Personal Journey and Adventures of Nina

Business portraits for LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are one of my favourite to shoot. It is so important to have a professional looking image at the forefront of your profile. In this studio shoot at my Chatswood location, we made a variety of clothing, hair, position, lighting and background changes so that the client would have a selection of images to choose from. These are just a few.

What do you do when the dog has had enough...photograph the children!  Today we were photographing for a pet magazine, ( Pet Industry News )  but Missy, the Labradoodle decided to take a break alas Miss Em was not finished.  It's autumn in Oz right now and the leaves and flowers are all over the ground...such a pretty backdrop (for a short while at least). Em decided herself that she would like to be photographed and had set her pretty dress and shoes out the night before. This always makes for the best shoots. Children that actually enjoy the camera as opposed to those who require bribes or treats!!!

Professional portraits for your high school dance or dinner? I wish they had thought of this when I went to high school! Although I remember it vividly, I do not have one image of my year 10 formal. What a fabulous idea! 20 years from now, these kids will love showing these happy snaps to their kids. They will reminisce about what they wore, how great they looked, who their friends were and how much fun they had! I had a wonderful time and all the kids were amazing! They just fell into their poses for the formal shots, each guy and girl looking as though they had stepped out of a magazine! Sometimes the formal consists of a dinner but tonight we are dancing away at Home Nightclub at Darling Harbour, downtown Sydney.

What do you do when your studio is all set and your client postpones?? Grab your daughter and her girlfriend and make them model for you...or not! Please...not another photo shoot! Really not working for me! Model becomes photographer... You can imagine that the daughter of a photographer can, be less than enthusiastic (i.e. when not being bribed with toys or money), about spending yet another  minute behind the camera so I asked her to become the photographer...she took some pretty cool shots. I love it when children take over the camera. It gives me a perspective that I wouldn't have normally considered! The reactions they receive are also different to what I might get. Altogether it worked out pretty well.

I am well aware of the old adage, never work with children or pets but I find the challenge they present, half the fun! What's a little Hedgehog poop among friends... Puppies are like children in that they grow up so fast. Their features and expressions alter as they mature. As with children, I recommend that you take as many images as possible to record this evolution. The pet can be a little nervous on set at first so a little coercion helps. After the pet has a little sniff around, I give them a tasty treat. Once I get a few photo's on the card, I give them another treat and a break. They end up quite enjoying the experience. In fact sometimes, they do not want to leave! Combining pets with product photography provides an extra challenge. The brain child of my friend, Alina, we approached this shoot with juxtaposition in mind - Mary K's "Satin Hands" against the grainy skin of the Bearded Dragon and the wiry spines of a Hedgehog against Redk

Christmastime brings family together, sometimes from different States, even different countries so it is an ideal opportunity to capture the togetherness with a portrait. This past Boxing Day, we did just that. Mother Nature threatened a dreadful storm with softball sized hail stones but we went ahead with the shoot in any case because who knows when this opportunity may arise again as part of the family had travelled from Adelaide to be here for the shoot... A fabulous location, chosen by the family. We were actually at a point where we could see back toward the city skyline.