on andy@darkslidephotography.co.uk

5.       You must be able to travel to the Walsall, West Midlands area

6.       Judging of the best idea will take place 1 week from the competition launch. Last entries must be submitted by Monday 20th June 2011 at Midnight.

7.       The prize is a maximum 2 hour photoshoot, on location or in a studio, and 20x edited high resolution images with a small Darkslide photography logo included, you will also receive 2x 8x10 prints of your choice which will be unbranded.

8.       If for any reason you cannot do the shoot or decide not to partake, the runner up will be selected as a replacement.

9.       You will agree to sign a model release form stating that the images can be used by Andy Simon / Darkslide Photography for media or publicity usage, including magazine or newspaper submission, online publication etc. 

A classic. Untouched.

A shot from approx 2007, taken with a Fuji s5500 Point and shoot camera,
sunset in the garden, Simple, yet beautiful.