The Crew

Posted on January 21, 2012 by admin

Rewinding to August last year, I was hired by Stacey Wishart of the Hair and Beauty Company in Albany to shoot competition entries for The American Crew Face Off. This was my first opportunity to shoot mens hair and I was definitely looking forward to the challenge.
Kylie Apostoles was assisting with make-up for the shoot. Yes the guys wore make-up, but they drew the line at lip gloss! Speaking of the guys our very brave models were Brett (Pictured left) and Will (Pictured right) .
This shoot was prior to me having access to a studio so we had to make do with the living room, but I think you will agree it’s hard to tell?
American Crew have fairly strict guidelines for the competition, the most important factors are that it’s a head shot and it’s a black & white photo.
I’m very happy with how the photos turned out and I hope I get another opportunity to shoot an entry for The American Crew Face Off.
As always it was great working with Stacey and Kyle, I look forward to working with them again soon

How bright is that light?

Posted on January 17, 2012 by admin

In very basic terms it’s the light entering into the camera that creates photographs. In a digital camera that light hits the CCD sensor and is transformed into electrical signals that are then processed into an image that we can see.
The camera can sense the brightness of the light being reflected into the lens of the camera and adjust to ensure that the exposure is correct. When you attach a flash directly to the camera it is also smart enough to compensate for the light the flash produces and ensures you get a correct exposure.

So if cameras of today are so smart why do I need to measure the light with a light meter?
There are a few answers to this question but I’m going to focus on studio lighting.

When you take a photo with the flash that’s built into your camera it will actually fire twice (on some cameras you can notice this as there is some lag). The first flash is for the camera to judge how bright the flash is and set the camera up, and the second flash is for the actual exposure.

When using studio flashes there is no communication between the camera and the flash other than to tell it to fire. This means the camera can’t automatically set up the camera to ensure a correct exposure. Now this is where the light meter comes in, It can tell us exactly how much light is coming out of our studio flashes.
Typically when taking a portrait in a studio you would hold the light meter under the subjects chin with the white dome facing the camera and take a reading of the flash output. The light meter will then tell you the exact settings to use in your camera to guarantee a correct exposure.

As you can see in the above picture, when I am in the studio I have two eyes, one is for creative composition and the other is for technical lighting

Nathan & Bianca – Wedding

Posted on January 11, 2012 by admin

With only a week till Christmas I was expecting to be dealing with hot harsh sunlight at Jingalla wines in the Porongurups. In actual fact the weather couldn’t have turned out much better, it started overcast for the ceremony and then the sun peeked out in time to enjoy the garden and light refreshments before the reception.
The whole atmosphere of the wedding was amazingly calm and intimate, it really was a privilege for me to photograph the day.

Cristyn & Michael – Wedding

Posted on January 5, 2012 by admin

I’ve known Cristyn since I was very young, her brother Carl and I went to school together and are great friends. It was a tough day trying my best to not get distracted as I was also very privileged to be a guest at the wedding. The weather in Mindarie threw up some challenges and the ceremony had to be inside, but luckily the rain stopped when we went outside to do the portraits.

Cristyn and Michael truly are a great couple which became very apparent when Michael made his speech towards the end of the night, one of the best I’ve heard from a groom.
Congratulations to Cristyn and Michael!

A New Year

Posted on January 4, 2012 by admin

As the New Year begins we all get a overwhelming feeling of revitalisation, an opportunity to start fresh and improve on the past. I’ve used this new motivation to start writing my blog again with the hope to portray a more transparent view of my business and passion for photography.

I’d like to share a photo I recently took shortly after finishing up taking photos at a wedding. It’s a very colourful sky-scape prior to a thunderstorm. This photo I chose to take on my phone out of pure convenience and I honestly don’t think it would have come out much better on my SLR camera. Which got me thinking, the phone camera is very underrated. Unless I’m in the studio or using off camera flash the camera phone could be a very useful and convenient tool. So my New Year’s resolution is to take more photos with my phone. It will help me to think a lot more about the composition and emotion in the photo as all the technical is taken care of. I can also use it to record places and things I see that inspire me for later shoots.

All the best to you for the New Year, what’s your New Year’s resolution?
I better get back to editing wedding photos