Latest from the blog:

Shoot with Nardia – 21st November 2011

Posted by Ben Heys on December 4, 2011 with No Comments

A couple weeks ago through an unfortunate set of occurrences I ended up meeting a couple pretty cool people. One is the model in this shoot, who ended up being a substitute called in at the last second when things went awry with the first model. The other being Ian Barclay, the excitable Scottish bloke who is himself a decent snapper, model Psychologist, impassioned shirt connoisseur (trust me, you don’t want to wear a Hawaiian shirt in front of this guy) and finally the owner of the resort these images were shot at. The beautiful Serene Sands Health Resort. He even came to pick us up in the morning when the taxi driver didn’t know the way and we ended up reversing back... Read More ››

If you want to use my work:

Photography

Posted by Ben Heys on December 31, 2010 with No Comments

I often get notes, emails and messages from people asking to use my work in one form or another. I figured I’d put together a blog post to lcover this topic and at the same time have a review of my pricing structure when I licence images directly and bring it down more on par with what my images are selling for in the agencies. Before we get to that if all you want to do is use one of my images for inspiration for a drawing or painting etc: go right ahead, the only thing I’d ask is that you provide a link back to me from anywhere you publish the finished work. As for using my work directly in graphic designs, digital... Read More ››

Welcome back!

Model photography / Photography

Posted by Ben Heys on December 28, 2010 with 2 Comments

Well it’s been MIA for a couple years now but now the blog is back, along with a whole new folio site wrapped around it. As it is with most of the work I end up doing it was necessity more than anything else which bred creation. It was an arsehole hacker’s immature actions which ended up having an unbeknown positive side effect: they surgically removed my thumb from an unspeakable place. Ok, the (more) complete story goes like this: Hacker hacks the server my site is on and does such a number on the server that not only are all sites screwed with on the server but all online backups are wiped as well. Server manager has since migrated to a... Read More ››

A review of Sihanoukville (Cambodia)

Cambodia / Travel photography

Posted by Ben Heys on April 5, 2009 with 2 Comments

Well I’m going to fast forward in time from my last post and bypass some experiences best forgotten: Bangkok with it’s theft and expense, Siem Reap almost bedridden with sickness for a week, going to Phnom Phen only to find the government is filling in the lake, it’s already substantially smaller than it was the year before. But anyways, onward to good things: Sihanoukville I arrived Monday afternoon after only a few hrs in a relatively comfortable bus from Phnom Penh. I’d only been about 4 hrs including the rest & ‘get made to feel guilty by kids selling fruit’ stop of a half hr and I was feeling pretty good. A moto driver immediately came up to me offering his... Read More ››

On the road again

Malaysia / Travel photography

Posted by Ben Heys on February 20, 2009 with 3 Comments

Well I’m back over in Asia again for more touring around and exploration. Flew into KL, Malaysia Tuesday and immediately got out of the big (and dirty) smoke to head north to Penang. Not too much to report so far so I’ll just throw up a couple shots from sunset & early evening yesterday. Both are shot from the top of the Komtar shopping complex, which lies at the base of the Komtar tower. Read More ››

Lighting Tutorial – Fortune Teller shoot

Model photography / Tutorials

Posted by Ben Heys on September 6, 2008 with 4 Comments

This is the first in what will hopefully be a long series of tutorials I’ll be posting on how I’ve achieved the effects I have in some of my shoots. The subject for today is one of the more creative setups I’ve come up with. It’s the kind of setup that you run over in your mind and are never sure if it’ll work until you give it a go. First up here are a couple of the shots I took with the setup: Now there’s not as much photoshop done to these images as you might first think. Just some local contrast adjustment and colour tweaking, that’s it. The effect was achieved by the use of... Read More ››

Beck in the snow – 19th August 2008

Model photography / New Zealand / Nude

Posted by Ben Heys on August 22, 2008 with 4 Comments

When Beck contacted me a few weeks back to tell me she was going to be in NZ for a week and was keen to shoot I was dubious to say the least. Thing is I’ve had a couple bad experiences with Beck pulling out on shoots we had organised previously, however she seemed very sincere in her desire to shoot & it’s always good to give people 2nd chances when you can. Well she exceeded all expectations, it was a cold morning with temps hovering around -5 to -10c and I can hardly recall a single complaint out of her. The last shot of this set was just shot as a pisstake and I think it’s good for... Read More ››

Session at a kicker, Remarkables 7th August 2008

New Zealand / Travel photography

Posted by Ben Heys on August 17, 2008 with No Comments

Was a booootiful day for shooting this one, no lighting equipment used. Boarders – Mike & Eddy Camera – 5D Lens – Sigma 12-24 Location – The Remarkables, New Zealand Post was limited to some slight s-bend curves for added pop plus logo removal & noise reduction for stock. Trying to talk Mike into doing a back flip on this next session. Read More ››

Cardrona 18th July 2008

New Zealand / Travel photography

Posted by Ben Heys on August 1, 2008 with No Comments

Well it had only been 2 days since I’d hurt myself boarding at Coronet so when we went up to Cardrona I didn’t even take the board off the car. Just spent the day hiking around taking photos. I did manage to get a free day pass out of them by flashing a few shots though so that made it easier to get up to the kickers and rails to shoot the boys. There was also a big air comp on that day which I managed to get a few shot of some riders warming up on. Unfortunately I managed to loose my spare battery that day so by the time the actual competition started I’d run out of... Read More ››