Fun is Just Good Business...

Johann and Kyoko. Photography: Living in Pictures 

Thank you Natasha, Shelton and Black Tulip For The AMAZING Photo shoot last night! You Guys made it such a wonderful experience. Thank you from the bottom of my heart :)

- Johann Nogueira.

If you are going to undertake photography as a profession - even on a part time basis - it should be enjoyable for you. That almost goes without saying. Once you stop having fun, enjoying the creativity and the many other enjoyable aspects of photography that coincide, much of the reason you started the process initially is lost. Sure, every business has its stresses and challenges, but photography should be fun - for you. But what about those whom you photograph? Should it be fun for them? Absolutely. And that, my friends, is just good business, if nothing else.

Tash and I were honoured to have our friend Johann Nogueira and his partner, Kyoko, in our home for a meal last night. Johann is without doubt the most entrepreneurial person I have ever met. He is just plain smart, heading a very successful company called Nogueira Alliance. He has been a friend of Tash's since they first met about two years ago. He has also recently been working on the Living in Pictures (the new business I have joined my wife in) website. As of this writing it is  incomplete, but we are very happy. Very happy indeed. And very grateful.

Johann is one of the nicest fellows I have ever met and his girlfriend Kyoko is simply delightful. It was a joy to create some portraits of them last night over a glass of wine, more than a few hearty laughs and even a little bit of guitar accompaniment - if you want to call what I play 'accompaniment'... Anyway... Johann works in many corporate fields, but his approach and style is casual and friendly. Nevertheless, every business person needs to have a professional portrait of themselves taken for their Linkedin site, Facebook, their own website - among many other things. In this regard Johann is certainly no exception. The only problem is, he has never enjoyed the process and so has shied away from it. That being the case, the few portraits portraits of him have not represented the Johann I know. More than that, they don't represent the Johann he himself knows.

A photographer who specialises in people photography needs to do more than just light and shoot. His or her job is to find the person they are capturing - not just in shape or form, but in character. How do they do that? They do that by being more than just a person with the camera. They do that by being communicative, relaxed, humourous and thoroughly at ease with themselves and the entire process. There is nothing more unnerving than leaving something important in the hands of someone you in whom you are not entirely confident. Yourself - your portraits, wedding photographs - any of those important events and representations of yourself, are very important. So not only should you be skilled at what you do technically, you need to be skilled at helping the person be themselves in that moment. By so doing, you enable yourself andyour subject to find the person that needs to be captured and presented to the world. That is as much a part of the skill of capture as lighting, composition, lens perspective or any other aspect of photography itself. As much as any technical skill, it should be learned and honed.

The fun we had last night captured Johann's attention to the point where he asked if this is what we do at every shoot. Tash and I just looked at each other and smiled. "Yuhuh!" we said laughingly. For the photographer, that is not only a great job, it is also just plain good business. If you deliver an enjoyable experience along with a quality product, your chances of success are thus multplied. 

Thank you Johann and Kyoko. You were so much fun!

The Photek Softlighter

Our friend "Retro" under the glow of the Photek Softlighter. Nikon D700, Tamron SP 90mm Macro

If Annie Liebovitz can use it on a shoot with Keith Richards, so can I - except that I am not on a shoot with Keith Richards.  This gentleman above (well, 'gentleman' might be pushing it but he's a great guy...) is an old friend of Tash's. His name is Ray, but everyone calls him Retro. That's how he likes it. Anyway...he popped around for dinner the other evening and seeing as we had only just purchased the Photek Softlighter from my friend Leo at Image Melbourne, Retro became our first -slightly coerced, slightly not - subject under its magical glow.

The Photek Sofltighter is not an umbrella, but it is. Its not a softbox, but it is. It is a mix of both in a way, and I really love what it does. The light from the flash head is reflected - just like umbrella lighting, but its diffused through a scrim - just like a softbox. Its specular highlights are soft, but evident, and used close to the face is beautifully soft, with smooth transition zones and very even light. Further back, say five or six feet, it is still soft and even light, but with a little added punch. Watch Jenn Photo's Youtube Video here if you like...

The first time you attach it to your flash head it can be a little bit difficult as the elasticised opening for your reflector is central, but of course your flash head is rarely centrally placed in any umbrella because the shaft usually runs along the flash head body. But once you have the hang of it, as it were, you can get that baby ready in a minute or so. Even if it takes you a few minutes at first, the light is worth the effort. I can see that I will be using this inexpensive and quite lovely light modifier for much of my studio potraiture.

