Alice Greenfield: Discovering Your 'Thing' as a Photographer
In this uplifting episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast, host Angela Nicholson is joined by photographer and filmmaker Alice Greenfield to explore what it means to truly find your ‘thing’ in photography. Alice, co-founder of the production company Adrift Visuals and a Sony European Creator, shares the story of how she reshaped her career from high-profile studio shoots in London to creating evocative visual content in the great outdoors.
Listen to another episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast
Alice’s journey began with a film camera at age 16 and evolved through university studies in film and photography, hands-on experience as a runner and eventually a role as a self-shooting producer. After working with brands and magazines in the commercial world, she realised the creative life she truly wanted was outdoors — chasing golden hour, capturing water’s abstract beauty and working with brands that align with her love of nature.
Through honest reflection, Alice discusses how she struggled to define her photographic identity early on. Her portfolio was a patchwork of weddings, celebrity shoots and editorial work. It wasn’t until she stripped it all back and asked herself what she truly wanted to photograph that things fell into place. By focusing on travel, nature and storytelling, she developed a cohesive body of work — and the confidence that followed helped her attract the kind of clients she’d always dreamed of working with.
Listeners will take away practical insights on how to build a consistent visual style, the benefits of working with limited gear and why passion projects are essential to creative growth. Alice also shares thoughts on the balance between video and stills, her editing philosophy, and how Instagram became her modern-day gallery.
Whether you're at the start of your creative journey or navigating a career pivot, this episode will leave you feeling inspired, reassured and ready to explore your own ‘thing’ in photography.
Connect with Alice
Website
Adrift Visuals
Instagram
LinkedIn
Sony
This podcast is supported by Sony, maker of class-leading camera equipment and cutting-edge technologies – like the Global Shutter in the Alpha 9 III which won the SheClicks 2024 Award for Innovation.
Episode Transcript
Alice Greenfield
And I remember not knowing who I was a photographer, and not being like 'I do outdoor content'. I'm a travel photographer. I love working with brands that want to get people out in nature. I didn't know that five years ago, so I used to do weddings. I used to work at Hello magazine and did beauty and celebrity content, and I had this portfolio, which, it was a good portfolio, but I didn't show it to anyone because it was a jigsaw puzzle. There was so much going on, and it wasn't until I stripped everything back, and I was like, What do you want to be? And I was like, I was like, I don't want to be of that type of I want to be outdoors, so I'm going to take my camera there, and I'm going to take pictures outdoors, and that's going to be my portfolio.
Angela Nicholson
Welcome to the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. I'm Angela Nicholson, and I'm the founder of SheClicks, which is a community for female photographers. In these podcasts, I talk with women in the photographic industry to hear about their experiences, what drives them and how they got to where they are now, this episode is with Alice Greenfield, an award winning video producer, editor and photographer with a background in cinematography and a passion for storytelling. Alice has worked with brands worldwide, crafting engaging short form content. In 2020 she and her partner launched Adrift Visuals, and two years later, she became an official creator for Sony. Hi, Alice, thank you so much for joining me today on the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast.
Alice Greenfield
Thanks for having me. Angela, yeah, it's great to be here.
Angela Nicholson
Thank you. Can we start by hearing how you first got into photography and video creation?
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, so I had potentially a quite natural progression into it, and one of the online presences that actually had very traditional education in photography and film ever since I was younger, having my dad that worked in marketing around and having lots of computers and cameras in the in the family home, I was just drawn to photography, and I guess technology in general, they bought me a camera when I was 16. So my love affair kind of goes right back. And my local college, where I went to school at the time, did a photography a level, and I took that and at the time, that was completely well, the college was brilliant, but they didn't have digital cameras. It's all on film, and it was all dark room, kind of, you know, back to basics, kind of processing. And, yeah, my first kind of love affair started by being in that dark room and kind of realising the chemical process of, you know, I've gone out with this really heavy metal 35 mil analogue camera, and it's come back with the moments, and it's, you know, coming to life in a dish of water in front of me. And I think the magic of photography was the first that was the first moment where I was like, this is quite cool. And because of that, I actually went on to Leeds University, and I studied film and photography at the time, and not sure they still do it. They had a joint honours and so this is back in like 2015 and it was the first ever joint honours course they did. They had a photography course and a filming course separate. But this was like a joint one, and that's where I realised that potentially, photography could be my like passion, and maybe going down the video route could be more of a better career choice. So I studied for four years in Leeds. I worked as a runner on all sorts of film productions, getting as much kind of work experience as possible, a few credits on short films, a credit on a feature film as well, but I was literally just the runner, but it was just a way to get my foot in the industry and meet people, meet anyone that was kind of holding a camera or in the camera departments. And after university, I then decided, What shall I do? Shall I become a freelancer? Straight away? There are lots of moments of decision making that had to happen. And as a sort of 20 year old coming out uni like it was too much pressure at that exact time, as you can imagine, but I decided that I wanted to work on a YouTube channel. So YouTube was really big. It was very different to the way it is now. I knew that I wanted to work out what my journey in short form content could look like because I had studied at university for like, short films and feature like becoming a cinematographer and working your way up in the industry as as the slowest ladder possible. But online content was blooming, video content, short form content was was the in thing. And I was like, No, I can still make films and I don't have to wait for years for my progression to slowly make way up into the camera department. So I went straight, and luckily, got a job in a media production company that pretty much did a cookery videos, parenting videos. I worked with big brands, but I became a self shooting producer. So I went sort of, I was. A an operator, and learning to be a cinematographer in Leeds. And I went into a job where I was doing the pre production and the camera work, and then I learned how to be an editor with that job. So moved to the big city, moved to London, and that's where, yeah, I got a really good, like, kind of step into all those areas, which has made me the kind of all rounder I am today, I guess because I am a photographer and a cinematographer. I edit my own stuff, and I have a love for it. So I was in London for like, four years, and I was all that. That's a lot. That's like a long period of time, from 16 to I left London when I was 25 so that was me just very much immersing myself in the industry, and I was a sponge. I just tried to learn everything. I really was interested in the marketing side of the company I was working in, not just how to point to camera and film it, but also how we connect people online to products or to stories or, you know, I was in meetings that a video operator wouldn't usually get to go in, because I was a self shooting producer, so the creative side of things really interests me. And yeah, I was young, I was keen. I was interested in all of it, and and that's kind of my roots, but very much having a film camera back when I was 16, that's the memory that always, I always keep close to me, if that makes sense?
