Personal Journey and Adventures of Nina

This is where I live. Chatswood.  Last night on my way home from a meeting, the wind changed direction and the smoke from over 100 burning bushfires smothered our town. Sydney Morning Herald touts that these are the "worst in more than a decade". my street      I woke this morning to find out that 34 of these fires are uncontained, out of control. Mother nature is MAD!  Possibly 100's of families have lost their homes and everything in or around them including pets and livestock. A devastating tragedy.  What makes me mad is that some of these fires were most likely caused by someone carelessly tossing a cigarette out of their car window...seriously. How stupid are these people?? Thankful for the cooler day today as I am certain all of our brave firefighters are too. I hope it is all under control very soon.    Here is how you can help:  Members of the public who wish to help are asked to do so via the Salvation Army

Already excited about the location, I was also pleased that this family was one of the most obliging, happy families that I have ever photographed. Not only were they happy to sit or stand wherever I asked them to, they smiled happily for the entire two hours. It was a super sunny Sunday day so we had to do our best to dodge the radiant autumn sun as well as the many walkers, kayakers and general picnickers to this lovely location. As I had my armory of equipment in addition to my trusty assistant whom we happily had climbing into bushes and hanging out of trees, we did ok. I really enjoy the texture and colour of the sandstone and want to do more here. It really epitomizes Sydney and I just plain like it! I'm used to Sydney being dry then dryer with lots of browns, some green and occasional red but I wasn't prepared for the spectacular yellows that we had today. Makes me want to plant an entire field of American Oak or Maple trees.

Sharon is the owner of the highly successful maternity wear business, QueenBee . Based here in Sydney with over 10 staff, Australian Businesswomen's Network  (ABN) set out writing an article on her successes and needed a photo to go with it, so Sharon sought my services. Sharon opted for the Premium Business Shoot which included a makeup and hair artist, several clothing, hairstyle and background changes. Firstly, we shot inside the studio with my strobe lights where I opted for my double diffused Octabox. For the more casual requirement made by the ABN, we shot with window light in the studio's viewing area and then outside with diffused natural lighting. It was a terrific session and now Sharon has a great mix of images that will not only suit the requirements of the ABN but a wealth of images for her own websites, blogs and professional sites such as LinkedIn.

We spend so much time at the pool, it was finally good to be in the studio again, even if it was for a swim portrait! These photos are for Brandon's athlete Facebook page which will one day soon be used to help gain swim sponsorship's. For me, it's good practice for when the big guys, Speedo or Engine come knocking on my door...wish me luck!

I love it when a shoot comes together. I think preparation was the key. The mum and I chatted about ideas beforehand so the family came fully prepared and most importantly, relaxed on the day.  Even George, the puppy was pleasantly co-operative. We started out with the most important on our list - family shots for grandma... ...then we broke out and had some fun!

Pretty decent. My husband said, "Hey, can you do that for me?" I replied, "write something interesting!" There really isn't a secret. I'm no SEO genius. Actually far from it. There are a couple of things that I did learn at college.  Use headlines with your top keywords, which you have already figured from Google Adwords  .  I'm a visual person so of course my posts have interesting photographs which have been loaded with keywords. Make sure you write more than 100 interesting words in your post because Google gives you priority. Include lots of links in your post. Label your post with loads of relevant keywords. Share your posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus...etc. I have links to social media on my website. It's kind of like a big circle. Each venue takes you to the next one! Include links to all of your social media venues. Post regularly. I think that's about it! Happy posting...

On LinkedIn and other business networking venues, your profile photo is  your first point of contact with the world .  Whether you are promoting your business, looking for work, selling products or networking with colleagues, a photo of you knocking back a beer at a party is not going to cut it. For this profile photo session, we were in the heart of the busy north shore business district, Chatswood. We found buildings, walls, plants and trees enough to do several different looking shots which will suffice for all of the different types of social networking sites that the lovely Amanda required. At one stage we were approached by security and questioned thoroughly about why we were shooting and to be certain that no signage was included. At first we were a little put out but after a bit, we decided that the guy was playing around with us...ha ha! It was a really windy day so had I used the pop-up reflectors I had brought, I may have ended up in Fiji. Instead, I used my spe

The SMNE Summer Championships were a blast. There were lots of records and some great photos which were helped along by a new faster, sharper 300mm lens. It was difficult to choose but here are a few favourites. You can view the entire set here   on my swim photos website.

What fabulous children! So happy and obliging. We had a fun time shooting on different backgrounds and locations here at my Chatswood Studio. Whilst some children last minutes, these children gave me an incredible amount of time. I tired well before they did. They loved having their photographs taken and it shows.