English Rose portraits

If  I don't share these photos now I'll sit on them waiting for the 'right time'.

The main English Rose photograph is the image that means the most to me of the whole set. My studio came with these murals and I had it noted on my shot list to see if the Queen Elizabeth 1st would work as a portrait shot. I had planned for Sophia to do a similar pose to Princess Margaret in the Cecil Beaton Dior dress image, sat with the dress flared all around and looking regal. The proportions and idea of Elizabeth looming over Sophia didn't work. 
I asked Sophia sit up on the mantelpiece where she nestled in front of Elizabeth as a successor rather than a subject. 
The result portrays An English Rose.

I'm really pleased with them but have been looking at them non stop for the last 7 days and have lost all perspective. I hope when I look back on them next year I will still love some of these shots. 

Sophia made every shot beautiful, it was impossible to choose. Usually I get maybe 20% usable images from a shoot. The model will be awkward, I will be awkward or use the wrong settings. This shoot there were 90% usable. A professional model makes a huge difference. 

I booked Sophia to model as I had worked with her before and knew she was professional and had the face I needed. Sophia is also a designer maker and creative from London so in this image in particular was fitting not just in looks but in identity. I understand this is very much my gaze and in truth about my cultural identity being British and needing a way to look at it with hope and pride. 
To feel the shame of being English which I had for so long discounted all the people here who are brilliant and inspiring and just getting on. I gave too much focus to those who hate and need to only give air to those who hope. 

I just kept saying to myself, focus on the beautiful. This is what its about. 

These are my favorite 11 today
Model - Sophia Brown aka Velvet Jones 
Photographs - Alexandra King
Dresses - Alexandra King 

Sweetpeas

 I keep photographing flowers I think because they are easy. I need to get out of my comfort zone and either do something more interesting with the flowers or 
I think this is the Melias Tame bird preset. I love the grain. 

Melias Lost in the Light Colour Presets

 

Colour images with The Melias Lost in the Light presets. I really love these presets and the analogue film grain tones they give. 
I recently changed to editing images on the Surface pro from my old laptop. The bright colour images were edited in July, the difference in a good screen is way more than I thought. 

Melias Homework

 

My first attempt at The Melias Lost in the Light week 4 homework. I chose a very simple subject and used the black and white presets in lightroom. 
I took better photos of these long flowers but these fit the six different ways to compose an image and create a story. I need to keep this list in my head when shooting so that it becomes instinctive. 
Straight on, straight on floor level, close up, overhead, just the tops, rule of thirds and through something. 

Cosmos in community garden, Wells

 Cosmos in a community garden project, Wells Somerset. 

These Cosmos (as I was informed by  gardeners) look spectacular in real life. Not dark and moody like my photograph but bright and light in a wave of flower heads. 
The day I photographed these I was walking past a flat we used to live in on St Thomas Street, Wells.  The cut through path that ran along the property had previously just been two baron strips of grass either side of the path owned by the council. Then one day a rose appeared on the opposite side, then a hydrangea and then on our side more roses. 
Our landlord called a 'landgrab' and shockingly dug up the rose, dumped it on the other side whilst ripping up a square of turf to replace his 'stolen' patch! We left the flat.  

Then whilst walking to work, I cut through the path to be overwhelmed by the sight of these stunning flower beds brimming with flowers, this cosmos, the now established roses, lavender and even a dwarf apple tree. The gardeners had created this little space of beauty in their own time and expense for the community. 

I am thankful there are people like this in the world who just get on make things lovely without fuss or waiting for permission. 

Neon Tulle Light Experimenting

I was working in the studio making these delicate tulle straps for a dress I'm working on and simply rolled it up to see what it would look like in  photograph as a sculptural shape. 
This was in the back corner of a well lit room, not bright light and the surface is a rough painted metallic silver. Not shiny. 

I photograph most things dark, reading light off the brightest part of the subject. These were taken with a 50mm Canon Lens, f/10  1/50 shutter iso 800  and darkend by -12/3
I then upped the blacks in lightroom but it was already glowing in the original. Its a pretty effective way to make neon light if I can do it again. 

Finding Colour - Alpine Green

I was listening to the Candid Frame as I do every day and on Episode 464 Sam Abel or 463 Sarah Terry they mentioned picking a colour and then looking for that colour in your street photography to build a pallet or theme. It may have been something learnt from Jay Maisel but anyway I thought I would give it a go on my walk back to the car. 

I definitely learn from very simple explanations of how to do something. The right sentence can unlock my brain and help me understand how to do something immediately. For years I struggled with pattern cutting until a sewing machine salesman walked into our uni studio and said, 'its just a 3D puzzle where each piece has to fit together' from that moment on I could visualize the garment and how to cut the pattern.

Building a colour theme in my photography is as simple as just looking for that particular colour everywhere you go and photographing it. It completely opened my eyes on the walk home. I spotted bright reds, dark reds, teal blues, dark greens, etc. Its made me a little less afraid of colour.

I need to take some workshops and tutoring in photography as there are some real basics I need to learn. 

