New Blog

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New website and updates

I have finally gotten myself an official website to showcase my work. It's lovely and I tinkered about it the whole day yesterday.

Click for official website

Featuring many new works from my latest shoots.
Thoughts and comments? All appreciated!

I've also uploaded a few photos (extras from the last weekend beauty shoot) onto Flickr, so there are some never before seen images!

Blue Summers

I did mention about writing more about photoshoots, I'm so behind! Since the weather is starting to become that dreary cold sleep sort, I'll write about a recent beach swimwear shoot. 

Locations shoots are rare for me, I do prefer the stability and blankness of a studio to create from. Outside I have to rely on the weather and the available light and the actual location itself. I'm actually quite anathema to doing location shoots because every time I venture outside it's sure to rain. Without fail. The original date set for this particular beach shoot had to be postponed because the weekend ended up pouring when I expected sunshine, no it was a definite no go. 

Why a swimwear shoot?

Well, I needed a swimwear look for my portfolio and then I came across Billy & Lola, a darling little swimwear line by Ruth Ziller. Ruth creates her bathers from vintage fabrics she finds in op shops and the designs are a throwback to old-fashioned styles which quite suits my aesthetic especially in an age where swimwear is as tiny, tight, and metallic as possible and leaves nothing to the imagination. Therefore her high-waisted pieces tied back with printed bows completely drew me in. Ruth is also part of the new generation of eco-aware and eco-friendly designers using recycled materials so that's quite exciting.

Prep

Model casting was difficult. I envisioned someone who was lovely and slightly dreamy with an old fashioned charm and long brown hair. Not quite sure why I was fixated on a brunette but I was. There were cancellations and rejections and unsuitable models when I remembered Rebecca, currently repped by Scene Management. I've worked with Rebecca previously on Ghost Story and she had the most amazing skin and soulful eyes...and she had brown hair. She was also a really great person to work with so I was happy when she agreed to model for this.

 A quick snap at the ocean, turned out to be one of my favourites.

Sarah Baxter was slotted in to do make up and hair. She had just started at the hair academy and was showing me cute braids and updos. We decided to get to her place for initial makeup and then drive down to the Great Ocean Road to find a suitable secluded beach. It was going to be an extremely long day and we were looking forward to it! We were originally going to work with a stylist but unfortunately it didn't happened so I picked up the bathers and packed up my bags, discovered I couldn't carry a reflector along with 3 bags I was already carrying so I thought stuff it and got on a train, then a bus, than waited for Sarah. 

My equipment of the day:-

The none too subtle Canon 1000D

50mm 1.8 lens (sweet little thing)

Available light

And two awesome people to go on a road-trip with

While Rebecca was in makeup, I played with Ozzie an overenthusiastic dog who blackmailed me for pats and Sarah's cute niece who insisted I colour a tree and I happily obliged. Then off we went with Rebecca driving.

I google scouted for possible locations prior to the shoot. Google Maps is great because sometimes photographers would leave landscape images and you can see what's in the area. The stretch of beach around Torquay to Lorne be nice to explore. 

The Shoot

We arrived in Torquay after a few hours and came to a surf beach, a little further than the town, spotting a secluded part that looked to be attached to stairs. In our enthusiasm we grabbed everything and trekked down several flights to discover it ends at a rather perilous stony outcrop with 'beware' signs everywhere. Not to be deterred as we were three determined young ladies, we climbed down the rocks.

 

 Sarah touching up the makeup. 

We stayed about half an hour shooting two looks, watching the surfers pass us with raised eyebrows which tells us we should perhaps look for a different location. It was all well and good but we hadn't realized how strenuously hot Melbourne summers actually were. Arriving at the foot of the stony outcrop rendered us in sighs of discontent and the next 4-6 flights of stairs had us collapsing in heart hammering exhaustion and delirious pants. 

 Me. Climbing up stairs. The flushed cheeks and near panic I was in cannot be seen but it's there. 

It was just the heat and bright unbroken sun weighing down relentlessly on our heads, and we didn't have enough shade or water so cue heat stroke and us hightailing it out of there to collapse in bliss in the air-conditioned room of McDonald's back at Torquay. After an hour we were ready to take on the challenge again so we drove through a winding track to somewhere near Lorne. On the way we were stopped by a police car, and got a ticket for using the brakes to keep clear of the car in front of us...........well, always remember to budget for random ticket violations.....

