Me, Mrs, Sunset

It's hard for my partner and I to get lovey dovey snaps. How can I take a couple shot of us without being behind the camera?

We were driving to visit a friend in regional Victoria, and the only thing I was looking forward to the entire drive was the sunset.
I pulled the car over on a desolate stretch of road, and we got out of the car to have a little stretch and take a few snaps.


5DII + 24-70L = 1/160, f/9, ISO100

I didn't have a tripod with me, so I pulled my suitcase out of the car and very carefully placed it onto the bag.
I got behind the viewfinder and directed her into position, placed the camera on 10sec timer and legged it.

After a bit of straightening and processing, a gorgeous photo that will soon be hanging on our wall :)

Landscape shots benefit massively from using the rule of thirds. I tried to have the lowering sun in the right third of the photo.
I also love backlighting, and I positioned the Mrs directly in front of the sun.
I completely missed the long stretching shadows that resulted when I was composing the shot. Luck was on my side!

Wedding - Peter and Thuy

I've known Thuy since I was a little kid and I haven't spoken to her for a long time, she got in contact with me and asked me to be the photographer for her wedding. I felt honored to cover their special day.
I sat down with Peter and Thuy and had a nice catch up. Thuy is lovely and charismatic whilst Peter is quiet, thoughtful and down to earth.
I really do enjoy it when I feel as though I've captured their personalities in the camera, and my clients can really relate when I present the photos to them.


5DII + 24-70L = 1/250, f/2.8, ISO100

This is my favourite shot of the day.
I sat Peter and Thuy down on a bench and tell them to chat amongst themselves. They chatted and giggled to each other whilst I figured out the lighting setup. The sun was coming from camera left, and acted as a rim light for my shot. I also purposely used the sun as backlighting to obtain a nice camera flare.
"Okay, now look at each other and touch nose to nose". After a few seconds of holding the pose, the smiles just naturally popped and *snap*.


5DII + 24-70L = 1/320, f/2.8, ISO100

Now in case you haven't noticed, I really like using flare to create artsy shots.
Peter and Thuy were posed up against the door, hand in hand. I directed them to simply walk slowly looking at each other toward me.
As I was walking backwards with my camera continuously snapping, the sun popped out from behind the pillars and made this shot. I lucked it!

As much as I can appreciate how wedding photographers shoot a bunch of staged photos, I try and make my staged photos look as natural as possible. Someone did make the comment after seeing some of the shots from the day and asked me whether they were posed or not; mission accomplished :)

Engagement Shoot - Jade and Adrian

Jade is friends with my fiancée and asked me to take some photos of them, some nice shots to make a guest book album.
Jade and Adrian are an adorable couple, you would have to be blind not to see how much they love each other. Makes my job all the more easier :)


5DII + 85L = 1/800, f/2.8, ISO200

I tell you I'm in love with the 85mm f/1.2. The colours and sharpness of this lens is jaw dropping.
We walked through a park and settled ourselves in a quiet little area so that people wouldn't disturb us. I sat them down on the bench and planted the flowers on them. Got them to show me some love by getting them to touch noses... I love the cheeky little smile Jade makes in this shot.
The f/2.8 seperates Jade and Adrian from the background, isolation helps to make a photo pop!


5DII + 85L = 1/1000, f/2.8, ISO200

The sun was setting and the sky was ablaze with a gorgeous orange colour. I decided to use the sun creatively to add a bit of flare to make the image pop, as well as a rim light which would make their hair glow.
I added a bit of an orange tint to warm the photo up a bit, cloned out the dust bunnies and a slight crop to centre them.


5DII + 24-70L = 1/800, f/4.0, ISO400

Here's a bit of advice - after the sun actually sets, the sky is aglow with the most beautiful colours. The magic colour is only had for about 30 minutes after the actual sunset, make the most of it!
I purposely underexposed this, and asked them to walk along the river bank. I noticed that they have a unique way of holding each others hands, and decided I wanted to personalise this photo for them focusing on their hand holding.
The colours and the urban silhouette make this image shine, and makes this one of my favourite shots of the day.


