i completely forgot about this photo, was just clearing out my hard drive and stumbled upon it.  taken about a month ago when i first got my remote shutter control for my camera.  so d did the honours, although it was slightly out of reach so he had to run a bit to get in the frame.  haha so cheesy.

day one of spring

self portrait, dai and i camping in the garden - ready for summer

winter at bondi beach

It is impossible to live without failing at something,
unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all
- in which case, you fail by default: J.K. Rowling

model: jess

after work

d yesterday evening, after fixing his surfboard in the new back garden.  just before darkness fell.

light

model: steph weeks


feeling very motivated and inspired this week.


Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." 
Cecil Beaton

blogiversairy! 1 year old today

so a year ago today i was living in the gibson desert, in an aboriginal community which is about a 10 hour drive from alice springs.  we worked in a road house.  miles and miles of red sand all around us, as far as we could see.  it was another world, there were no distractions from society just plenty of time to think.  that's when i decided to start taking photos again hence my starting this blog.  i miss travelling, and i miss my travelling friends.  it's been three long months since we've stayed still, but i'm excited for what's to come.

thank you to all of my followers and all the lovely comments you leave - it keeps me going :)

model: steph weeks

steph

the weekends shoot at clovelly beach, sydney, summer's slowly coming!
model: steph weeks

happy birthday E

a photo i took of my sister, e, in a field in hampshire, england about 3 months ago.  it was her birthday yesterday so i thought i'd play with this picture for her.

it's been such a crazy week, hence the lack of posts, i've been moving to a new place (again!), retouching photos, assisting photographers, college work and shooting my own photos so lots of pics to come soon. anyway so good to have somewhere to live where we can stay for as long as we want, it's still temporary as it's a huge house share, but we can actually unpack, there's a wardrobe! and there's an awesome garden with a rope swing to amuse me.

night walk

its still winter in sydney but warm enough for a late night stroll in rosebay, and good news, we're now on a student visa which buys us more time in Australia.  I've also re done my website, it was far too time consuming to do it myself, instead i've used a portfolio template, you can check it out here and if you want to make one yourself, it's so simple you just drop your photos in, you can do so here.

last of the shoot

last photos from the paddington reservoir shoot and for these shots I made Andrea really freeze although she did a great job of looking like she was bathing in the sun.  i would have like to have taken a few more shots but i felt so bad for her that we did this last part of the shoot in about 2 minutes.

Model: Andrea Zaja
Make up: Bec Garozzo
Photographer: Louise Canton

Andrea and behind the scenes

 

 bec all wrapped up and working hard behind the scenes.

 make up artist: bec garozzo
 model: andrea zaja
 photography: louise canton

model: Andrea Zaja
make up: Rebecca Garozzo
styling: Isabelle Richards
photography: louise canton

paddington gardens

it rained and it was freezing but we carried on the shoot at paddington gardens, sydney today.  here's a peak at some of the photos, more will be coming soon.  well done girls great job..

model: Andrea Zaja
make up: Rebecca Garozzo
styling: Isabelle Richards check out her blog here
photography: Louise Canton

winter in bondi

model: jess brown
location: bondi beach
phographer: myself

gif attempt 2

waterfall at the bluemoutains, sydney.

inspired by: yoann lemoine-wastin' time

THE SHOES - WASTIN TIME from Yoann Lemoine on Vimeo.

the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time: Bertrand Russell

I stumbled across this beautiful video by filmmaker Lemoine yesterday, who also happens to be a very talented photographer, songwriter and singer! You can see his photographs and more of his videos here.

a very simple way to having your own website.

these past two weeks I've been geeking out and trying my very hardest to put together a website.  I bought two domain names, www.louisecanton.com and www.secretstare.com and have tried to make the site myself as it's something i always wanted to try and figure out.  in the end i used iweb to make www.secretstare.com because it's so so simple, but i will keep working on making my other site from scratch.

my very simplified way to making and publishing a website using iweb:

step 1: buying your domain (website name e.g. www.secretstare.com), i used godaddy.com but there are plenty of other sites that will register your name. similar site to register your name.  it costs about $11/year for a .com, try and get .com if you can.  and don't search your ideas for a website too much, apparently there are people who might steal your  idea and sell it back to you so buy as soon as you have a name idea!

step 2: then choosing a web host.  to simplify, a web host is what gives you space for your website on the internet, and keeps your website open so that people can access it 24/7, it can also give you email address plus many other extras.  it can range from free to $20+/month depending on how much space you need, how many visitors will be visiting and how many email addresses you need, plus more extras.  i used 000webhost.com because it gives you free hosting to start off with, i can upgrade when my website is completed and has more traffic.