Angela Nicholson
What did the 16 year old you like to photograph?
Alice Greenfield
At the time, I loved photographing like textures and abstract forms, whether or not that was led by our photography tutor at the time, because we I was studying it, we got given sets kind of homework to do a roll of 35 nil film would come home with us the weekend, and we'd have to shoot that whole role at the weekend. Sounds like a dream. Actually, we didn't pay for it either, yeah. But at the time, I had a really, real big interest in reflections, water and distortions, and that was actually a set topic for our homework. But now looking back, water is a huge focus in my work. So I know that the refraction of the body and the abstract forms you can create through, you know, the sun hitting moving waves at sunset has just always been, yeah, that's where photography and art clashes with the abstract side of thing, not clashes merges, I guess. But yeah, sixteen year old me, but I'll just taking pictures of everything, though, everything. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Angela Nicholson
It's interesting, you say, you know, you had a roll of 36 exposures that you had to shoot in a weekend. I mean, now with the digital camera, you do that in a flash, even if, even if you weren't photographing the same thing, you know, on continuous burst or something like that. If you were just out with your camera for a couple of hours, you could, you'd easily exceed that. But it just shows the way we used to think about film, is that, I guess we still do. Some people still shoot film. It's a different, different thought process, I think.
Alice Greenfield
And I actually didn't get to see half of those of those pictures, because I was still learning the very basic rules of exposure, and if you didn't get it right, you weren't going to see those pictures. So you get the dark room on a Tuesday when I had my two hour dark room tutorials, and then you would look down and just realise that there's four pictures the whole weekend is gone because none of them worked.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah.
Alice Greenfield
but that's how I learned.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah.
Angela Nicholson
And the great thing about being in college and having access to a dark room, though, is you've got that access. You can just go in anytime and start doing stuff. So when you try to do it at home, and, you know, trying to black out the bathroom and make sure nobody's going to come in and all of this sort of stuff, and then you just got through the test strips, oh, right, I need some more paper, or, you know, somebody's hammering on the door. It's a very different experience for most people.
Alice Greenfield
I think we cost that college a lot of money, but because the paper was the most expensive part, yeah, and I guess the chemicals. But my photography teacher, her name was Sally. Actually, I always talk. I always mention her to a lot of if people ask the story, because she really inspired me. She wasn't a photographer herself, but she taught photography, so that was interesting, but she had a real passion for sharing other people's work. And in that a level period, we would study photographers from the 1960s that shot black and whites, and really go into depth. And like, I think I wrote a whole essay all about Ansel Adams and, you know, the godfathers of the industry, that kind of thing. And she just, I mean, I had a really good education, like a lot of people is hitting this, especially in the UK, you can get really good teachers that are inspiring, and then others fall shorts. But Sally, I always say, like, she's the reason why I'm still doing photography. She was brilliant.
Angela Nicholson
Amazing. Yeah, are you still in touch with her?
Alice Greenfield
No, I, I'm not. I don't have her email. But at that time, this is 2010 like, I didn't, my phone didn't have email on it, or we had, I guess, you know, just it wasn't, I mean, I would love her. Instagram. She had it, but it just wasn't like that. Yeah, she was great, though, yeah,
Angela Nicholson
Oh, great. Sounds really good. It sounds like a really good course too, that you did at university.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah. So Leeds uni. It was joint honours. It was quite it was 50:50, practical and theoretical. We started by diving deep into the history of filmmaking and photography. And then, unlike what my friends are doing, they were writing 15,000 word dissertations. I made a short film and had to write maybe like 3000 words about it. Everyone in the course came together in different to fill, to fulfil, like different production roles, as cinematographer, but we'd have like a screenwriter, a producer. You know, all the roles were filled. And so it wasn't just making a short film, it was the crew, people skills and working on a set that we had to, yeah, go on the journey with and then write about. So I don't share that short film ever, because it's a student film, but I definitely learned a lot, and that's definitely where cinematography came through. And because I was a photographer, I think looking back at that work, the rules of photography compositions definitely were coming through in the early stages into my cinematography. I always try when I'm composing my videos, to think about the rules of photography. And so from an early age, I think that was coming together, because you get a lot of cinematographers that don't touch camera cameras for photography, and then the other way around. But I'm a bit of both. I guess I'm a hybrid person, so it's nice to see that even though that first shot film in Leeds uni was pretty shocking, it's it's still like, you can see where it's progressed, if that makes sense.
Angela Nicholson
Well, that's good.
