sunlight on the sea

desolate sky

Model, Make Up and Stylist (!): Jessica Passecker.

When the agency model we hoped to shoot with fell through, Jessica jumped in and did an amazing job modelling for our shoot at Red Rock, Nevada.

wasting our time away

 Model: Raffaella

Wattwil, Switzerland

young, wild and free

Model: Jenaisy @ Envy model management
Make up and Styling: Jessica Passecker

brighton

a henparty weekend in brighton, england.

Model: Christine Bruzzese
Make up: Nicolle Adrichem

Christine

Model : Christine Bruzzese

tangled

Jordan

Model: Jordan Covington

Secret Thursday: Composition, the golden spiral and rule of thirds

I learnt these compositional techniques in art class and they really relate to photography.  There's a few out there but I probably use these the most and now I seem to apply them subconsciously.  I tried placing the spiral on two images I'm editing in photoshop and they fit pretty well.  So next time you're composing a photograph, have a think about using these techniques.

Fibonacci spiral or Golden Spiral:

The spiral was first discovered by Pythagoras in 5^th Century B.C.  It comes from the Fibonacci sequence: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144 etc.  This is the result of adding the two previous numbers together to get the next number.  To put it simply, the spiral is made from making a square from original rectangle which will leave a new rectangle.  A new square is then cut from this leftover rectangle, leaving another rectangle to cut a square from and so on.  The spiral can be found everywhere from nature to architecture to paintings.  The idea in photography is that images are aesthetically pleasing to the eye when the focal point of the image lies under the centre of the spiral.

 Rule of Thirds:

Pretty self explanatory the frame is divided into three equal parts, horizontally and vertically (the spiral is a little different to thirds).  Our natural tendency is to frame whatever we’re taking a photograph of in the centre, where as if we place the point of focus over one or more of the point where the thirds meet then it is often creates a much more interesting composition.

Secret Thursday: How to convert your photo to black and white in a non destructive way

I love black and white photographs but came to realise this week when I had the opportunity to assist an another awesome fashion photographer, that I'd been losing the quality of my photographs with the way that I had converting them in photoshop.  I figured maybe other people could be making this same mistake so here's a tutorial for the new and improved monotoning of my photos.

If it get's a bit confusing the constant rule, here it is written out:

Whatever value you have gone over or under of the 100%, take this value, halve it then reverse it. e.g. 130% would be 30 over, so halve is 15, then reverse so -15.  This is just a rough rule use it to figure out what you think looks best.  If this video helps you in anyway please take a second to click the 'like' button on youtube.

It's been a busy last couple of weeks for me, I've been house hunting, then moving, assessments at college, working, assisting and having my mum over from England for a visit!  But the weekend's nearly here and I'll be off to the hunter valley for some chocolate tasting, wine tasting and cheese tasting.

Savoire Faire

 

Model: Doni Gales
Stylist: Viktoria Novak
Make up: Nicolle Adrichem
Hair: Roxanne Cahill
With thanks to Ben Scott of Studio 501

Last weekend I attending a photographic gathering at Studio 501 in Sydney, there were six models a stylist, make up artists, hair stylists and about 30 photographers who turned up to meet and shoot together.  Doni was the first girl I shot when I arrived and I stole her straight away and took her outside for this quick photo shoot.

fairytale

Model: Alex Wallace
Dress: Kunynghame by Stephanie Cuningham
Hair and Makeup: Emer Hawkins

last minute mini shoot

I loved this dress of Stephanie Cunningham's so much when I saw it on Facebook that I quickly asked her if we could shoot it.  The last minute shoot was organised for this morning with Alex Wallace modelling and hair and make up by Emer Hawkins (you can see her make up blog here)

Secret Thursday: How to change eye colour using photoshop

Wise words that I definitely need to take note of:

There are two ways to get enough.  One is to continue to accumulate more and more  The other is to desire less and less:  G.K. Chesteron

Secret Thursday: How to make eyes 'pop' in photoshop

It's been a crazy last two weeks, I've been photographing at the Royal Sydney Easter show non stop so no chance for shoots but hope to have some more work up on here soon.  Hope this video is helpful :)

Secret Thursday: How to make an animated gif using photoshop

It's a bit late because I've been super busy working on a two week job at the mo but here's the promised tutorial on how to make an animated gif using photoshop.  I think one of these days my computer might take off while recording these tutorials the way the fans are going...

I'm forever blowing bubbles...

I've been meaning to make this gif for a while and since todays shoot was cancelled the opportunity arose.  For those of you who have been following my blog you may remember me attending Julia Trotti's shoot out day last November, you can visit her awesome blog here or see my earlier blog post about the shoot out here.  

If I have time tomorrow morning I'll do a tutorial on how to make a gif, but I am pretty busy tomorrow and for the next fortnight, I've got a two week long photography job - yay!  I want to go and buy bubbles now.