If you are in Australia, like I am, you can purchase your own Photek Softlighter at Image Melbourne. Simply click here. Its under $150, and worth every cent. 

Rob Guest Endowment Concert

Sylvie Paladino performs
"Beauty and the Beast"in duet with a recording of Rob Guest

Hello Blog! You'd think that I would visit you more often, wouldn't you? I mean, you and I have been doing this for a long time now! Sorry Blog...I have been all over the place recently! Anyway...enough of the apologies. You get the point, I'm sure.

Last week, my wife, Tash, and I had the privilege to once again photograph the Rob Guest Endowment concert. This is a part of my regular work for ANZ Trustees, who, in this case, care for the Rob Guest Endowment, a trust that sees to the futures of Australia's best upcoming theatre performers. It was set up in honour of the late Rob Guest himself, one of this country's most respected performers and mentors within the industry. I had the joy of seeing him perform as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables here in Melbourne several years ago. His version of "Bring Him Home" brought me to tears. His sudden passing was felt with much sadness by those who knew him and worked with him. I never had that privilege as a photographer, but I am glad that I was able to see him perform.

Winner, Blake Bowden with music director,
Kellie Dickerson

This year's Endowment concert once again revealed the potential of young performers within this country. Each year I am astounded at their talent. Having been a singer on the odd occasion myself, I am awed by their abilities. Both musical and theatrical, these young people are offered some rather wonderful opportunities by the trust and their futures within the industry are given a serious boost. This year's winner was a young man named Blake Bowden. His performances were certainly memorable and his win well deserved. That said, I would not have wanted to be a judge on that night. Not from what I saw and heard. I am sure the margins were very fine indeed. 

At the helm of the musical performances on this evening was the lovely Kellie Dickerson. Kellie was Rob Guest's partner in life, and I was left in awe of her ability to conduct an orchestra while the voice of the man she still loves sings "Beauty and the Beast" along with Sylvie Paladino in a profoundly touching duet. Even I had to prevent a tear or two from inhibiting my work during that performance.

As photographers, our job is to capture the evening as it happens. In this regard, I have to admit to feeling proud about the things we teach in our workshops. Understanding metering, light, walking the arc and lens perspective all come into play if you are to produce jpegs within the camera that can be used immediately from that camera. These are the processes and techniques we teach at our Creative Photo Workshops and events. I am not interested in hours of Lightroom or PhotoShop, and frankly I am not paid enough to be bothered with it. I quote for my shooting time. Therefore, I don't want to work for more hours without pay. Do you? 

If I were shooting this event ten or fifteen years ago on film, I would have been compelled to employ my 'in camera' prowess. Why? Because I would have had to turn up with perfect transparencies the day after. I see no reason why I cannot now follow the same process and produce hundreds of jpegs in the camera that I can upload quickly and straight from the camera. My wife did the same thing, metering for the highlights, shooting to produce jpegs, not RAW files that are 'shot to the right' and need finishing. Yes, there are arguments for and against but I often feel that the humble jpeg is underestimated. Do I shoot RAW files? Absolutely. Do I use many of them for my customers? Rarely. After the concert, I resized them in Lightroom and uploaded them to Dropbox for my client. 

Job Done.

I believe that the time honoured process of producing in camera needs to be considered seriously, even by the neophyte photographer who has only ever known digital. In this regard, long time shooters like me have a distinct advantage. Conversely, my wife has only ever shot digitally as a professional, but she knows the processes behind the production of SOOC jpegs. 

Thank you ANZ Trustees and The Rob Guest Endowment for another fabulous night out and the honour of being part of this philanthropic event.

One Singular Illumination

 

The interplay of highlight and shadow is one of the most powerful tools a photographer has to play with. This interplay is a fine balance sometimes, but it is often at the heart of some of our most interesting and compelling images. Where many photographers often fail is in keeping this at the forefront of their lighting layout, remembering that both are needed to create the notions of texture and form in a two-dimensional image. In fact, where some photographers get this wrong is in their tendency to overlight. What do I mean by this? Its quite simple. There is often the tendency to believe that one light is too few and the technique too simple for anything dramatic or truly photographic to emerge. It is a fallacious tendency that often ruins the best of creative intentions. Just because a technique is simple it does not mean that it lacks creativity or impact. Keeping it simple is the difference between B.B. King and Yngwie Malmsteen. Both are very talented, but BB only plays four notes to Malmsteen's four hundred. That said, I could listen to BB for hours.

