Personal Journey and Adventures of Nina

For this shoot, I collaborated with the wonderful Blogger and Stylist, Kirsty, with love. She selected the clothing and put the outfits together. You can read her full post here . Hmm. There are probably things I would do differently but I wanted to try this for something different. With headshots, I pretty well use 5 standards lighting setups so it was good to break out of my comfort zone. I also got to use the deep silver parabolic umbrella which was fun. When your model is being cooky! The main light is the Beauty Dish and the fill light is the Deep Umbrella. Because the dish and the deep both have short and abrupt light falloffs, I added the small octa softbox for the suit. A strip light to rim the edge of the suit. I really liked the quality of the Deep and Dish together. I will definitely use this again. EQUIPMENT LIST Profoto B1 Alien Bee 1600 Paul C Buff Beauty Dish Paul C Buff Strip Soft Box Profoto OCF Softbox Octa X Lite Deep Umbrella Paraboli

Today, it has been two years since mum passed but I still think of her every day. Sounds silly because I'm a grown woman but I feel like an orphan. That last person you know who will undoubtedly and unconditionally love you forever, gone. August 2015 with an Oxygen Tank at home now Mothers Day 2014 Unlike my Dad who was struck with a massive heart attack, Mum's demise was slow and painful.  Diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) or the more familiar condition Emphysema. They gave her 4 years. She lasted 5. There were her countless daily medications.  The immunosuppressant Prednisone, Morphine for pain, Ventolin to ease the airways, Bactrim to ward off infection and Seroquel for depression and more.. On occasion, all this was not enough. Her lungs would collapse and we had to call the ambulance.  She'd have interesting reactions to certain drugs. Hallucinating about being surrounded by angels then whispering to me that we had to

With the prep, setup and shoot now complete, we are about half way through the process toward getting you a finished image. The above video is at 4x speed to give you a quick overview of the process involved in post production for each image selected. In actuality, the entire process takes between 5-10 minutes per image. PHOTOSHELTER GALLERY The images are uploaded using Lightroom where I do a run through and select my favourites. Selections are then uploaded onto my website for client proofing. I use Photoshelter  for this process. PHOTOSHOP Once I have the clients selection, I send it to Photoshop (PS) from Lightroom (LR) which keeps my library in order as all changes made in PS will be saved in LR. Here I get rid of stray hairs, dust balls and cat hair using the healing tool. I soften highlights with the clone tool and remove shadows with the curves adjustment. PORTRAIT PRO I then use the Plugin Portrait Pro to take redness our of the skin, mildly smooth out shadows

I could honestly spend every weekend cleaning and organising for the coming week but I decided that life is too short. If I sat around the house, the piles of dishes would taunt me. I've had a pretty stressful few weeks so fresh air and a change of scenery seemed appropriate. It was time to get out of the city! With the wonderful roads now, it only takes an hour to get to Springwood and Blaxland. I remember visiting my Godfather here as a child and it was at least a 2 hour drive. I am definitely grateful for our roads. (but maybe not the tolls!) First stop Lennox Bridge , in Blaxland. Opened in 1833, it is the oldest surviving stone arch bridge in Australia. Usually there would be water running under the bridge but we haven't had any significant rainfall in over two months.  It's only Spring and already we are getting the hot high sun which makes for contrasty images. I would have come out earlier but had to vote in the local council elections! Next time tho

30 second exposure of Sydney Harbour Same scene without a filter . LONG EXPOSURES Oops...forgot my Tripod For fun I like to play around with longer exposures. The first image (above) is a 30 second exposure. You can do this on a bright sunny day by using a filter on your lens or at night without a filter. 10 Stop Solid ND Filter -  I used a BW 10 stop filter to get the top image. They are around $50-$100. Tripod - Ideally a tripod is recommended. I actually forgot my tripod so set my camera up on a nearby pylon and used my lens hood to keep the camera upright and steady. Focus First - once your camera is setup, focus the lens on the scene, then switch the lens to Manual Focus (MF). Then attach the filter. You cannot focus with the filter on because it is so dense you cannot see anything. EVEN EXPOSURES The light difference between the sky and the foreground can be greatly different. This means you will often get

Recently, I've helped a few friends with their dating photos and profiles with fabulous results. Within one week, Miss L has already taken down her profile as she is now dating the perfect guy.  Miss R had 11 messages by the time she got home from our shoot!  Miss T has had several very wonderful dates and is really enjoying herself.  Here are a few key elements that helped them. Men are Drawn to Beauty First  Men are attracted to beauty first so you'll need to make a little effort with your online photos. The good news is that it is your beautiful personality is what will keep him attracted to you for the long term.  Get A Friend To Describe Your Personality If you feel awkward describing yourself, ask your friends what they think and quote them. "My friends say that my most endearing qualities are my smile and bubbly personality." This is from my friend, "Jacinta, you have a beautiful, bright and genuine personality.  Your smile literally lights up th

Luring people in with free portrait sessions has been around forever, the language has just changed. Now you will see "Families Wanted" or "Photographer Wants To Expand Portfolio" or "Looking for Mothers and Daughters" or "Kids and Pets shoot for charity". It's all just the same thing. Your Free Session Just Cost You $3,000 You have your free photo session. A week later you go in to the studio to view your photos and cannot resist your gorgeous children on the screen so you spend $3,000 to get 2 framed pics and a 5x7" for your mum. You walk away with an ache in the pit of your stomach. You finally get the framed photos hung onto your wall but every time you look at them you are reminded of the thousands you you racked up on your credit card to pay for them.   Buyers Remorse and Anxiety What you are feeling is feel buyers remorse . Not just because of the guilt you are feeling about the money spent but because you were tricked