Alice Greenfield
It's not online, so.
Angela Nicholson
It will never be online. What do you call yourself? Do you call yourself a filmmaker, photographer, content creator, or does it depend who you're talking to?
Alice Greenfield
It depends who I'm talking to. For sure, I like to say I am a sort of trained cinematographer, but a storyteller. Like I rarely, you know, put it in a box, I guess. But yeah, I might make a living through photography and cinematography, and then obviously, I run my own production company, and we offer both. I don't love content creator. I don't love it because I'm not from the Instagram, yeah, like, I didn't start on Instagram. I my i always thought my pictures that I was taking at college and uni were like that. They are destined to be in a gallery and in a photo book, not on a tiny screen. So I'm still in that realm like my pictures. I want to be evergreen and not just scrolled past. So content creators itchy, but I'll take it.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, okay, okay. So what does your ideal day look like these days? You know, you wake up in the morning, you look at your calendar. I'm doing this today. What? What really sets your light makes you want to get out and do it?
Alice Greenfield
Well, I'm very lucky to work for myself, so I can be very flexible in my time. I live near the ocean on the Isle of Wight, and it's very important for me, a good day is usually spent more time outside than inside. A Good Day would definitely involve taking pictures. I don't take pictures just when I'm being paid. It's like an extension to my hand. There's so many things to photograph here on the Isle of Wight, and I'm always interested in making my own content and just practising my skills. So definitely a good breakfast, moving my body, maybe at the gym or outside, being maybe on the beach, a beach bonfire in the evening with a nice, warm drink. I love closing my day like that, but yeah, definitely spending time outdoors. And I'm I don't know if you've ever been to the Isle of Wight, but it's very green here, and a lot of the community of a very, you know, like ocean centric. So, yeah, good coffee, good, you know, good proper pause.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah. And what about work? You know, what's, what's your ideal booking?
Alice Greenfield
Ideal booking? Well, I, I'm very diverse in what I offer my to my clients, and I love like working in the travel industry. So with Adrift Visuals which, which is my production company, we make content for outdoor brands. So the brands that we work with, if it's taking me outside, those the kind of people that we want to work with, if that makes sense. But in general, because we work with outdoor brands for like hiking gear or hotel chains around the world, we also do automotive stuff, and a lot of the time we actually do beverages and alcoholic brands, if there's a way that the marketing is kind of about being outdoors. But in general, I just love working with really interesting crews and really interesting creative treatments, usually with brands that are flexible and really open minded. And I love working with big crews. I mean, when I say big, I'm in the kind of mid range, like I don't work with crews maybe more than 20 people, but it can I. Skate all the way down to just me and my partner, Sam, creating short films for our clients as well. I love working just with, like, creative people that just understand and love to be outdoors just like me. Yeah, yeah. Never been asked that question before in a weird way.
Angela Nicholson
Okay, yeah. So if someone came to you, would you prefer them to be saying, right? We want this big thing. We want to have like 20 plus people working on it, or it's just you and Sam?
Alice Greenfield
I think the run and gun world has seen my best work, when you have lots of people and lots of hands on set, I do sometimes feel like that can be, can contrive the creative direction, like when it's just me and Sam, or maybe a couple of extra people, and we've got the brief that we need to climb a mountain at sunrise with the product in our backpacks, and then create a series of photographs. We're going to get that done if we know that we've got a week to do it, and we're going to select the best weather. We're going to choose the morning that the sunrise is going to look good. But if you've got 20 people to organise to get them up at the top of the mountain at sunrise, you're just gonna, it's hard to explain, but, yeah, run a gun. I always feel like we're gonna get more done and then, but there's usually better budget better, like, kind of creative freedom with the treatments, if there's more people involved as well. So yeah, it really depends. Yeah,
Angela Nicholson
Okay, yeah, I can, I mean, there's more logistics, like you say, isn't there getting 20 people up a mountain compared to just you and Sam.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah. We, yeah. We, for instance, um, we've done maybe three months of pre production on a campaign for an automotive brand for a car, and in that pre production, we've created beautiful images and storyboards and decks to show what the movement of the camera is going to look like, or the lights and the actors, or whatever it is, and then the day that is set. So three weeks before we all come to inclusion, that's going to be a Tuesday in March, everyone's ready. Everyone's paid for the locations, paid for the talent, catering, and then that day it's pouring down with rain, and the vision is all about the lights, and you can't fulfil that to the client. And that's it's stressful for me, because working with lights is one of my most like, I think the most important thing. I always say conditions over subject. So if the subject's beautiful, doesn't matter if it's raining, I'd rather have good conditions than a good subject, that kind of thing. So yeah, it can be really frustrating. Whereas, if it just me and Sam and we got given a car, we could for three months. We could have made so much like beautiful content, because we could have just selected the right day. But that's not how the industry works, I guess. So, yeah.
Angela Nicholson
No. Yeah, it'd be nice if someone say, Oh yeah, just take the car for three months. That's fine.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, the marketing would be easier. But yeah, it depends.
Angela Nicholson
I love the warm, retro look of your Instagram feed. Did it take you a long time to develop that?
