Yearly Archives: 2015

#RedMyLips #3

Speaking out against sexual violence and victim blaming is something we can all do!

It’s not only up to the people that are directly affected by sexual violence to speak out, it’s up to all of us as community to take a stance and speak out.

Sexual violence in our community touches more lives and affects more people than you can imagine, and to shift the blame onto the victim creates a culture of secrecy. Victims don’t want stand up and be heard for the fear they will be ridiculed and be told it’s their fault.

I’m not sure about you but I can’t see how victim is at fault, but hey!!

Let’s make a change.

#RedMyLips #3
#RedMyLips #3

Cold And Shitty But I Don’t Care!!

After what seemed like a full day yesterday of hoping it would rain and the sun shining through, the rain finally did come toward the end of our shoot yesterday. Yay!!!!!

The rain fell and we rejoiced!!

We must of seemed like a gang of weirdos as we all stood around in the rain cheering as it got heavier and heavier.  And then the cheering turned into chattering teeth and what was the real heavy rain that we wanted hours before. Ha ha ha ha

I must say it was the heaviest rain I have ever shot in and I used to shoot a lot of equestrian……  The rain on me and my gear was so heavy that I couldn’t see the LCD on the back of my camera. I kept wiping the water off but it was very quickly replaced with rain either from the sky or the rain falling off my face.  Lol

At that my friends is why I have weather sealed pro photographic gear.

The people that I was with yesterday are true professionals…. Man…. I do a lot of crazy shit to get my shots but I do it because I love what I do!!! To find a collection of people that were not only willing to help me pull off my concept yesterday and see it thought in horrid conditions was just truly amazing.

The one downer of yesterday was that my dear friend and personal makeup artist (that kinda sounds like I get makeup on me) got her phone stolen out of her handbag.  A hand bag that was sitting with us all the time and would of had someone not a few meters from it at any one time. 🙁

I hope who ever took it gets their armpits infected with a million fleas…….  How dare they take our shit off our set….. Grrrrr.

Even after she noticed  it was gone she was the perfect professional, and kept on with a smile. 🙂

Enjoy your day everyone!!!! As for me I will tucked away inside, on a heater, in front of a computer screen working through photos. Yay…

Mother Nature I Hate You So!

Boy two days ago and even yesterday the forecast was rain all weekend and heavy rain at that..  Now when I look out I don’t see rain and the forecast is somewhat on the sunny side….  Too sunny for my liking!!!

For those of you that are now wondering what I am complaining about, let me get you up to speed. 🙂

I planned a portrait session this afternoon with a team of make up artists, models and assistants in the rain, and it is the rain that is a major part of this photo shoot.

With little rain coming it makes a rain photo shoot some what…… not a rain photoshoot. Ha ha ha ha

We will see how it looks as we approach on set times and come up with a plan… A back up plan of sorts.

This is why I just love being a on location portrait photographer.  You have to think on your feet, adapt and overcome things that you have zero control over.  It’s a wonderful thing!!!!! This ability to adapt and change makes it soooo much easier for me to get the shots in high pressure situations like wedding and events, so maybe I do like Mother Nature after all!!!!

Anyways let’s see how we go.

Get Out Your Cameras It’s Going To Rain!!!

Things move fast in my world…..

This time yesterday I was talking about how the weekend was going to be wet and raining with heavy rain coming our way, and how if you had a wedding on that you should get your photographer to get your photos in the rain, and if they are any good they will get some amazing shots with the use of lighting……

Well, that got me thinking, very shortly after my post.

  •  Am I just sitting here on my high horse saying these things and not being able to back them up?
  • Are people actually crazy enough to venture out in what will be very difficult shooting situations?
  • What would a professional makeup artist do in such horrid weather?
  • How would everyone stay warm enough so they don’t all die of exposure?
  • Would we be able to create images is heavy rain in such real-world situations?

With all those questions running around in my head there was only one thing to do!!!!!!

Assemble, or try to assemble a team of people that area stupid enough to follow me in this dream!!!!!

I put out the call out to my friends at around 6:30am and apparently I either have friends that don’t sleep or wake up early, but either way, I had two models and two make up artists confirmed by around 8am.

Now I am not sure about you but that confirmed that I do have some crazy friends. Ha ha ha ha

This shoot is going to be sooooo out there and sooo extreme in weather conditions that I did the rare thing and opened up a single spot for someone to attend and learn how this stuff comes together…. Yep that’s right…. only one single spot…. This person would be on set with us to learn how to take and use on location lighting is such extreme conditions!!!

I must say I have never seen anyone offer up such a unique learning opportunity as this and for that reason, the single spot was snapped up very quickly.

So as I lay here just about to get up I can hear the rain falling, and while most people hide away inside I am starting to get excited for our shoot tomorrow….

It is going to be challenging and it is going to be cold and it is going to be very wet but we will come away with some very unique images and learn a lot along the way.

The most important part is that we will all be having fun doing it!!!

Chasing the Sun with on Location Studio Lighting!!

Last Sunday I did an impromptu photo shoot that required a lot of running and a bit of organising to be able too pull it off!!

This was also probably one of the quickest shoots I have ever done. We pulled up at the location, I pulled out my lighting equipment, the model assumed the position and I snapped away.

Chasing the sun is always lots of fun!

Must say it was really handy to have a model which has a lot of experience she needed almost no guidance and very beneficial as we were chasing the sun setting and time is very limited.

I must say in the space of 10 minutes we captured a heap of images that not only matched my mind’s eye vision of the shot but also awesome in how they came together!! Here is just one of those images.

Fashion chasing the sunlight
Fashion chasing the sunlight

Other images from the shoot can be found my galleries of the menu on the left-hand side.