Dave Polette Photography

Damian & Jade – Wedding

admin — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:03:51 +0000

Damian and Jade chose to have their special day on new years eve, which I thought was a fantastic idea. Everyone can celebrate the new year and the new marriage in the light of new beginnings. It was a very hot day but trees provided cool shade in the late afternoon sun as well as a great place for formal photos after the ceremony. Once again an absolute privilege to be part of Damian & Jade’s special day.

Couch Farm

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:19:19 +0000

We had a lot of ideas before I even started pushing the shutter, but I had a feeling the roosters were going to work best. Having said that it didn’t stop us trying some of the other ideas because until you see the final shot you never really know for sure which one will work best. We started with some melons from the garden, Lorna took one in her arms to comfort it and keep it calm. I thought the idea was good but something wasn’t gelling with the composition or colour, so we moved onto the roosters. After the first few photos I knew this had some potential to be THE shot. You can see in the above diagram how we set up the camera and lighting to get the desired effect. I must take this opportunity to thank Will Ranger once again for holding and positioning all the equipment while I had my eye through the camera.

People sometime say quit while you are ahead, but in photography I would definitely disagree with this statement, sometimes that next best shot can be only one frame away.
With this is mind without stopping for the day we changed locations again, this time to the goat shed.
The poor goat wasn’t too impressed with the camera flash and tried to escape, before shocking itself on the electric fence. We managed to get a few photos but we didn’t want to stress the goat too much so we finished up the shoot with what we had.

It was stinking hot out there but I feel the results made it all worth while. We were even rewarded with a sampling of the fresh produce guaranteeing we left with big smiles and full stomachs. Lorna is an inspiration in the Garden and I hope these images have reflected her passion for life and healthy living.

Below are a sampling of the other images we shot on Sunday.

The Crew

admin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:53:02 +0000

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?

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:08:30 +0000

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

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:12:04 +0000

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

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:50:25 +0000

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

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:38:54 +0000

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