Alice Greenfield
The, so I think with the colour palette of my Shot by Alice Instagram, I don't try and I don't alter my images massively, so I've always tried to remember what the colours felt like on the day that I was shooting them, and then try and recreate that in post production, but it took a while. I have a particular blue of the ocean that I really like to use, and so learning how to edit for all sorts of conditions to get that blue the way I like it, and all the colour of the sand. Yeah, it took a lot of trial and error, a really fun period. And even now, I'm always experimenting. I don't have presets. I don't use presets. I don't really believe in purchasing presets. All my followers are always asking if I'm ever going to sell my own. But I find it hard with photography presets, because I'm always shooting in such interesting weather conditions with different lights, and it's so down to the like, to your own taste as well. But I the Instagram is definitely very curated. I try and put images next to each other that work, depending on the colour palette and whatever the cover the photo is. I used to be a lot more overwhelmed with that. Now, I kind of try and post whatever. But yeah, I love, I tried to create pictures that I love to look at myself. So yeah, the retro vibe probably comes back from the days where I shot a lot more film photography. I still shoot film the whole time. And obviously, why wouldn't I, after learning how to do it back in back in a level. So I'm always trying to recreate that kind of texture that Kodak, a roll of Kodak, might be able to do.
Angela Nicholson
So do you still have a dark room?
Alice Greenfield
No. Yeah, well, when I was at A level, I only ever learned how to process in black and white, and I know when you obviously step up to colour, it's a lot more equipment and lot more bigger skill sets. But I've had, I now have a new office space, and I am very interested. And relearning the black and white side of things and having my own lab, because it's it's quite expensive to send it off. I actually still send my rolls of films to Leeds, where I where I studied as well, which is great, but yeah, one day, yeah, I would love to do that.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah. Do you always use that aesthetic with your clients, or try and pitch that to them, or do you? Are you led by what they ask for?
Alice Greenfield
Um, it depends. So I, I would say about 60% of the brands and clients that come to me and request photography have already seen my Instagram, and they love the look of it. I get brands saying, We want your portfolio, but in there is a bottle of gin, like it's our gin, you know, it's our product. So a lot of the time I've, you know, Instagram for me, is like an online portfolio. I'm only sharing the best work and I'm sharing the work that I want to create. So I'm really lucky that clients come to me and they say, We want this look and feel. We want the freeing feeling of the running on the beach that you can create, or whatever. But then we also get a lot of clients that obviously already have a body of marketing materials, that have their own colour palettes, and they say, actually, can you just edit small similar to to what we've already got? And yeah, we're flexible to do that, but I do love it when the clients have already come in and said that your vision is ours, and we want to, we want to kind of replicate it. So that's kind of really easy.
Angela Nicholson
And I guess, I mean, that's part of the reason why you put your work out as you do, because if you have a complete random mix of things, they might pick anything, and it might not be your, it might be your least favourite thing to do.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, definitely. That was that's actually an interesting thing to talk about, because back when I first had a portfolio and I started to use it Instagram, I didn't know who I was as a photographer. Didn't I didn't ever, obviously, you talk a lot about confidence across the podcast and and I remember not knowing who I was a photographer and not being like I do outdoor content. I'm a travel photographer. I love working with brands that want to get people out in nature. I didn't know that five years ago, so I used to do weddings. I used to work at Hello magazine and did beauty and celebrity content, and I had this portfolio, which it was a good portfolio, but I didn't show it to anyone because it was a jigsaw puzzle. There was so much going on, and it wasn't until I stripped everything back, and I was like, What do you want to be? And I was like, I don't want to be of that type of I want to be outdoors. So I'm going to take my camera there and I'm going to take pictures outdoors, and that's going to be my portfolio. So it took a long time to figure that out, but once, I just started sharing my underwater housing whilst at the beach, or when I went travelling with my family, I take lifestyle pictures. Or we, I once we had a paddle board for years, and we would take so many pictures of the paddle board, and then an actual paddle board company came in, and they said that they wanted to pay us to do it. So stuff like that, you attract. You attract. Like you attract what you want. But, yeah, like, I there's definitely, like, I didn't know who I was as a photographer until, until, and Instagram really helped with that, because you can, you're so in control of what you can post on Instagram, and it is a shop window, and if someone's there, they can instantly see what you're about. So it's a nice way to feel like, collected, if that make sense?
Angela Nicholson
I think it is a really hard thing for people, though, to find their thing in photography. And in fact, there's an issue of amateur photographer coming out, which I collaborated with, six SheClickers who have found their thing in photography, talking about how they found it. Because it's really hard sometimes to work out, what is the thing that really makes you happy with a camera? How do you want to spend your time with the camera rather than going I mean, so rather than going I mean, maybe some people will always love going out and photographing everything that they see and this, that and the other. But how did you discover what your thing was in photography? I mean, were you always outside and that was just a natural progression?