Yesterday found me once again out on a Creative Photo Workshops shoot. This time our model was Kelly Jean, a model with whom I had not worked since my original workshops some time back. Our location was yet another abandoned, ruined old structure somewhere in the middle of nowhere, the whereabouts of which I cannot divulge. Glynn - my partner in crime - and I saw this old armchair in the rubble and moved it smack bang into the middle of a concrete slab on this property. The starkness of the scene and the presence of some rather wonderful clouds gave us an idea to create the images you see here. You will see me blogging quite a bit about shoots such as these now that we have a new magazine in the planning and video tutorials to create for our new website. More on that to come... 

The real light on the day

Most of what I do for myself and teach our customers at photography workshops in terms of off camera flash is all based around using one flash, one single point of illumination. And why not? The entire planet is lit by one main light source by day.  This one light source creates enough shadow and highlight in the world around us that we can with our own eyes tell shape, form and texture. Why not keep this same lighting principle in our photographs - at least as a starting point?
The images you see in this blog post were all created using one small handheld flashgun connected to FlashWave III triggers and receivers. Using simple guide number calculations that we teach at our Creative Flash Photography workshops, we can quickly establish the aperture for our exposure. Its a simple matter then of selecting the corresponding shutter speed to either match the ambient, or underexpose it. I usually opt to underexpose it to further highlight the subject. In this way, you are able to produce dramatic images straight from the camera. As you can see from the behind the scenes photographs taken by Natasha from Black Tulip Photography, the reality looks very different to the end product. Nevertheless, the images from the camera were very different due to the added flash and the choice of exposure for the ambient. Sure, each of these images has clearly seen a few minutes of PhotoShop. But the images out of the camera needed to be what they were in order for these finished products to have emerged. 

It is quite evident in these images that one light was enough to create the desired, ethereal effect. No additional lighting was required. In fact, it wasn't even really considered, which is odd, seeing as we brought six or seven flashguns with us. I always start with one light, adding more only if they are needed. I may modify that light with a Honl grid or some other accessory, but I find that usually I start and finish with one. One light is always my starting point in the studio too. Where many photographers who are learning studio lighting techniques err is in their enthusiasm for turning on every flashhead in the place to see what happens. A word to the wise if you don't mind. Turn on one light and then see where you need another one - if you do. Keeping it simple is usually the key to success in terms of lighting.God did.It works. 

She's a Winner

Francine Cain

A few months ago, a lovely young woman by the name of Francine Cain won the Rob Guest Endowment 2010 award. Francine is a lovely young woman whose talents will soon be very evident as she plays Regina in Rock of Ages. I am sure that will prove to be the beginning of a long and wonderful career for her. Among her many prizes as winner of the Rob Guest award was a day having her photographs taken by Shelton Muller, Photographer. Second prize was two days. 

Sorry folks. Its an oldie but a goodie. It was there. I had to use it.

ANZ Trustees, for whom I do my fair share of commercial work, made my photography part of the package she so deservedly won. There are times when doing photography for a bank can be somewhat...mundane. Not that we ever take our work opportunities for granted, but its true. However, I was really looking forward to this creative opportunity, and the chance to be one of the photographers who helps someone along a the outset of their illustrious career. It also means that I might score some tickets to the show. Maybe even a backstage pass!

Well, one can hope...

Anyway...after months of trying to synchronise our schedules, Francine and I were finally able to meet in the city for a shoot. She had been to New York (where she bought that leopard print coat!) and was now back, so we got a few free hours together. We met in the old city square for coffee and then started our shoot in and around Hosier Lane in Melbourne. Photographers in our fair city know this lane well. It is perhaps the most colourful place in the entire city, with building walls filled with artful graffiti that is constantly updated and encouraged. I thought it a perfect match for Francine's colourful personality and her ideas for some 'different' photographs to the ones she already had. 

Francine had already had some very beautiful studio photographs taken and so we thought we would do some location stuff - a little bit 'street' with a few variations on a theme. I kept it simple, using single off camera flash techniques and available light. Francine brought a few different outfits and we had some fun together for a few hours, laughing through each setup and telling passing Chinese tourists that Francine was a famous singer. Clamouring to be photographed with her, they passed their cameras to me and posed for their snaps with a celebrity.