 Isn't this better. No rocks in sight and nothing to climb!

The next beach was so much better, beautiful clear waters and accessible from the road. There was a mob of young men having a barbie (barbeque in Australia) and they called out to us to join them for a spot of beach volley. Smilingly, we shook out heads and walked on by really quickly before bursting into laughter when we rounded into the next stretch.  And then we had two men approach where we were setting up. What a conundrum. With location shoots onlookers may sometimes be a problem, these in particular got the hint quickly so we were able to continue!

My theme for this story is inspired by lomo photography with those vibrant dashing colours and hazy light flares. Since I don't have a lomo camera, I'd do as much as I can and then adjust during post processing. Bright sunlight can be hard to work with, usually resulting in harsh shadows and squinted eyes. If one has strobes you can try to overpower the sun to highlight the model subject and darken the background among other techniques. What I wanted however was a smooth light with limited shadows and preferably some lens flare, I shot around 1/500 shutter speed and 5.6 f stop and mostly where there were breaks in between clouds. Ideally I should've brought that reflector but alas the lack of multiple arms. Shooting at the beach also has a few other problems- sand gets everywhere. Protect the camera and lens by shielding with your body and checking frequently and cover wardrobe with protective sheets or towels where possible. For wardrobe changes use walls of towels or areas away from the general public.

Shooting. Also remember to wear something comfortable and something you can wear to jump into the ocean with!

 Rebecca having a lark.

She always avoids the camera! Here we get a smile from Sarah.

 Rebecca posing with the teddy bear.

 Shooting. It's the last look and the end of the day, the light is great!

After multiple changes we gladly wrapped up to go home, but not before stopping for drinks and a spot of food so back to Maccas (McDonald's) for us.

 Team shot!

The day ended well regardless of the initial hiccup, I certainly had a lot of fun and it's always great when we get all the changes and looks we needed. A few things to keep in mind for future location or beach shoots- bring WATER and hats and preferably plan the shoot during autumn or spring.  

Prep

A shoot often begins long before call-time. It starts weeks or even months in advance with an idea  and then prep time starts. At the moment I am arranging a whole weekend shoot focusing on beauty work with Sarah Baxter when she emailed me a list of ideas she had. I'm such a fan of her work since the first day we met and she showed me what clean makeup and beauty actually was. She is now enrolled in a hair course so we'll be trying out some new looks!

Unlike a few other shoots, this weekend involved considerably less prep time than usual even though it's no less stressing. We've decided not to involve a stylist and keep it fairly casual. To start off with we emailed each other back and forth with ideas and descriptions and photo references and highlighted those which we were interested in and then we went away to research.

Research is so very important especially when creating an editorial story (double name here, an editorial -is- a story). I'm now focused on photographing both beauty and fashion stories which means I need to know that I can pull out 4-6-10 distinct, different and hopefully amazing images which has complementary themes and can convey a sense of a storyline. However research is still important in shoots not involving editorials. Occasionally I get very strong ideas about what I'm going to create, to the point that I can sit and sketch out the looks and the poses and lighting and setting, and other times the idea is vague so I build upon it. I go and peruse my favourite photographers' sites and images and books and music and magazines and everything that I like and am inspired by and draw together bits and pieces. A lot of times during research I also come across a particular photographic technique I'm not familiar with and if it suits the concept, it's a good time to try it =)

Then comes the practical prep, finding team members and models. I secured my assistant (with much reluctance on his part) and other times I'd usually also try to find hair and wardrobe stylists. For models I like using modelmayhem.com for castings or I'd call up agencies requesting models to test. Agencies are a whole story onto themselves.

It's important to find models with the right look for the concepts and to make sure everyone involved as part of the creative team are on the same page, hence more emails and narrowing down choices and finalizing details. Tonight, two days before the shoot I wrote out all the ideas and marked down the looks and who's doing what. This also helps in laying out the schedule for the day so we can make sure to fit everything in. 

Tomorrow I'll be checking out all the equipment (however meager they are), recharging batteries, grocery shopping, apartment cleaning, going through my notes for the umpteenth time and wait with eager anticipation for morning. My stomach is already rumbling with stress and excitement. How invigorating!

