Blog

Love and Live

The most amazing thing I do as a photographer is to take photos of life experiences, to capture memories, to take a fraction in time of our lives and put it in a still photograph.

Over the years I take photos of people that have been the last photos anyone has taken of them while they are alive.

Please do not let me be that person…… More importantly, don’t make the last word you say to someone be bad or hateful, don’t make the last word of feeling you have for someone be with hate, don’t let the last word you tell someone be one that is bitter and regrets.

Life my friends is sooooooooo short…. Love with an open heart, love without regret and love like there is no tomorrow as there may not be any tomorrow.

Love Your Friends
Dance Like No One Is Watching

Sometimes It’s Nice To Relax!

It’s been a busy first month of the year for me in lots of areas of my life and with things starting to seattle down and get in to a new rythym it’t nice to relax, and take in the things that life has to offer.

Taking the time to have a look around and appreciate all the things, and people that are around you and what all that means.

For me to be able to look out over this sunset almost every day is one of the very special things in my life and a decission to buy and keep this house is a decission that I will also appreciate.

Its my home, its my santurary, its the place where I raised my daughter, a place where I spent many years of my life through dark and sunny days and a place that I will call home for the unforseable future.

The fact that you are reading this means a lot to me. You have taken time out of your life to be part of mine even if it may be through the writing of this. So thank you. <3

Sun Set From My Back Deck

What An Amazing Weekend!

The weekend away was full of fun and excitement in such amazing scenery that I cannot comprehend.
The strangest part of the weekend is that we are in a drought, and the lakes and the dams which we visited are amazingly low. While in North Queensland around Townsville they have had over a metre of rain in the last five days.
Here is a photo took at blowering reserve some hundred kilometres west of Canberra.
As you can see the dam is really green, the water levels are extremely low and the fact that is green means that the water levels have been so low for such a long time the vegetation has grown says a lot.
I have a heap of photos which I want to share and will I guess I’ll have to space out over a few days so I dont bore shitless, so here is the first of the ones which I took.
Hope you enjoy them and let me know what you think.

Boy I Have A Really Good Mate!

A good mate of mine recently went to New Zealand on a family holiday and being a great mate he brought me back a great prop…. So what else do you do with a good prop…

Thanks Steve <3

Photograph it of course. lol

The Best Prop

All This Talk Of A Fire Sunset!

Yesterday we had a sunset that was like fireballs out of this world which has set social media on fire!!!!!

There are some amazing photos going around so I thought i would share mine.

What do you think?

Blue Fire Sky

It’s All Smoke And Mirrors!

I love the creative aspect of photography and the post processing aspect of the art.
I know in my classes that I teach I always talk about the ability and skill students need to learn not only in the ability to be able to take a photo but to then take that into post processing and turn what they have taken into something amazing.

Photos are taken in camera but make in post production!

For all the amazing photos people take in this day and age if you do not have some post processing on the image you are selling yourselves short. Yeah yeah yeah I hear the old.. but I want people to see my photo and not some edited version of it… I get that but really you can do that but take it from me you might have the best camera in the world and skills like a fat man eating a pizza in one breath but without post processing your images will just not stand out.

Take this picture for example. It is made up of 4 individual images and about 20 hours of post-processing and something that could never be taken without post processing. aka she would fall on the ground. hahahahaha

The photo was taken in the front of one of the Australian Govenment buildings here in Canberra and I must say it is an amazing building. Built with massive stone blocks and would fit in to a film set of Batman. 😉

Into The Light

Australia Day 2019!

Boy oh boy it’t going to be a hot day today with the forcaste weather to be 40c degrees once again.

I guess the best thing to do is to crack on the swimmer, grab a super cold drink and enjoy the day with family and friend while sitting next to or in some water.

How Aussie is this photo I captured.. Was getting an Australia day photo by the lake with the Australian Parliament house in the background and a jogger passing by wanted to get into to some of the action. hahahahaha

Have a great Australia Day. :Australia Day 2019!

Australia Day Photo bomb
Look mum I can fly!

What A Shit Sunset!

Like what idiot climbs up on their roof to take photos of the sunset in what can only be called “shit slippers” on a 36c degree day?? Like REALLY!!!!

