Today we’d like to introduce you to Beau Cardwell.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Thank you for taking the time today to hear my story. My entire life has been surrounded by art. As a kid, I’d buy fantasy magazines and use them as reference to sketch and emulate pictures as closely as possible. In 2015, I began digital art and mentored with a good friend, Xia Taptara, who is a renowned concept artist in the video game industry. Through working, I began building a reference folder with thousands of portraits and it really began stirring this passion I didn’t know I had. Towards the end of 2020, I invested in some gear and began learning the ins and outs of photography. It’s kind of funny; I was a little too nervous to work with models at first, so I’d take pictures of coins, cards, cups…whatever I could find around the house. In retrospect, this was a really good move to teach me positioning, natural lighting, etc. I still look back on those images and smile.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The journey so far has been a smooth one, but the attitude is what paves your path. When I first started working with models, I’d monitor the weather, study locations all night, and make sure all conditions were perfect. While these things are a great practice, I learned early on that Murphy’s Law is always in effect. Your overcast day can turn into a thunderstorm, your location can be swarmed with the public, and people can cancel a shoot. I shifted my method to “I’m grabbing my camera and we are making it happen no matter the condition.”. During my first studio shoot, it unexpectedly rained so hard on the model I was working with. We didn’t have a blow dryer or towels, so I just said “Hey, let’s rock out the wet hair.” and it ended up being such a fantastic shoot. It’s all about perspective and adjusting your attitude to steamroll your obstacles.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
When Rita Hayworth was in front of a camera, they’d capture her work with Vaseline smeared on the lens. It lends to a dreamy effect that I’ve always been a fan of. We have it much easier now and there are filters we can mount directly to the lens to achieve similar effects. I’ve often heard of my work described as ethereal, and it’s something I’ve just ran with. I’m not much for speed lights, diffusers, or flash. I just let the light fall where it may and sometimes use a key light to even things out if needed. More often than not, I’ll give the model a loose idea of the look I’d like to get and see what they have in the wardrobe to run with. It creates a fun collaboration on both ends and they get to express themselves creatively. A goal early on was if someone can feel beautiful and fulfilled after a shoot, then I’ve done my job correctly.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Being respectful of one another. It starts in the inbox and doesn’t have an end. I’ll ask the approximate location someone is located in and do my best to arrange a shoot that doesn’t involve them driving long distances. On a set, I just like to have fun. I like to laugh, smile, bring plenty of caffeine, and show the “derp” face moments that we capture in between the beauty shots. It’s just silly fun and I think that is really vital. If you bring anxiety or a sour mood to a shoot, you’re going to let it dictate the rest of your day and probably have a difficult time getting any sort of positive results.
Pricing:
- $100/60 Minutes
- $120/90 Minutes
- $150/120 Minutes
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/beaucaptures
Image Credits
Kasci Toups
@bookish_pinay
@three_80
@morgan_gail_langham