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, I think when I was in London and I worked for these different production companies, and particularly beauty brands and magazines, I realised, you know, in London, you don't ever see the sunset. You can't even the sun rise, because you're surrounded by a concrete jungle. And I would be sat in my desk in my office, and this the golden light would come through the window, and then it would create, you know, a lovely shadow. And I remember sitting there looking at being like, I wish I was outside right now taking pictures of that, and I couldn't, because I was working nine to five for someone else. I was making someone else money. So along a lot that time, I realised that I didn't really actually want to be in London, so I'd spend all my money that I was earning during the week by escaping in nature outdoors at the weekends, whether that was getting just getting the train out to a local park or coming back to the Isle of wights, which is where my family are. And it got to the point where I felt way more relaxed and mindful when I was out of London. And I always. Find myself that I can breathe when I'm holding a camera, and I feel more in control of like my day being in nature, as we all know, comes the mind, body and soul. Took me ages to I mean, I was in London, and, you know, you have a job, you have a rent to pay, you have, you know, it's all wound up. I felt very trapped, and I basically left my job on a win, on the risk that if I could get out of London and then restart my portfolio, I'd be happier. So when I, when I left London, I had, like I said, I had this portfolio of Beauty, Celebrity and fashion content, but all I wanted to do was like brands that create surfboards or jewellery that you can wear underwater or hiking gear. And I started taking pictures of like pretend shoots on the beach just to create a portfolio. Like, for instance, with this paddle board company, we had an old paddle board, and we would just take loads of pictures of this paddle board, pretending that we're getting paid. And so when I left London, I actually went travelling for five months, because I was like, I want to be a travel like, I want to take pictures of travel content, but I don't travel. So I took the risk, and I quit my job, and I left within two months, and it was the biggest risk of my life and the scariest thing I ever done. And I lost friends because of that. I was in a bad place. I was a bad human but I'm so glad I did that, because I reset my vision for my life and my passion and and now I do get to, you know, take pictures of paddle boards on the beach, I guess, yeah, I've just, I always feel really lucky that I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I was 16 with with the film photography and then my general journey to this point. But a lot of photographers don't, don't get that like, like, I've worked, and I know friends that only picked up a camera in the last five years, and then they realised that that's like, their whole life was destined to that moment. But it's been a long journey for me and that I've loved every minute of it, but there's been sacrifices. But I always feel like you have to like, understand what you don't like, to then know what you do like. That makes sense. But, yeah, I feel mindful holding my camera. I feel better in nature. I need to do that. I need to stay in nature, basically be outdoors.
Angela Nicholson
I think you're right. It is important to identify the things that you don't like, but also you need to then try and move them out of your life, and so you can concentrate on the things that you really do like. And that is a scary thing. You know, if you're making a big change like you did, that is a scary thing, but it also brings that freedom and that kind of sense of release. And I think a lot of people, there are people who will be jealous of the fact that you've done that, and there'll be people who will really admire it and tell you so, and that can bouy you up through that.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, scary bit, I think, with our with this creative world, not just photography and filmmaking, but because technology is so wrapped up in this as well. A lot the time when I was in London and wanting to leave to kick start this new portfolio and start working as a freelancer. I also didn't think I could do it because I didn't have the right equipment, and that was a huge, massive ball of stress, like I didn't know if I had the creative skill, but I also didn't think I had the right cameras, and I definitely didn't. I didn't have really any camera. When I went travelling, I had second hand cameras, and I had, I did buy a drone, actually, and that was a huge investment, because I was terrified I just crash it, and I did hash it a few times. But the the equipment side of thing, I really got wound up. And because we do believe, now a lot of young photographers and filmmakers do believe they need to have the right equipment, but now I don't. I don't think that should be the case. Or, you know, I use really old cameras now to create a particular look, and you don't need the flashes most expensive, you know, camera. You just kind of need, you know, few cameras that you love to work with. I still own the first camera I ever used for my first ever commercial job, because I'm a cancer, by the way, so I'm, like, very sentimental human, I think so, but I still have a real deep connection to the process and that technology. I love technology and overcoming the skill set and like learning and then slowly buying more equipment was a fun process, but looking back, I didn't, didn't need all that equipment really, like, I think a lot of people worry about that. I'm sure that's a theme,
Angela Nicholson
yeah,
Alice Greenfield
yeah. A big theme is, yeah.
Angela Nicholson
And I think it's often used as an excuse I can't do that because I don't have that lens, or I don't have this camera as it will just do it anyway. You'll find a way of doing it, and you might produce something that is different from anything else everybody else is doing that really grabs attention.
Alice Greenfield
Well, I know everyone says this quote, but like, the best camera you have is the one you have with you, but I actually have always believed that lack of equipment is going to make you a better photographer, because there's less choices. So a lot of the time, one of my first ever projects I did with Sony after I became their ambassador. Together was that they gave me one camera body and one lens, and I had to make a short film just with those two bits of equipment. And as a filmmaker and as a photographer, we always think that we need lots of extra lenses, different focal lengths, different apertures, different zooms to kind of create the best story around a moment, but I was just given this one lens, and I had to make this short film, and it was the most I felt so relieved. It was lovely. Like having less equipment is the key. And obviously I just had my iPhone for the rest of my life. In a way, it's so light. Yeah, you're gonna want it with you anyway, because you want to use it for your for your life. So in a way like you can really focus on one or two bits of equipment, your creative abilities will just start flowing way more. I, and I'm me saying that I run a production company, and we own lots of equipment, and I usually go out and shoot with my Sony A seven mark four and a 24 to 70 with an ND filter on it, and that's probably 80% of the time. And I have so much equipment in that room that, yeah, it's not needed. So, yeah.
Angela Nicholson
So you're an official Sony creator. What does that role actually involve?
Alice Greenfield
Yeah. So I became a official Sony European creator back in like 2021 and throughout the last couple years, I've just had the opportunity to work with the team. Have access to review a lot of Sony equipment, and being basically invited to speak on behalf of Sony at different national and international events, I get to, sometimes have first hand on new equipment, and then, through my contract, I have the opportunity to create more cinematic films about what it is to be a photographer or my different travels Which might work kind of which might also involve reviewing maybe a lens or a different part of their ecosystem. So I'm one of the team. We do lots of team building exercises, lots of meetings, and yeah, it's, it's super fun. It's actually the biggest privilege of my career to be part of that. For sure, it's been able to, it's definitely changed my dialogue for me over the last couple of years, by being able to say that I'm part of the team and I'm almost like, yeah, credited and trusted by Sony as a photographer, being able to work with the camera brand that you've always used since the start is, yeah, massive privilege. So yeah, happy pinch me kind of thing, yeah.