I am that idiot!!! and you are very much welcome. 🙂

Well, well, well a new year!… Like Really

Who would have thought it wasn’t that long ago as 2015 a year that led me down a very creative path with my photography, and a year we made some amazing friends and photographed some amazing things.

The last year I must say has been kinda hectic in all sorts of ways but what was lacking was a creative spirit and passion that photography can bring.

This, to be honest, wasn’t due to anything other than not having enough time to do all the things in life that drive us and give us our and sense of worth. With the new year comes a new direction in one that is seeded closer to my roots with creative photography are part of the. One of the other major areas is the education sharing the knowledge that I’ve built up over the years with people like yourself.

Is a must say I am looking forward to what the year will bring and create some amazing images while meeting some outstanding and passionate photographers.

If you want to be part of that journey hang around and let’s see what we can create together!

Lets Get The Party Started!!!!

How high can you jump? How high could you jump? When was the last time you actually jumped? The simple things in life can be as simple as jumping up with some friends. Strobe Info: 3 x Beautiful girls having the time of their lives.

Follow me shooting

I had the pleasure of shooting a dance event a bit back and I thought I would try something different and document my night so you can see some of the things I do as I wander around the many events I attend each and every year…

So have a gander at my short little video and appreciate all that is me freezing my arse off while trying to set my focus… or in this case not focus. lol

 

 

The Simplicity Shadows

I do like playing with shadows especially when it creates and adds to a portrait. The drama and mystery around shadows and darkness that it can bring to an image add interest and intrigue allowing the portrait to stand out.

Take this portrait for example, if it was completely lit and you could see her outfit and a hair at the back of the head, would it have the same interest or do you feel that the added shadows bring something extra?

Utilising shadows in a portrait

Utilising shadows in a portrait

Spring Equinox and The Ice Queen

Yesterday marked the Spring Equinox and with the temperature hitting 29 degrees Celsius it was the warmest day we have had for many months and with that, what better way to celebrate the onset of the warmer weather than to create the Ice Queen!!!!

This was a photo I took a few months ago and have been sitting on it as I wanted to create something special! The last few weeks it has to seen me playing around with edit and ideas, it has been creating edits, deleting edits, creating edits, asking many friends for their input and deleting my edits once again..  hahahahahah

There was also something that would always both me about my edits but I think with this image I am almost completely happy with how it has turned out so instead of spending the rest of my life editing one image I figured I would release it!!!!!

For your viewing pleasure, may I introduce you to the Ice Queen!!!!

 

The Ice Queen

The Ice Queen

Special Sunrise!

It seems to be a think of late that most weekends I get up early to capture the first rays of the day in a different location in and around Canberra. To day was not different except for the fact that my daughter asked to join me in the pre-dawn shoot. <3

Now to put some context into this, she is a teen and last time I checked teens are like vampires… they don’t get up before sunrise, so it was really nice to have her along.

While mother nature had very different ideas of what I could shoot with a heavy cloud cover we did happen to grab a small bit of sun as it was peeking through the clouds. 🙂

Sunrise across the lake

Sunrise across the lake

Hey Look Its Friday!

Since the weekend is upon us it is time for people to go to the party and have some fun, for me is also time to party except I generally party with my camera in hand while I capture the fun and excitement of the events that are part of being an event photographer.

To celebrate the end of the week and the start of the working weekend I snuck out to capture a few quick photos of the sunset as the colors in the sky were just amazing!!

Friday Sunset

Friday Sunset

 

So put on your dancing shoes and get ready for the wild weekend and maybe, just maybe you might see my face through my lens at an event near you. 🙂

 

The Eagles Nest

Waking up this morning an hour or so before sunrise I peeked out my window and to my surprise, the sky was clear as a bell which was weird considering the forecast was for rain and cloud but hey… I wasn’t complaining as I could use my early morning wake-up to sit out to the arboretum and capture the sun rising over our city before it started to wake.