Well, Francine is not quite world famous yet. But as my friend Glynn Lavender says - its not lying. 

Its 'futurespeak'.

I wish you every success Francine. It couldn't happen to a nicer person. 

In Hobart for the AIPP

I have just returned from the capital of Tasmania, our small but beautiful southern island. Hobart is such a lovely town and I have the pleasure of being there for the better part of three days so I could speak at a convention for...two hours.Yeah, I have to admit...really liked that idea.

I was simply forced to take some time out and travel around, photographing beautiful Richmond and the simultaneously haunting and picturesque ruins of the former penal colony of Port Arthur.

My presentation to the photographers at the AIPP convention was on the subject of Creative Flash Photography, which I love talking about. I am a serious fan of off camera flash and its ability to create images where less than acceptable opportunities abound. I was able to speak to fellow professionals and also a few neophytes to our wonderful art about the creative power of the most portable lighting a photographer could imagine. After cutting my normal presentation down from its usual two hours to only one, I had one hour left to take the photographers into Salamanca Place and run through a few techniques. Being short of a hired model, I chose Thomas, a humourous American photographer who happened to get himself 'volunteered'.

As I said, it was also a great chance to revisit Port Arthur, which appeared in the news about a dozen years ago when mass murderer, Martin Bryant, killed many tourists and locals on this site. Its history as a penal colony is devoid of human rights, and this event only makes this location all the more macabre. However, its ruins and its landscape are truly amazing and I enjoyed the chance to photograph this place digitally. The last time I was there the light was poor and I was using film. This time, everything was different.

Richmond is also a lovely little tourist town. Its famous and very beautiful bridge has been a Mecca for Australian photographers for many years. I took the opportunity to photograph it twice over this past weekend - once in the evening, and then again the following morning. The graves at the local church are also interesting for photography and even for a history lesson. All in all, it was a lovely weekend. Tasmania even turned on the sunshine for me. I left as it began to rain...

Jamie and Sarah's Wedding

I know I always say this, but its true....I had the distinct honour of photographing another wedding this past weekend. It was the wedding of Sarah Cleaver and Jamie Mackieson. Sarah and Jamie have recently purchased a piece of verdant paradise in Timboon, Victoria - about 20 minutes drive from the Great Ocean Road. It was Jamie's dream to marry Sarah on his own land and it was my pleasure to see his dream come to fruition and to photograph the entire process. Sarah and Jamie raise Highland cattle for beef while they both teach in the local school.

Knowing the weather's unpredictable nature in this region, Sarah and Jamie had planned to have a pre-ceremony photographic session to ensure that they would have some beautiful photographs before the weather turned in the afternoon, which it often does. They were happy to break with tradition in order to prioritise photographs, which I thoroughly agree with. For me it was also a relief for exactly the same reasons. Its always nice to know that you have the photographs that the couple will be looking for when they receive their wedding prints.

The ceremony took place on a small bridge in a rainforest area framed by the remains of a 120 year old trestle bridge. It is a place where Jamie and Sarah walk together each day. From there we walked further into the forest to find an even more dilapidated trestle bridge where the light was beautiful for more portraits of the bridal party. We returned to their property to photograph them under their favourite apple tree and then to the marquee on the hill where the reception was held, followed by an evening of fireworks.

It was a beautiful wedding - perhaps one of the most memorable of my career. All the elements seem to come together to make this experience so wonderful. Jamie and Sarah are such lovely people and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with Jamie's family, for whom I had previously photographed their daughter Amanda's wedding. The light was beautiful and the surroundings paradisaic. There was plenty of time to do what I have to do and create what I desire to create and there was such willingness on the part of the bride and groom to have beautiful photographs of their special day.

Driving home the next day along Victoria's Shipwreck Coast, photographing the Twelve Apostles, Lochard Gorge and Erskine Falls was a wonderful way to finish the weekend.

Thank you Jamie and Sarah for the honour of entrusting your dream wedding to me and my camera and for the sheer pleasure it was to be with you, your family and your friends on your special day. I won't forget it. I have photographed hundreds of weddings in my time. There are some that you remember with real fondness. This will certainly be among them.

