This blog is no longer used.

For an up-to-date insight into the workings of me, go to www.bennysmith.tumblr.com

My website is fairly newly updated too: www.bennysmith.co.uk

Catch Up

It has been a while since I last updated things over here, and I would like to keep it up to date as I think it's an important exercise.

I have been up to quite a lot since finishing the course at Wakefield. I have been doing a lot of freelance work with an events photography company, shooting toddlers and school proms. I've been doing as much personal work as I have time for on the side. I recently bought a new camera (the awesome 5Dmk2), and as a result have been dabbling in movie-making. I have a few video-projects lined up, but you will hear more about them in later posts. On an academic note, I've been offered a place at Sheffield Hallam University, doing photography which I will hopefully be able to confirm in a few days upon the arrival of my results (fingers-crossed).

Also, I'm currently getting my new website up and running, so check it out and leave some feedback if you can...  www.bennysmith.co.uk

I've got some big projects lined up to fill the rest of my summer, before August when I'll be shooting a few festivals before flying off for an adventure across Italy for the end three weeks.

Here's some of what I've been shooting recently..

[As usual: Click for a better view]

Exhibition Time (at the Coach House)

The exhibition went down a treat. I made a little video of the preparations and the exibition..

[Click for a better view]

Business Card

For our end-of-year show, we've been asked to produce some promotional material in the form of business cards, postcards and a poster.

This is what my business card looks like at the moment:

Sure, it looks ok and it contains all the information it needs to; it serves a purpose. But it's not very inspiring, especially for the business card of a photographer.
I wanted to redesign it to show off some of my work at the same time. The problem is, I specialise in portraiture, and having a photo of somebody on my business card would be a bit weird. People would be like "who's this dude? why aren't you on here?", everytime I dished them a card. So I thought 'maybe I shouldput a photograph of myself on instead!'. This is what led me to taking photos of myself.


I took a section of this photo. I didn't want it too obvious that there is a photo of myself on my own business card, so a shot of my eyes looking at my name seems modest enough..

My final design.


[UPDATE]
When ordering my business cards, I found out that I could have areas of the cards 'foiled'. This means that they would appear shiny in certain parts. This discovery led me to ordering my cards with a few adjustments made. My name will now be spelt out in shiny blue. It's gunna look awesome. I will post a photo on here when they arrive.

[UPDATE 2]

Here's a photo of the finished cards. You can't really see the shine in the name terrifically well, but it's awesome.

The Bacchae

I covered this shoot earlier in my blog, within the photographed sketchbook pages. But now as the magazine has been published, I can put up some proper versions of the images. So here you go.

[Click on images for a better view]

PP2: Creating an experimental Portfolio

For our PP2 module, we were asked to explore the different genres withing photography and choose one to expand on and then create an experimental portfolio based on this genre.

At first I didn't really know what genre to do. I love portraiture more than anything else, but I wanted to push myself to do something different as I felt that had I done what I normally do, I'd be missing the point of the brief. I wanted to expand myself, not to continue with something that I already do.

I went through a long string of genres: film noir, fashion, landscape, fashion, environmental portraiture, environmental fashion, etc. before I decided upon macro. Macro is a genre that has interested me in the past, but I wanted to get a bit deeper and really explore the possibilities that are available.

During my investigation into Macro, I kept a sketchbook to document my progress. I looked at the work of other photographers, particularly Mike Muizebelt.

I did several shoots, and eventually picked these (amongst others) for my final ten.
[Click on image to view larger]

Exhibition

For the exhibition that we were asked to host at the Coach House, I decided (the night before) to create a brand new, experimental set of images.

These were basically close-ups of the human body and were intended to be seen in more than one way. It is upto the viewer to decide what s/he is looking at.

I am able to use a couple of these images for my PP2 module assignment as well, as they fit the brief well.



I think the images went down relatively well. I got mixed feedback from the images. Some overheard remarks included: "Urgh, is that a fanny?",and "Ooooh, that's a bit porno". I am very pleased with this response. It shows that the concept was understood, by having the subject misunderstood.



The exhibition went extremely well. It was a joyeous occasion for the attendees, and an insightful one for the exhibitors (my classmates and I)..