step 3: link your host and domain.  very important, i skipped this step so couldn't figure out why my website wasn't publishing.  link your hosting site to your domain.  log into your domain account e.g. godaddy.com and manage your account by setting your 'nameserver'.  which is basically telling your website name who will be hosting your website and so linking them together.  your host site will usually send instructions on how to do this.  or you could buy your domain name and host from the same people so that you don't have to worry about this step.

step 4:  design your site. well this part was a lot more time consuming than i thought, and in the end i used iweb to create www.secretstare.com.  much easier, you can use a template, or a blank page and you literally just drop your photos add text.  the main plus for me using iweb was i could using a photo slideshow which i wanted to display my portfolio.

step 5: publish your site.  it used to be very easy to publish a site with iweb when they used to have 'mobile me' which is apple's own hosting site.  since they no longer offer hosting and you can only publish through iweb directly to mobile me, you'll need to download 'easy iWeb publisher' (it's free, google it).   publish your site to a folder of your choice.  then open iweb and drop in the folder and add your website details such as your domain name, hosting id and password etc.  (there are more detailed 'how to's on youtube)

there are drawbacks to using iweb.  to put it as simply as i can, by using iweb you can't tag your photos, which makes them more search engine friendly meaning when you search 'secret stare' in google it doesn't come up with my site.  i think being able to search your website is pretty important.  so i have tried using SEO software (search engine optimisation) which will add tags to your iweb site but i didn't find much difference.  however it's a website for now.

first attempt at making a gif, consists of 9 photographs taken on an unsteady tripod in the rain and animated in photoshop.

every passing minute is a chance to turn it all around:  vanilla sky

self less

palm beach

last weekend d and i went for a day trip to palm beach.  if you're british and recognise this beach you'll also know it as summer bay, from home and away.  last picture is end of the day back on the rooftops where we live for now in bondi.

it's been a month since we arrived.  we're still in sponsorship process, had a couple of offers and know the immigration website by heart almost so baby steps and we'll be there.

meanwhile since i can't work i've been committing myself to my photography.  initially i started this blog to get back into photography and start using it as a way to make a living.  tough career choice, it's all about 'not what you know but who you know' in this industry.  so extra tough since we moved here not knowing anyone.  the last few weeks i've spent researching photographers i enjoy, buying magazines, and cold calling the photographers or agencies.  very frustrating, most people don't want to know but it has been worth the 30 odd calls for the 1 helpful response.

i've joined model mayhem - a website which links photographers, models, make-up artists, stylists and designers etc.  and hope to be doing some test shoots in the near future to add photographs to my portfolio.   and led to the opportunity of helping out with a polaroid shoot for russh magazine's website.

through cold calling i met a very helpful and talented photographer for morning tea in bondi, who i hope to assist in the future.

i've also been entering more competitions such as photoartgallery i have 2 photos on page 114, 1 photo on page 118 and 1 photo on page 126-please vote if you get a minute!

and have been trying to improve my portfolio with the help of this very interesting blog belonging to julia trotti.  a process which has been taking a lot longer than i thought but i do have time on my side.  next job is to figure out a hosting site.  where i can just drop my photos in such as www.carbonmade.com or www.viewbook.com and pay a monthly fee or figuring out how to make one entirely myself using kompoZer which is a free equivalent of dreamweaver but a bit more complex.  please don't hesitate with any advice you may have..

multiplicity

venturing outside on the grassy area at bondi beach i decided to experiment with multiplicity within a self portrait.  multiplicity is pretty self explanatory - it is used to describe a picture when the subject or object in the photograph is multiplied.  This photograph consists of 3 different images, two images had a slow shutter of 1/10th of a second to show movement.  I layered the images in photoshop and deleted parts of the image so that all three figures would show through.  something to try if you have a few hours spare for photoshop - it's quite time consuming.

self-portrait/adding a watermark to your photo

you may have noticed i've started adding watermarks to my photographs.  unfortunately i have found some of my pictures in some unwanted places without any recognition of the author.  i don't mind people using my photographs as long as they link it back to my site or add my name but it is also nice to be asked.

well, rant over, if you want to add a watermark and copyright information to your photos, then i suggest you use this link.  it was one of the most simple and effective ways to watermark in photoshop that i found.

back to my photo, this is (another) self portrait.  as i haven't long moved to bondi i am quite short of models.  therefore i am exploring the world of self portraiture.  this will be the first winter for me in 4 years.  some of you may argue that a winter in sydney isn't quite winter but i can assure you it's getting quite cold though at least its not wet too...

dear australia

dear australia,

please let me in.  i promise not to go on welfare, or become a nuisance, and will work hard and contribute to society.  so please stop changing your migration laws and making it so difficult for me to live here.  i really don't want to live regionally right now, i want to take pictures.  let me stay in sydney.

louise