Personal Journey and Adventures of Nina

Nothing like a cool Winter's Day in Sydney for a photo session at the beach. Actually our winter's are amazing and I much prefer shooting at this time than those belting hot summer days. My light is soft and the sand is still warm. I only need the slightest fill to get a good exposure.  The family was moving to the USA and wanted a memory of the Northern Beaches, where they had spent their time so I also didn't mind a bit of contrasty sunlight here and there as a reminder. I really liked the outfits chosen by the family.  They complimented each other whilst not being too "matchy". I have a Pinterest Board that has fabulous clothing suggestions for family portraits that you are welcome to follow. The family was extremely relaxed even though their house was being packed up as we were shooting. They were very committed to making it a great shoot and that makes all the difference.  We wanted Manly in the background of a

When execs stop by the studio for their portraits, this is what a regular headshot session looks like. We check that clothing, makeup (if any), and hair are all put together then we decide on our background colour choices. We look at a 5 second slideshow if the client has not already looked on my website and made their decision.  Depending on the industry, the chosen colour can vary. The corporate's from the Tech or Pharmaceutical industries seem to go for the blue. It looks professional but stands out when you are scrolling through hundreds of little heads on LinkedIn. Gray is very popular because it looks extremely professional and doesn't offend. White is often the standard for many a company website because it is easy to associate with other colours already used and the person can be cut out of the background easily and also used in newsletters etc. We shoot from a few different angles and apertures so that we capture as many variations as possible.

Chantal O'Reilly , is an amazing textile Designer, who needed some quality images for her website and upcoming exhibition.  Chantal conceptualised the lush fabrics draping over the rustic ladder. So it was my job to work out the best backdrop and lighting in order to compliment the fabrics and flatter their designer!  I chose the brown/black canvas backdrop that I had hand painted as the most complimentary in colour, texture and overall effect. As far as lighting, I went for diffused, soft lighting on both the fabrics and the client. I really liked the way the lighting brought out the soft, shiny texture of the fabric. First things first though. Makeup for our Designer.  MJ ( Makeup by MJ ) is fantastic and does a lot of work for the studio.  Professional makeup makes all the difference to the final image. Having a proper base means less shiny patches on the skin for a start. Also, the artist brings out the clients features so they further appreciate the end resul

Short course season changes the game for me quite a bit. With only 25 metres to catch a front on Fly shot, I'm lucky if I get one attempt. The older kids (and I mean over 12yrs) get most of the way down the first 25 without a breath. Breaststroke is still ok so long as the swimmer does the slow glide and not the quick bob up and down. Some swimmers do not come out of the water much at all, then they are just a head on top of the water but at these State Champs, we had some pretty stylish swimmers.  The great thing about short course is that we can get pretty close up shots at some points where is would have been almost impossible in long course. If I had to be at the end of the pool ready for the fly, there is no way I would have time to get the dive shot first before running 50m to the end of the pool. Also, even with the 300mm lens, the 50m pool is too long for the backstroke start shot. Poolside shots are one of my favourite to shoot so I was glad that I h

One of my favourite portraits to shoot are Teen Portraits. They are happy to break the rules a little and do something a little less conventional, in this case a little more fashion orientated. We were lucky enough to have the fabulous Mijung Park for Makeup and Hair today. We have worked together quite a bit but usually business makeup so this was fun for us. We started with a natural look as in the picture above before moving to a more dramatic look. For this first image, I used a three light setup. Alien Bee 1600 on the lowest setting with a 30 degree grid for the background which is my 50% painted gray wall. A Beauty Dish to the model's left, almost beside her and pointed down at a about a 30 degree angle. Laying vertically about waist height was a silver reflector to bounce some of the light back up and rid us of some of the shadows. Camera Settings Canon 1D X 85mm lens 1/160th @ f5.6     Four small changes make a b

Everyday that I shoot, it is a fun day for me because I simply love what I do. Today was a little more fun than usual because we got to play with various new lighting setups, some props and hair blowing which I don't normally use in my business portrait sessions or my swim photos! Dustyn is the Mackay representative for Lipsense Lip Colour as well as managing her own Youtube How-To Makeup  Channel so she knows how to apply a mean lipstick. The rest was up to us. Dustyn hasn't modeled before but I think that you'll agree that the camera really likes her. The following are completely unedited images. TECHNICAL INFORMATION Camera - The most awesome Canon 1D X .. Lens - Canon 85mm Aperture - 5.6 on the white images and 2.0 on the blue ones Lighting This lighting diagram is for the images with the white background. Alien Bee B1600 with Beauty Dish as main light Westcott Luminator Reflector for fill Alien Bee B1600 wit