Angela Nicholson
So you said you use the 24-70 a lot, but what, what is the favourite lens that you've been handed recently to use to, you know, to try, to review?
Alice Greenfield
Well, I'm about, I'm about to get their new 28-70 f2 but, so that could be it, but I don't know yet, because sounds beautiful, but yeah, the 24 to 70 again, the F 2.8 the G Master mark two. And I've had both the mark one and mark two, but the mark two, that's with the 70 to 200 G Master two, that in my camera bag I'd be very happy to travel with anywhere in the world for the rest of my life, for sure. But as a cinematographer, I love prime lenses as well. So when I'm not travelling, I want to have my whole box of all my lenses. If there's a UK shoe, I'm bringing that with me. But if I'm travelling, I try and obviously, um, keep it stripped down and having two zooms and going from 24 all the way to 200 mil, that kind of Breath of the focal length is just essential for my travel work. But you can't ask me that question, because it's, I love technology so much.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, so yeah. Well, you might have to make space for that 28-70 f2 because I've used it, I have to say, and it's, it's beautiful. The difference between 2.8 and f2 is quite incredible, really. And I could see it fitting very nicely into the sort of work you produce.
Alice Greenfield
It's quite small as well, isn't it?
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, yeah, for that, for that aperture, it is.
I'm going out to Bhutan, which is a work project for a 10 day shoot on a hiking us on the grand baton trail, and I'm out there capturing about 10 women going on this amazing hiking trail, and I'm that dedicated photographer, and I I'm going to be borrowing that lens from Sony to take with me, and when I go out to Bhutan, I'm only allowed about 15 kg for my day bag, and we will have kind of like a Sherpa situation for the rest of our stuff. But I've kind of wanted that lens because it's going to be lightweight, but also, like, you know, offer quite, you know, it's going to be a beautiful night sky. I might even be able to do some low lit stuff, because it's too late at f2 so as a TR, as someone who is travelling a lot, I'm always thinking like, what is the best lens I could have? That's the lightest lens and stuff. So. That's why I'm really interested in that particular setup.
Yeah, that sounds like a really interesting project as well.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, I'm physically training myself for it, because we're going to be at altitudes of over like 3000 metres for the all the all the hiking,
Angela Nicholson
Yeah.
Alice Greenfield
and so really excited. I don't know if you know anything about baton, but it's, it's quite untouched, and you it's going to be unique for the photography aspect of it and and it's all women as well. And I've done group trips, just when women come together, and especially when they're doing something creative, or, like active, you just like, I know I'm going to come out with, like, best friends from, yeah, from the trip, and such a great energy. So yeah.
Angela Nicholson
That just sound fabulous. Okay, well, I think it's a really good time to go to Six from SheClicks. I've got 10 questions from SheClickers, and I would like you to answer six of them please by picking numbers from one to 10. So if you could give me your first number, please?
Alice Greenfield
Okay, my lucky number is number nine. So we'll start with that.
Angela Nicholson
What is the most surprising thing in your kit bag? That's from Liz?
Alice Greenfield
Ooh. Okay, yeah. So I'd say I journal every day, and I have a mini journal that comes with me and my camera bag with a pen. It's actually a Sony pen at the moment, very little brand, but it's just a little notebook. I think on the front of it, it says, Never stop exploring, just a little notebook. And in there I write about my day, and sometimes I will write down camera settings or a little equipment list, or scribble down a little picture of where I am, and then I decant that information into my larger journal when I'm back from my travels. I love having in such a digital bag. I love having a little bit of paper and a pen, and you never know. You never know when you need a piece of and a pen. You literally don't. So I've gotten, when I was in Greenland on this exposition, I got every person on the boat that I was sailing in to draw me a picture into that little journal. And I and I still have those little moments, and it's a memory, and it makes a commercial shoot project way more human. And I always try and get everyone to write in my little journal. So, yeah, you got to be a people person if you're a photographer as Yeah, we know. So it's my little Yeah, weird extra. But yeah,
Angela Nicholson
I like that, there's something... It's nicer than taking a photo of somebody and then just tapping some notes into your into your phone. I like the idea of actually writing something and maybe getting them to write or draw as well.
Alice Greenfield
When you're travelling go to so many I love taking the picture. Like in Greenland, I was visiting these like, mountain scapes, and, you know, the skipper of the ship would tell me the name of the mountain I just photographed. And I'm like, You need to write this down, because I'll forget and I don't know, like, so it's like a geo tag thing. But when you're in a pace of no signal, and you're in the middle of nowhere, like, yeah, pen and paper, you can't just Google Maps it. So, yeah, yes,
Yeah.
Angela Nicholson
Okay. Can I have your second number please?
Alice Greenfield
Let's go to number two.