Amanda and Tom's wedding

The first time I met Amanda I was sitting in a cafe in Lygon Street. I had never laid eyes on this young woman who had kindly asked me to set aside her wedding date so that I could be her photographer. The moment she walked into the cafe I felt her energy. She had told me to look for a woman with a peacock on her dress. When we met I asked about a peacock I couldn't actually see. Laughing, she broke into a shimmy in the middle of the cafe so that I could see the peacock design on her dress more evidently. She still had to point it out, but I knew at that moment that this was a wedding I wanted to capture. Even the conversation that ensued made me look so very forward to her wedding day. When it finally arrived I was so happy to be there.

Amanda and Tom decided to marry at London Bridge in Portsea, Victoria. This is a brave decision for anyone at any time of year, but July? This is mid winter in Victoria! But the weather held out and I enjoyed photographing them both as they stood perched on one of the rock ledges of this geological structure. We didn't get much time for photographs thereafter as it did begin to rain and howl...but it was not a problem at all.

I will get some more details here soon, but for now...Thank you Tom and Amanda. The kind words you said to me, Tom, were among the most complimentary of my career, and your hug, Amanda, as I left, was perhaps the most insistent I have ever received from a grateful bride. You made me feel so very honoured. Thank you both!

A cover shoot

Waking up on a Sunday morning at 5am is not what Sunday mornings are supposed to be about. However, when new and potentially important clients need you to be somewhere for an early morning shoot, that's what you do!

So, Sunday morning found me in at the Hyatt on Collins for a 7am meeting with my new client. (All will be revealed when the magazine is printed). I brought with me my friend and fabulous assistant, Richard Annable and his lovely and very capable girlfriend, Tamara. Together we sat over coffee with my client to discuss the shoot ahead. This was very quickly followed by a fabulous Hyatt buffet breakfast, which really went down well.

The idea of the shoot was about Shopping in Melbourne. For that, we needed to show our fair city as the sunny summer destination that it is...except that in July - it isn't. It had been raining all day and all night the day before and there was little sign on sunlight for the day ahead. So, armed with a couple of Pocket Wizards and some off camera flash units we made our own sunlight and it seemed to work well.

Our model was Arabella Forge, a beautiful and very humourous nutrionist who also models for various clients. She was great fun to work with, especially considering that her outfits were not particularly made for a cold winter day. Nonetheless, she soldiered on through the various renditions of Richard and I singing "Tropical Heatwave" in a vain attempt to keep her thinking warm thoughts. She was fabulous!

My client had asked me to set the day aside, thinking that the shoot would take the better part of the day. However, I had impressed my client so much by the time 12 noon rolled around that she looked at me eagerly enough and said "I think that's it. I don't need any more. We're done!

When a client knows that the shots are in the bag hours before it was thought that they would be, you know you have done your job. There is also every chance that they will work with you again. And, after the fun we all had, I hope so. I really want to work with these fun and creative people again!

Behind the Scenes images courtesy of Tamara Bodor.

Another Wedding Workshop today

Today saw Glynn Lavender and me at Abbotsford Convent...again, running a Creative Wedding Photography workshop. Once again, Natasha Humble fronted as our bride with Glynn taking the honours for himself to pose as our groom. The problem was trying to stop these two characters from laughing and fooling around! We had such a great time!

I am however reminded of one sad truth whenever I run photography workshops, especially the wedding one. That truth is that there are photographers who are photographing weddings who have the incorrect perception that having a creative eye and a digital SLR will get you by, no matter how little you may know about the science and technicalities of photography. So many who come to these workshops have little knowledge of these aspects of photography and rely far too much on their cameras to get things right.

This is a misunderstanding and an overstating of any camera's ability, and this is especially true of wedding photography. At my workshop today, I was able to at least show some of those who attended what they really needed to learn...and that is a good thing.

So let me clarify. This is not a criticism of those who attend with little knowledge of their cameras. It would be a criticism if they were to continue along those lines after realising the need to learn. I hope that doesn't happen, of course...

The Things We Do...

Kodak Australia is naturally one of my favourite clients. This is not just because they are a huge corporation and unequivocally synonymous with photography, but also because we have been working together for so long.

I got a call the other day from them requesting that I come to PacPrint to take a team photograph of their staff on their stand...which I did. Because I have a three hour minimum charge, they asked if I would stay on the stand and take photographs of the staff as they interacted with each other and with customers...which I did.

The following morning the images were shown to the staff during their morning wind up. They loved them so much that they asked if I could come in again and do the same thing..which I did. And now, they have asked if I will once again return and do the same thing again tomorrow...which I will.

Hey. I don't mind. Its work. I have bills. They are Kodak. There are worse things I could be doing. 

Etc etc..