LMFF: L'oreal Melbourne Fashion Week

It's that time of the year again with Fashion Weeks across the major cities and Melbourne is no different. Festivities started on the 14th and already some interesting trends are showing up especially whimsical kooky designs the likes of Alice in Wonderland would be proud of.

Yesterday I caught one of the runways at Federation Square- Review presents 'fun, flirty, feminine and fashionable in bold rose florals, chic laces, and sharp shoulder silhouettes in blush pinks, vibrant purples, jewelled teals and royal blues'. 

Excuse the off-focus. I arrived slightly late, and clambered up a raised platform while bumping (painfully) my knee at the same time, but it's quite a good view! 

The deep vibrant teal has been quite popular last year, here it is paired with lace in two -just-brushing-the-knees dresses.

A quick peek at the crowd, all taking photos and rather subdued due to the heat but there were excited murmurs throughout the show and after. 

I really love the structured jacket (left second image). The black dress on the left of first image was the final piece, it's too bad I couldn't get near enough to catch the lace details.

Beautiful little open back dress on the right and large necklace piece. Too cute.

Final walk! While the show only lasted for half an hour it was still quite lovely to be there =)

For more information and to purchase tickets to LMFF, go to http://www.lmff.com.au/

Hail

When I first came to Melbourne I laughed in disbelief as someone told me about Melbourne's four seasons in a day. I soon retracted that, it's absolutely no joke. Nowhere in any other city would it rain with blustery winds, pelt innocent passerbys with hailstones the size of fists and then clouds part away to become a hot summer day.

At the moment we're still experiencing a very long summer. The days are intensely hot to the point that it just swelters and nothing can be done without feeling decidedly sick from heatstroke.

A week, two weeks (how the days pass quickly) ago without any warning large icy hailstones simply poured for a full fifteen minutes in the middle of the afternoon. All one could hear were the rapid thud-thud-thud of the stones and the city disappeared in a foggy mist. How scary, I was immensely glad I was safe at home!

Professionalism

Issues of (un)professionalism are abound in every photography or art related forum and since we live in an age where almost everyone are connected via the internet it's easy to see that the same problems affect everyone even across the globe. Some of the biggest and most volatile issues revolve around 'people not fulfilling their end of the bargain especially with trade shoots', 'flaking where one or more people does not show up to a shoot', 'people behaving inappropriately on set or making others feel uncomfortable' and etc.

Recently there was a thread where someone asked 'what is professionalism?' Professionalism means different things to different people and you don't have to be a professional in order to act like one (and it doesn't mean simply charging for your services- that is being a working professional. This is about behavior and attitudes and how you present yourself).

To me it's rather simple and it can be hard but I believe in doing what's right and treating everyone around me in a manner I'd like to be treated myself. It means being polite, keeping communications clean and clear and being considerate of others and their opinions. It means keeping promises and being honest and bringing your best to the table. There are obviously situations where I simply cannot plan for and in some cases I have to make decisions that I won't necessarily want to do or like doing but I just have to try my best to do what's fair. In some cases I have to bend over backwards, in others I have to stand my ground and to be professional I have to make these decisions every day. Photography is a social industry and while I lament about how I -just- want to keep my head down and shoot beautiful concepts, reality is that I have to speak to people, to work with them and to confront people every day. Since I can't control how other people act or behave or think of me, I just have to make sure I do what feels right.

Sometimes I get disheartened when hearing about the stories of how yet another person have reneged on their words, or acted badly whether before, during or after a shoot. Sometimes I get extremely frustrated when I encounter similar situations during my own work. It's a big learning process because dealing with people and not-nice-situations and being professional is something that should be and can be learned. When you're a new shooter and trying to break into an industry that's all about networking, it's extremely scary because there's all these etiquette and rules seething beneath the surface and gets blown every so often and you can make major faux-pas everywhichway you turn. It doesn't mean I shouldn't -try- and atleast that's a start.

And sometimes it's about keeping your head down and just shooting beautiful concepts.