5DII + 24-70L + 580EXII off camera = 1/200, f/3.2, ISO400

Like I said, the small window of lovely colours after sunsets is stunning, and this shot was taken within the last few minutes before it disappeared.
Shooting with off camera flash is quite hit and miss, and it took me a few test shots before I got the settings right.
Firstly, I exposed for the ambient. I wanted to get those nice sky colours just right.
Secondly, I had to expose for Jade and Adrian! So I upped the power on the flash until it was an acceptable setting and then fine tuned the amount of light on the couple by adjusting the aperture.
I do wish I had another flash on the camera right to add a bit of fill to Adrian's face, but unfortunately I wasn't specifically geared for off camera lighting on that day.

2010 Roadtrip!

A few weeks ago my mates and I pulled an epic roadtrip up to Newcastle; 1200km, one weekend, Linkin Park live in concert!


7D + 50mm f/1.8
Music: Linkin Park - Burning in the Skies

A little video I put together.

Portfolio - Spring '10

A hair and makeup artist friend of mine, Lisa Carter, really wanted to add something special to our portfolio's.
I have worked with her before, and the planning involved for this job would dwarf our previous photoshoot.

The locations were scouted, the model was found, the costumes were sourced, the theme was set.
This was her idea and she had planned the whole thing without me, all I had to do was focus on taking the good photos; simple enough!

Alot of the images in the set were meant to be shot in natural light, however this did not sit well with me in some of the locations.
The bulk of the photos on location were shot between 5-6pm and sunset was due at 7pm - the lighting wasn't harsh, but I still had hideous shadows to deal with; I needed flash.

So this is my most prized shot from the photoshoot.

Lisa had found a house with a beautiful blossom tree and had obtained permission to use their front yard; how very nice of them :)
We got a chair, Lisa handed the model the teacup prop, we spruced up the tulle and everything was made to look perfect.
I directed the model to raise the teacup and point her eyes downward to show of those gorgeous lashes. Snap!



I had the AB1600 on the left of the camera shooting through a massive softbox fired with Cybersync's.
I brought the shutter to 1/250 to kill the ambient and adjusted the lighting on the model by bringing the aperture down to f/8.

The photo was then handed over to a graphic designer who edited the entire set, the key thing to keep everything looking natural.
With great makeup, there is no need for 'airbrushing' the image.
With great lighting, there is no need for 'airbrushing' the image.

What I really loved about this image is how natural it all really was, and it goes to show that just about anyone could pull this off with enough effort.

Couple Session - Hans and Priya

Priya found me on facebook and asked me if I could cover a couple session for her and her hubby Hans.
They're a newly engaged couple and wanted some nice shots for their guest book. I recently got engaged myself so I was really enthusiastic about this job.

It is now Spring, so I was quite hyped to go out and grab some shots in the great weather, and use a few locations I had scouted over winter.

Priya had noticed a photo I had taken of a pier in Brighton a while ago that I had taken in my spare time.
The couple asked me they particularly wanted photos on a beach in Port Melbourne.
I thought I would meld the two together and create a breathtaking shot for them.



The first problem I ran into was the time of day, it was 3pm and it cast a harsh shadow as can be seen from the pier.
Unfortunately my Photoshop skills aren't too vast, so I wasn't able to take out the shadows cast by the railings or the couple themselves.

The second problem was how busy the pier was, so I had to isolate the couple somehow.
I ducked down a bit and hid the busy pier behind the couple, it's my job to make the photo all about them no matter the environment.

The sky was rather boring; blue sky, no clouds... I had to overlay a fake sunset into the shot.
It definitely created a drama in this shot that I love.

Finally I just toned the image to suit and viola!

Hans and Priya were a lovely couple to work with and I'm encouraged to keep up my recreational shooting to inspire more shots like this.