Angela Nicholson
Is there any style, genre or subject that you are more comfortable with. And several people ask that.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, so since since lockdown, every year, I have tried to create a passion film that focuses on a female lead doing something extraordinary. And I try and make a short film that's not attached to a client and it's not forced, and there's no deadline, and there's no massive constraints, and I make a portrait of that person. It's a way for me, each year to, you know, express my creative abilities and have something to look forward to. And then it's not money orientated, if that makes sense. So that genre that I guess, it doesn't necessarily have to be a short film about a woman leader. It could be anything. But I always try and do a passion project every year. That's definitely what keeps me ticking. And a lot of the time when I'm travelling, you may see from my Instagram that I'm all over the globe, but and it is to do work a lot of the time, but there's a lot of times where I will fly to a particular location because I want to capture that beach or that island or that moment, and that's, um, yeah, passion led projects. Definitely. That's my favourite. That was your question, right? Favourite? Yeah, yeah, okay.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, that's, that's great, perfect. Could I have your third number please?
Alice Greenfield
Let's do 10.
Angela Nicholson
Number 10, well, actually, you've already answered this, because it's, do you pick up your camera outside of work? And it sounds like very much, yes.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, every day, picking up my camera as, like, taking a supplement, like, I mean, or whatever anyone needs each day to get by, I don't know, but I am constantly practising. It doesn't have to be my Sony camera, like I have a few smaller bodies and definitely my film cameras that I always take with me. Tomorrow, I'm I'm going to a place called the Donkey Sanctuary with my little nephew, and I'm taking my camera because it's capturing moments and memories. It's not there, doesn't for me, it's I'm so sentimental, and I just love working out what. Going on in my world, through through the camera and through the lens. So it's, it's about documenting. It's not about work or, yeah, I just love it. Yeah.
Angela Nicholson
If push came to shove, would you go for photographs or video if you could only shoot one from now on?
Alice Greenfield
Photography, because it's, I do believe it's such a challenge to capture one single moment, one single story in a photograph. And I really like that challenge video. There's fussiness around it, it's opinions, but good photograph will always be a good story, or a good story will always make a good photograph. And I love that I look at pictures way more than I look at videos, I guess. So. Yeah, photography, there's so much feeling behind it, and it's where I started, I guess. So, yeah.
Angela Nicholson
Can I have your fourth number please?
Alice Greenfield
Number one, I guess.
Angela Nicholson
Number one. Okay. Oh, this is from Rebecca. She says, I love the consistency of your style and the way you put together sets. I think she's talking about your Instagram account. Do you have some tips for doing this so they don't end up looking like a random bunch of photos?
Alice Greenfield
Oh, yeah, so I'm guessing she's referring to the carousels that I post on Instagram. So I love doing this a lot the time. I think you can do I think now you can do 20 images, but before it was 10, and I didn't think I ever bother with 20 anyway, but I love creating a story from my travels using those 10 empty, blank, white boxes. So I create them in Photoshop. I usually come back from a trip abroad or a shoot, and in Lightroom, I will edit, like, maybe 30 or 40 best moments from that shoot or that trip to Morocco or wherever I was, and then I would find 10 that basically had, like, a little shared, a bit of the essence of that country or that place. So I always try, and I use these black borders, because I'm always, again, trying to make my images look like they're shot on 35 mil, when you would before, like, actually cut around. But yeah, so I use these back borders because I just think it adds a bit of character. But yeah, I always try and do, as a filmmaker would do, is, is share almost like a sequence of photographs. So I'd have a wide shot of the place, I'd have a close up, a detail shots and mid shots. So in those carousels, if you go through I am painting the story of that place a bit like I would if I was creating a video about it, I guess. But I love making my favourite types of sets. I do is when the colours are really in sync. So sure everyone or anyone that follows me, knows that I pretty much exclusively shoot at Golden Hour, whether that's dawn or dusk, or sunrise or sunset, and so when you know that you're shooting with the golden hue, your editing style is going to evolve around that. So my editing, I always try and explain this to people that ask. But editing does not start in the computer. Editing, for me, starts before you've even taken a picture. Editing is like deciding that you're photographing a hotel room and you're going to take out something like you're going to take out a pillow because it's red, but the rest of the room is beige. So editing is like being very particular with the set design, and so I don't want colours in that image that I've just taken to interfere with the final edit. So if there's like a bright fluorescent sort of I don't know something in the frame, if I have the ability to do that when I'm walking around, I will go and move it or move myself away from it. So the blues and the colours and the natural tones that you find in my pictures that is very thought about, like it is a process that starts, like, from the time of the day that I'm going out to where I position myself, if it's backlit, if I want more shadow, and then, yeah, you would see me walking around, moving things in my pictures, colour is everything. Like, I don't love green massively. I struggle editing green. It's definitely one of them. But yeah, having that consistency is just being selective of when you want to shoot, because we can't see colour about the sun. So yeah, that makes sense, but yeah.
Angela Nicholson
Good tips. Good tips. Thank you. All right. So your penultimate number, please?
Alice Greenfield
What have we got left shall we do five?
Angela Nicholson
Number five. So what is next for you? Do you have any exciting projects, personal commercial coming up in the near future? That's from Marie-Ange.
Alice Greenfield
My next biggest trip is going to be this trip to Bhutan that I mentioned before, and that's 10 days. And then afterwards, I'm actually travelling around India in the northern parts of the Himalayas for another 10 days, and that is a mixture of commercial and passion projects. And so up into that point, I I travel for a living, right? So I spent more time on an aircraft last year than I think I did, like not on an aircraft. So this year I matched. Be this is probably a whole never podcast. But in terms of my mental head space, I'm actually not travelling as much in the next couple of months before this trip, because I'll be be doing a huge amount of internal flying when I'm in Bhutan, in India. So that's I'm mentally preparing myself for this long period of time I'm also gonna be away, like from Sam and my family as well in these like, kind of colder months, I'm just spending more time with the Isle of wights. But in terms of that, my production company, address visuals is always taking over, so we're constantly working with retainer brands and some Isle of Wight brands, and then sort of clients that we work with throughout the years. My sort of calendar is busy, but my biggest trip is this patern one? I'm so excited, and I need to be physically and mentally, like on the ball with it.
