Archive for Make Better Photographs – Page 21

Bridal Portraits and All The Fun That Goes With Them

By Robert Hillis
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

I love doing bridal portraits. Its normally sometime prior to the event, the bride has their dress fitting perfectly; they have had hair and makeup appointments all day so they truly feel like a princess without any of the stresses of the wedding day. Bridal portraits make for beautiful images.

Bridal portraits are what brides look at and dream about their own wedding. They see a princess in every image and that princess is a reflection of their own desires. Capturing a great bridal session means preparation and research. I suggest taking the following steps to create a perfect bridal session.

First, meet with your client. In the day and age of online payments, email, and websites, sometimes we don’t meet our clients until the day of the event. If you are doing a bridal or engagement session for that matter I suggest meeting with your client and getting a feel for their personality, likes and dislikes. Many times they will rely on your expertise for location choice for the photos and you’d hate to choose a great western theme for a city girl who has never been out of town and doesn’t like dust. Personality shows through in your images especially when you are photographing subjects who are not used to being in front of the camera. If they are uncomfortable it will show.

Second, prepare your bride for the shoot. Make a list of commonly used items and send it to them so they know what to prepare for. Here is what I normally tell my brides. Read More→

Categories : Make Better Photographs, Wedding Photography

Tying The Knot: Self Assessment

By Milton Gan
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

My workflow is pretty simple. I sit at my desk editing and blogging away on my Mac while it’s little brother the iPad sits next to it playing movies. I need that background noise to work. Silence freaks me out.

My iPad plays 6 movies on constant rotation, one of which is A Few Good Men. There are so many things I love about that movie, but at its core is an inspiring and motivating story about self-assessment and raising your game. Tom Cruise’s lawyer character Danny Kaffee is highly accomplished in churning out amazing plea bargains from the comfort of his office, but he ultimately takes on the challenge of a murder trial in a real courtroom, with none other than Jack Nicholson’s awesome Colonel Nathan Jessep as his formidable and aggressive witness.

I’ve been going through my own stage of self-assessment recently (albeit without murder victims or courtrooms!). It’s the end of the tax year and also the end of my first year as a professional wedding photographer, so I’ve been keen to take stock of what I’ve achieved so far and figure out whether I’ve got what it takes to not just stay in the game but also move up to the next level. To that end I entered the Canon APPA awards which was judged just a few days ago.

If you’re reading outside of Australia, the Canon APPAs (Australian Professional Photography Awards) is the most prestigious photography competition Down Under. From this contest legends are made and a select few will have bragging rights to prestigious titles such as Photographer Of The Year, Portrait Photographer Of The Year, and of course Wedding Photographer Of The Year. There are also silver and gold awards up for grabs for all high scoring images, so naturally I wanted to get involved! I mean, I’ve had nothing but positive feedback since starting my business so surely I would have a chance of coming away with an award or two, right? Read More→

Categories : Make Better Photographs, Wedding Photography
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Scenic Outlook – Introducing Dave Wares

By Dave Wares
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

My interest in photography started back in 2003 when I bought a small digital compact camera with the intention of taking snaps of the family. After a short time my interest started to expand and I found myself going out more to photograph the local scenery. It wasn’t too long before I became frustrated with the limitations of my compact and so I decided to buy my first SLR, however, I didn’t have the cash needed to purchase the DSLRs of the time so I went the film route instead, I then spent the next three years shooting slide film. It was in these early days that I developed my love for shooting landscape and nature, being inspired primarily by photographers such as Joe Cornish, David Noton and Andy Rouse. Another figure that has been a great source of inspiration is my cousin Steve (whom I also work with). He has been a keen landscape photographer for many years and I owe a lot to him for helping me out during my early days. In late 2005 my slide scanner died which pushed me to purchase a DSLR in Jan 2006. I believe this enabled my photography to improve at a much faster rate simply because of the instant feedback I got, rather than having to wait a week before getting my slides back.

Since then I have expanded my interests further and a couple of years ago I got heavily into Urban Exploration, going into various derelict venues shooting all those nasty things that others have behind. I must say that this has taken my photography to a new level and given a new lease of life to the old grey matter. It has also led me into the world of HDR and 2010 was definitely my year for that, though my first HDR attempts were with landscape shots. I seem to have developed my own style with HDR and have somewhat gotten a reputation in this field with those that know me, this is probably due to the fact that I didn’t really seek out any tutorials and just processed things in my own way. Read More→

Categories : City and Landscape Photography, Make Better Photographs
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It’s The Little Things that Matter in Your Wedding Photography

By Robert Hillis
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Weddings are truly beautiful, expensive, lavish expressions of a couples personalities. They spend months and months and thousands of dollars on every detail to express their love for one another at one grand gathering. As a wedding photographer there are many responsibilities that we have and it’s important for us to get the major events of the day, the ceremony, dad walking daughter down the aisle, the exchange of rings, the first kiss as a married couple. All of these things are “big” important parts of their day but what we can’t forget about are the “little big” things like the name cards that they agonized over for hours or the flowers that they went to 12 different florists before they found the right arrangement or the programs that they stayed up late at night finalizing just to make the day perfect.