Mannequin

 

The view from where I was sat trimming the hem of a tulle dress. Combining my photography with the garments and making money is what I need to explore for the rest of the year. I'm starting two daybooks. One here and one on my main website www.alexandra-king.com

I think I may be more honest here. 

Photographed on Canon 5d Mk3 50mm lens edited in lightroom with inferred filter. 

Silk Dress

 
For the first time I've been using the front room of my studio to work in. Why haven't I done this sooner. This is a silk dress I've been working on for a new project. 

I rented my studio so I had an 'impressive' space for customers and the front room was reserved for them whist I worked in the back with terrible light. So much of my confidence in my work was bound up in having a suitably luxurious space for brides and customers. I was so worried about what they would think that I dropped the prices of my dresses inline with my confidence.
After years of having various studios, a shop and now the dream studio I realize that my work is about the dresses I create not impressing customers with whats expected in the bridal industry. I used to stress about whether my teaspoons were fancy enough! 

I once heard a story about Alexander McQueen turning up with his dresses in a bin bag. He created some of the most beautiful garments I have ever seen up close.
As a designer maker I'm not here to fluff customers with bubbly and a sales performance, I'm here to make beautiful things. 

Tulle

 
I am feeling more inspired at the moment by photography than the dresses. They are almost becoming a vehicle for the photography. I tend to find new inspiration a distraction from what I am working on when it gets to the hard part of finishing the piece. Ideas are very easy but seeing it through to a finished body of work which may never pay the bills is hard. 
At the moment I need to see things through till the end of the year, maybe in 5 years time I could become a photographer if I put the work in. 

I am trying to produce an image a day of my fashion work to make days books which may help me engage more with this side of my work. I am so incredibly lucky and privileged to be able to work for myself creatively every day. Its silly that I would sometimes be happier washing up with less worries and cash at the end of the week. 
Above is the tulle on my machine table being made into an underskirt. 

Pink Peony Dress Remnant Photographs

The remaining photos that didn't make it to the set that I still liked on their own. Some were experiments, some with a different light. When I shot these a year ago I loved making everything misty. When I can to edit them this week I wanted things sharper. I guess I'll keep changing styles and using different techniques for different situations. 

Pink Peony Dress on the Street

A few black and white photos on the way to photographing Sophie at Lynnsey Kellys flower shop. 

Pink Peony Dress Portraits

Photographing Sophie in my pink peony dress at Lynney Kelly Flowers. 

Floral Remnants

Remaining flower photographs from my camera. The image above was made with a piece of blue silk behind. Part of my research for my English Rose project.

Pink Rose

Full Bloom Rose

I absolutely adore the full ruffled billowy rose. I've been looking at so many but this is just the shape and style I wanted.
After the rose died I picked and pressed each petal and a leaf to use in my work later.

Veiled Roses

I am obsessed with photographing flowers, they are pretty easy which is why. They just sit still and look beautiful for me.

I am starting an English Rose project in my other work, unpacking a little of what that means and my identity. This was playing with some tulle and roses in the garden. Enjoying the romance of it.

Melias Homework

I'm currently on The Melias Lost In The Light photography course (which is amazing!) and this is my homework. 

Photographing Velvet Jones

These photographs were taken last year behind the scenes of the Deadly is the Female shoot for the A/W collection. 
I was in awe of Sophia aka Velvet Jones who modeled with such elegance. I'd love to work with Sophia again with a ballet aesthetic.
I'm finding it really difficult to explain what I call beauty and why I choose my aesthetic. Its subjective, its definitely in the eye of the beholder and everyone is individually beautiful. I've met lots of beautiful women but a natural confidence and intelligence always come through. 

I need to learn more about the ethics and philosophy around beauty and aesthetics. Choosing and photographing a person as a model can be uncomfortable as they become an object of beauty that I am checking and observing.  

Black Lives Matter Bristol June 7th

Today I marched because black lives matter. I was here for my Mum and all the people of colour who have had to carry the pain of racism for hundreds of years. 
As a white person I must take responsibility and use my privilege to stand in the way of racism. 
We can't change history but we can change our future. Children of colour are entitled to grow up with opportunities, with confidence and pride in themselves. With absolute equality. 

No virus is as deadly as racism. 

I would like to thank the organizers, smart young people who bought people together and led a peaceful, respectful protest. The removal of the despicable slave trader statue was a joyous point in the march and simply a job that needed doing a long time ago. 

Update - In the week that has now passed I have thought a lot about photographing this moment. Was it voyeurism or documenting a moment that was important to me? Street photography and taking peoples photos without permission in public is hard, it feels invasive despite being perfectly legal and well intentioned.
How would I feel if I had been photographed, I probably was as there were lots of photographers all getting their shots. I suppose I would be fine as long as I looked ok! My face is out there in public anyway and I hope I am a kind photographer. 

Photographing protests in less safe countries ie. China would be a different process. It would be wrong to share anyone's faces. If I photographed the pulling down of the statue it wouldn't have been ok to share the peoples faces as they could have been at risk of arrest.

I need a lesson in ethics and photography. MORE PHOTOS BELOW.