Melbourne: city of parades

Well..protests really, but I've rarely seen violent protests on the streets on Melbourne, in fact the majority of them which had taken place the last 5 years have been peaceful, vigorous and chock-ful of excitement. I've really been quite surprised at the sense of active political awareness and camaraderie in Melbourne, people are very willing to speak out for what they believe in and being allowed to do so, something not quite the same in certain other parts of the world.

Last year the VCA (Victorian College of Arts) students took it upon themselves to stage a week long protest to defend their classes from being effectively phased out by the new Melbourne Model. A few days ago there was a march headed by some well known artists opposing the government's restrictions on small music venues under liquor licensing laws. They were accompanied by what looked like thousands, with a band playing music across loudspeakers.

 The music parade protest

What a remarkable place and what remarkable people coming together. The people in this city has a spirit which makes Melbourne different, somewhat youthful and mellow with chutzpah. Isn't it great =)

A new hat

A casual impromptu shoot with Vlad K. Vlad has been my assistant for the last few shoots I did. He bought me a new hat.

 

It suits my new hair rather well. And the heart shape on the band is uber cute. 

Blooper. 

I haven't shot with any other photographers in a long time. Mainly because I'm so focused on my own work there really isn't any time....and I haven't explored new self portraits either. Sometimes it's nice to kick loose and not worry about concepts or pulling a team or producing something-ultra-awesome-awe-inducing. 

Definitely, sometimes it's nice to just shoot for fun and not worry about anything.

Izakaya Den and Canary Club

Since Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day fell on the same day, it was a great opportunity to have a feast and try out the latest hot new restaurant that has just opened up. Izakaya Den is a cool underground Japanese restaurant featuring a casual yet chic bar-style ambiance in a tight but long room. The decor is warm with wooden seats by the bar and plush cushions for intimate groups, yet complemented with a bare ceiling of running pipes and marble tables (and a larger stone one for big parties). Mellow contemporary jazz is continuously played in the background. The place is famed for its variety of sake (japanese wine) but we decided to try the cocktails instead. 

A Bellini Den and a Miyazaki...I think.

Decent with subtle layering of alcohol. My Bellini Den came with apple juice while the other has cranberry which gradually became sweeter with each sip but the initial taste came with a quick punch of dryness. 

 

A very grainy image of yours truly in the dimmed spatial lighting. I got to wear a new dress!

When we arrived the bar was already full and it wasn't long before the place filled up. There were easy smiles about and casual chatter, while chefs tossed ingredients at the grill and the manager showed us the cutest menus curled up as bound scrolls. 

The menus are written in both english and japanese.

 

Small plates and wooden chopsticks. 

We decided to order two cold dishes and a hot dish with a dessert. The first to arrive were the German sausages, neatly sliced and accompanied by a tongue tingling wasabi mustard.

We licked up every last bit of sauerkraut with the wasabi mustard. Very yummy and opened up the tastebuds.

Next came the much praised spicy tuna tataki, followed by the kingfish sashimi.

 

Not very spicy. But this dish was the highlight of every delicious food ever created in this world. The tuna absolutely melted in the mouth, juicy, succulent and dripping with the sweet sauce. I could have eaten the entire dish, and 4 more.

 

Long slivers of kingfish with a distinct Asian flavouring, peppered with sesame seeds and a light cabbage salad.  This was fresh with a lingering taste.

And dessert.

 

The icy cold apple millefeuille.  If you're expecting a creamy pastry, this is not it. Instead expect thin apple slices layered with sweet fresh ice. 

Each dish was absolutely delicious. Although it was like an orgasm without a climax. We were astounded by the food and there weren't enough on the tiny plates! Certainly though Izakaya Den is an experience to remember, just be sure to fill up beforehand....or order more than one of every dish.

We decided to pop over to the Canary Club in search of tidbits. 

 

 

I've previously been to the Canary Club and sampled their paella, which was large, filling and scrumptious, very comfort food. At night their bar was lit with candles and chandeliers, and upstairs I discovered leather divans with soft pillows. One wall was lined with a long couch and covered with paintings.

 

This time I've opted again for their Sherbet Apple cocktail which is the most amazing cocktail ever! A must have for the discerning drinker who likes sweet and sour with no sharp taste of alcohol. My friend opted for a citrus tangy drink, again very dry! We finished the night with a platter of chorizo,  chicken and beef kebabs. Tres cool.