Angela Nicholson
On it.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah.
Alice Greenfield
Really excited.
Angela Nicholson
Ah, amazing, yeah. So can I have your last number, please?
Number eight, please.
What are your top tips for starting with video? And that's, that's another question from Rebecca.
Alice Greenfield
So if you don't understand that photography and video are the same thing and they're not apart, that will be my first tip. I think a lot of people alienate video and get overwhelmed by it, but I genuinely believe they are almost the same thing, and you're just taking more frames of one moment than you would in photography, 24 frames per that second, and if you can realise that you don't need to be a different type of photographer. I'm basing this off people who have photographers moving into video, because that's a theme. If you already know who you are as a photographer and already have these this understanding of lights and composition, that's so gonna help you with your cinematography, with your videography. You open look at my pitch, and they almost look like a still from, you know, a video. So don't get too overwhelmed, even if you don't have the right equipment. Still pursue it, even I use an old like Daddy cam, like a handy cam that is from 2006 and it's been some of my like, favourite videos, and it costs, like, 100 pounds, and it's really just something you could throw in your bag and and get on with it. But it doesn't have to be the fanciest bit of equipment I would choose one camera and one lens, and don't bother with anything else until you've mastered the feeling with that camera and that lens, even if it's not don't the 24 to 70 is like too expensive you're starting out. Grab a prime, understand fully the parameters of that 35 or 50 mil love it, and then maybe you'll start hating it and then you'll love it again. But just don't be overwhelmed with having extra equipment. I think, always try and storyboard. If you're making a video, try and see that video on a piece of paper or on the notes in your laptop, or on a PDF or document before you go out and film. I have a very busy mind, so for me, I have to get things off to then get them back into my head when I need to focus. You might be different, but I think storyboarding shooting in sequences, even if it doesn't make sense when you're on set, just ensure that you get your wide shots, you get your close shot, you get your establishing shot, and then you get your medium shots. And even if you don't know what the hell you're doing whilst you're doing that, at least in the edit, you have them and you have the options, because those are the my fundamentals for storytelling is that you've captured a moment in different focal lengths, and that really helps me. So that would be like a biggest tip, and then, yeah, just have fun and just film everything, because you'll just learn. Like, if you are trying to capture your morning coffee, practice, film it, post it. See what people think or don't. Post it. You don't have to share what you make. But one day, a coffee brand might come up to you and be like, can you make a film for us? And be like, Yeah, I've done that. So as many things as you can film you then, you know, have a little, you know, skill set ready to go? Yeah, going back to that, don't share everything. Don't share everything that you make. Like there are so many pictures I used to vlog my whole life in London. No one's seeing those videos. They were for me, I think there's this idea that everyone has to keep sharing their lives on social media. I'm a nosy person. I'm genuinely are interested in a lot of my friends blogs, but you could make vlogs. You don't need to share it. Don't need to share it. Let's just do it for you. If you're not doing it for you, then you shouldn't be doing it at all, in my opinion. Yeah.
Angela Nicholson
I think one thing that confuses a lot of people when they're first starting with video is the whole frame rate thing, yeah, relationship to shutter speed.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah, that that's definitely had me for a long time, learning that it depends on what you want to film, but I always just think you got to double whatever your frame rate is, make sure your shutter speed is doubled. But a lot of the time, if you really are like me, I mean that notebook in my. Camera bag has the quick guide to filmmaking written down. If I ever forget anything, I've got it in my camera bag. So if you're on set and you've forgotten these fundamental rules, just have a piece of paper somewhere or quickly google it. And I'm constantly learning, like every time I'm editing for clients, I'm constantly learning how to do something in Premiere. Like the learning just never stops 100% and I think people think you come to a point in your filmmaking, photography, that you've made it and it's all done, but with this completely creative practice, it just never stops, like learning, unlearning, failing, like little wins, breakdowns, whatever it is, yeah, if you get the frame rate wrong. It's not the end of the world either.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. It sounds like you should be publishing your book,
Alice Greenfield
A book?
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where you explain, you know, say, if you're ever stuck, you look it up and in, in the book that you've written, it sounds like, maybe, maybe need to reorder it slightly. But it sounds like, yeah, it could be...
Alice Greenfield
I've been writing in it for a long time, 2011,
Angela Nicholson
Okay.
Alice Greenfield
when I started it.
Angela Nicholson
Wow.
It's way too personal for people.
Okay.
Alice Greenfield
Oh, God.
Angela Nicholson
All right, fair enough then.
Alice Greenfield
Yeah.
Angela Nicholson
Well, Alice, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. It's been really lovely chatting with you.
Alice Greenfield
Thank you so much for having me, and I hope that's given everyone a bit of an insight into my world and some tips, I guess. But thank you,
Angela Nicholson
I think so. Thank you very much. Okay, bye. Bye.
Alice Greenfield
Thank you. Bye.
Angela Nicholson
Thanks for listening to this episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it special, thanks to everyone who sent in a question. You'll find links to Alice's website and social media channels in the show notes. I'll be back with another episode soon. So please subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast platform and tell all your friends and followers about it. You'll also find SheClicks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube if you search for SheClicks net. So until next time, enjoy your photography.
