Take a look into the life of Sian Lewis, our Photo of the Month award winner in October. I had the privilege of chatting with Sian a little bit for her feature article. I think it’s one of the most rewarding parts of my job. Her story is just below. Thanks and congrats, Sian!
I’d love to say that I’m one of those people that was born with a camera in my hand. I’d even like to say that I knew that I wanted to be a photographer from the first time I heard the shutter click. Truth is, it never crossed my mind. I do have one funny childhood memory of going to a Hawking Centre at age 7, then shooting through an entire roll of film in 5 minutes–on one bird.
I took a photography class when I was in college. It was part of my major, so learning to shoot film was good practice. I think this really helped me out when I purchased my first DSLR. At first, I was a keen hobbyist, and enjoyed personal shooting for a number of years. I made the jump to being a full-time photographer when my TV production position ended. It was about 5 years ago.
Things have grown pretty fast, for me. I’ve opened my own studio, been published nationally and internationally, and I’ve won several awards with the Guild of Photographers. One of the most important things that I’ve done is develop my personal style. Now, I think I know what really fits me. Most of my work is in the studio, so that’s all I think about right now. Who knows what the future will bring.
The big game changers for me this year were buying Joel Grimes’ Creative Live course and discovering Alien Skin’s Exposure (Thank you, Sue Bryce!). I heard Sue talk about Alien Skin, but I assumed it was for creating flawless skin in photos. Then, I saw her demo how she uses it, so I gave it a whirl. I was instantly hooked.
Exposure gives me the tools to give depth and tone in images that I’d been hungry for, but could never quite achieve. Many of the presets work perfectly just how they are. I love being able to customise my own presets, too. It’s such a powerful piece of software. I tend to use presets that give a shot warm tones, such as Kodachrome ll muted, Technicolor Process 4 – Faded, and Wizard of Oz.
I still have a long way to go on my photographic journey. I’m excited to see where I can go with Alien Skin on my side. ;-)
hello,
why is it so complicated to find a contact email on your website? :-(
i have a question and spend 5 minutes searching for a way to contact you via email.
im not phoning you from europe… you know. :)
and all i find under CONTACT is snail mail and a phone number. is this 1985?
now my question, or say request.
we bought some alienskin products. but at work our PC´s are normaly not connected to the internet.
we managed the licensing but is there a way to check for UPDATES on your website?
how about a page that informs about the latest release updates?
so people who cant use the online updater can check if a new build was released.
thanks!
Hi Jens,
The site was designed to keep track of everyone that reaches out to us. It used to be different, but there were a lot of requests that fell through the cracks, so we’ve tightened up the site to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore. Sorry to hear it took a while for you to reach out. The support desk is the best place to contact us for technical questions.
We release information through the blog and our social media pages for major updates to our products. We do release minor updates from time to time, but they are usually in response to errors caused by software updates from other companies (Like the new OSX). If we come out with a point release that has new features or critical changes, we will mention it as frequently as possible in all of our media channels.
Hope this helps!
thansk for teh answer.
but i did not find a email..that´s why i had to post here.
facebook and co. are nice but most people look at the company webpage first i guess.. at least i do it.
look how google is doing it.. i think that´s not too much effort?
https://support.google.com/nikcollection/answer/4400822?hl=en&ref_topic=3001406
this blog sure needs more time to maintain then such a smple but informative site.
Thank you for the suggestion, Jens. We will bear it in mind!