I must say driving around Canberra before dawn on a Saturday morning is actually quite pleasant. The traffic is almost non-existent and in winter time the area is crisp as a new hundred dollar bill. Not that I’ve actually seen one of those in some time. lol

And getting to the arboretum was not surprised that there was no one around, not even any birds. Not sure if it was the cold weather or the fact that it was too early, maybe even a combination of both, either way, had the place to myself.

On top of one of our lookouts at the arboretum as sculpture there that is made up of all different types of metal shapes to create what is an Eagle’s nest sitting on top of the Eagle’s nest as you can see is an Eagle. Surprise surprise. During the daylight hours, it’s interesting to have a look at how they put this thing together but I must say I prefer the silhouette of the structure against the rising sun and the blue skies.

The Eagle's nest at the Canberra arboretum

The Eagle’s nest at the Canberra Arboretum

In the background, you can see Black Mountain with the fog on the clouds rolling across it as they moved from the hills towards the lake. While you can’t see it in this picture the tower was illuminated green. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture an image they are satisfied with that showed off the color but I guess that is a good excuse to go back.

Behind-the-scenes of an early morning sunrise

Behind-the-scenes of an early morning sunrise

Spending a few hours before dawn, taking the time to take some photos and take in the surrounds is a great way to start a weekend and a great way to ground yourself.

Were you sleeping while I was up capturing these photos for you also out and about capturing similar memories?

Sun rising across the nation's capital

Sun rising across the nation’s capital

Behind-the-scenes of the rooftop pool shoot

A week or so ago posted a picture of a lady in a blue dress next to a swimming pool and in this post, I wanted to go along give some insight into the background and the behind-the-scenes of making that shot.

I had with me my Elinchrom Quadra along with my Elinchrom 100 cm x 100 cm softbox hoisted up high on a light stand. Luckily for me, I had an assistant holding the light as the wind was blowing a gale without their assistance there was no way I could use any sort of like fodder modifier like a softbox as a thing was turned into Mary Poppins and flown off the roof.

In the shop below you can see that I had softbox roughly about 3 m away from the model. The placement of the softbox was as close as I can get without having the shot and I did this on purpose to ensure that had soft as possible light. Because of the high winds, I removed both external and internal diffusers as there was a high chance they were going to blow off the roof, and I really didn’t want to go collect them. 🙂

Behind-the-scenes of the pool shoot

Behind-the-scenes of the pool shoot

As you can see shot was taken in full sun’s on the left side of the model without the artificial lighting that part of her body would have been incomplete shadow and to be honest would have looked like crap, so the only way to get around that is to punch a light into the shadows to reduce the contrast between the left side of her body and the right side that was in the sun.

The light itself is fired by a remote trigger that sits on top of my camera gives me about 70 m range so was able to get back a considerable way and take the shot using a 200 mm lens.

After a little bit of mucking around and getting the exposure right to rest, you could say is history.

Model by the pool

Model by the Pool

Another weekend down

Wow, what a fantastic weekend and OMG what a sunset we had this afternoon.

After a weekend here in Canberra with two consecutive mornings hitting  -8° I took the opportunity to take my family camping. hahahaha

Yes I know right! Completely batty and completely insane but with all the cold into super frost that we experienced we got time to bond and capture my own memories, only to get home this afternoon and be greeted with the most amazing sunset.

What memories did you capture over the weekend?

Amazing Sunset after Subzero Temperatures

Amazing Sunset after Subzero Temperatures

An Afternoon by the Pool!

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to capture some interesting photos from the top of the building with the rooftop pool. I must say it was an interesting shoot as the wind was blowing and the sun was out and to be honest, it’s not really the best environment to be shooting but I think the outcome is spectacular.

Luckily for me, the make-up artist was happy to hang around and hold my Elinchrom soft boxes and lights from blowing off the top of the building, I even had to take off the two diffusing panels as I thought they were going to blow off the building never to be seen again.

Here is one of the images that we captured and I’m sure that those trees behind had leaves that morning. hahahahahaha

Glamour on the Rooftop

Glamour on the Rooftop

In my next post will show the behind-the-scenes image and walk you through the set up an understanding of why a position to light where I did and the power on which it was on, along with my camera settings and other information required to set up the shot. 🙂

Copyright Brendan Maunder 2016. All Rights Reserved