We sometimes forget about the amount of effort that it takes two people to plan a wedding who normally don’t plan such events. As professionals in the business we are used to the in’s and out’s, where to go to get stuff done, and who to avoid. For most of our clients this is the only time they have ever experienced working with these types of vendors so their road may be very difficult for them. They pour tons of energy into this expression of themselves and we as photographers need to remember that and be sure to capture not only the “big” memories of the day’s events, but the “little big” memories too. Clients choose us because of our professionalism, our artistic style, and our attention to detail. Many times, some of my best photos are not of the event itself but of parts of the day that make up the event and clients love that attention to detail.

Read More→

Categories : Make Better Photographs, Wedding Photography
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Tying The Knot: Three Steps To Networking Nirvana

By Milton Gan
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

I’m coming to the end of my first year as an emerging wedding photographer and what a ride it’s been! From seeking my first wedding to building a brand identity and website; from running promotions to blogging for Current Photographer, it’s been non-stop all the way and I wouldn’t change a thing!

I’ve gained a huge amount of knowledge from first hand experience of running a business as well as the hundreds of hours spent learning, training and networking online.

And it’s that last point that I’d like to focus on in this post: the need to network.

For a lot of photographers and artists, it’s about being an individual and expressing their thoughts, feelings, passions. They’re happy to spend all day alone and even enjoy having a reputation for being a bit aloof. But when you make that excited decision to turn your hobby into a business you have to realise that, like it or not, it’s the business side that becomes a priority. Sure you can sit at home after shooting your first few weddings and expect that one day you’ll be discovered by a celebrity couple who are dying to have you shoot their six figure wedding. Good luck with that! The reality for the rest of us is that you have to get out there are make yourself known ‘cos bills don’t pay themselves!

Looking back on my first year there are three clear ways that I’ve made networking pay off for me and I’d like to share them with you.

1: Network with suppliers

Committing yourself to a life in the wedding industry means accepting that wedding gowns, hair styles, flowers and table decorations are going to feature a lot in your day to day conversations (in addition to “cheesecake” of course for me!). That means you need to gain the knowledge to speak intelligently to clients and peers as an informed wedding professional. And if you’re a guy this means you’re heading for one steep learning curve! So look out for regular supplier meet-ups in your area where you can get to know local celebrants, planners, stylists, florists, stationery designers and other photographers. Meet-ups are quite often organised by wedding planners as they have an intrinsic need to know suppliers who can be matched to their clients’ requirements. I go to the monthly Thursday Throwdowns in Sydney organised by Girl Friday Weddings which essentially involve catching up over a lot of red wine! But that’s the fun of networking; not only do you make useful contacts and learn loads about the various industry niches, but time builds trust and pretty soon you find yourself part of an invaluable referral system. And on top of that you also make awesome new friends who actually understand what you do! Read More→

Categories : Make Better Photographs, Wedding Photography
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Wherever the Road Takes Me!

By Ruth Bayley
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Today I’m not really out on a specific shoot; I am just going to get into the car and see where the road takes me. Ideally I’m looking for a new location that will have a lot of photographic opportunities throughout the year. The weather is a little changeable, the skies are a bit cloudy today and we are having some really strong winds at the moment.

I love these days when I’m just off exploring, I see a place name I like the sound of and I take the road to see what’s there and from there maybe a bending road leads me somewhere else. When you get off the beaten track it’s amazing what beauty you can find; hidden villages or a deserted coastline. I’m fully organised; I’ve got some sandwiches with me so if I’m in the middle of nowhere I don’t have to starve, a compact camera, spare batteries and SD card, notebook and being a woman a hairbrush and lipstick!

I stop for lunch by a bridge over the river Dee. It’s just on the edge of a town that I haven’t been to in years, and afterwards I walk down the riverbank to check the view but there’s nothing doing. Although the church spire that overlooks the river sits very nicely above the bridge there is a signpost right in the way of any meaningful shot and due to the lack of rainfall, the riverbed is exposed below the bridge ruling out any chance of reflections. So let’s move on.

A signpost with the name the ‘holly bush’ has appeared and I’m taking the road. My imagination has been whetted, what will I find? A village built around its green with a holly bush that has been there thousands of years taking centre stage, the houses and villagers decorating the holly bush as a sacred shrine. I drive up and down the road twice, at the other end of the road a sign points back down to where I have come from but alas no holly bush, not even a pub under that name. Where and what it was I have no idea, It’s a little disappointing but I carry on my way. Read More→

Categories : City and Landscape Photography, Make Better Photographs
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