Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it. (Morley Baer)

Photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. (Elliot Erwitt)

Don’t fight Mother Nature – When out photographing, I have always found working with the prevailing conditions to be a far better idea than stubbornly resisting what is going on around me. (Howard Grill)

continued from yesterday’s post… after the ceremony we walked over to the restaurant and found our seats. we were served a delicious turkish-style entree and then various family and friends shared stories and well-wishes for the couple. large platters of mains arrived at the tables, followed by dessert and cake – some of the best wedding food i have ever eaten, props to platter restaurant! here’s some photos from the evening…

the koha tree

speeches and well-wishes

stories bring back memories

shoes!

you never quite know what someone will say

giona addresses his wife

groomsmen

bridesmaids

mother of the bride welcomes giona to the family

evening falls

the boys

a quick lesson on cake-cutting

cake cutting for real

elise & giona

cake!

thanks so much for inviting us to share your day!

yesterday afternoon saw us all gathered under the pohutukawa trees, waiting to celebrate the marriage of my cousin elise to her fiance giona. this wedding was unusual for me: it was the first time i’d been a guest at any wedding without the responsibility of providing photographic coverage!

but that didn’t stop me taking my camera along – i didn’t plan to take any particular photos, i was just shooting to please myself – and i made sure to relax and enjoy the day with my family. however i still somehow ended up with quite a few photos (i wonder how that happened?) so i have decided to split this blog post into two. here are my favourite moments from the ceremony…

beautiful music from the string orchestra sets the mood

giona awaits his beautiful bride

and groomsmen display various stages of anticipation

elise arrives at last!

walking the aisle with her father

i love this look she gives her groom

and the look he returns to her

at the altar

gorgeous bridesmaids look on

exchanging rings and vows

the kiss!

is all that kissing stuff over with yet?

presenting mr and mrs bridler

don’t they look perfect together?

congratulations elise and giona!

photos from the reception will follow

yesterday my beautiful cousin married her sweetheart of 8 years in a simple ceremony by the beach… more photos to come!

i often get asked by new photographers & friends “how are your photos always so bright and crisp-looking? i try all kinds of things but no matter what i do, they don’t look like yours”

at the risk of looking like i’m jumping on the ‘before and after’ blog bandwagon: here’s a short ‘before and after’ post which i hope will go some way to dispelling the mystery.

first of all, i don’t think you should be trying to make your photos look just like mine. they need to look like YOURS – your own style and unique eye is what you bring to photography that no one else has, so make the most of it. as international wedding photographer jasmine star says: “don’t be the best, be different.”

regarding photographic gear: there are two schools of thought as to how much influence your camera equipment has over the end result. on the one hand, better tools are always easier to work with, have fewer limitations, and usually output a finer quality product. but on the other hand, a talented and experienced photographer can get stunning results with the most basic or old-fashioned gear – so the jury is out. generally, better quality optics, finer sensors/better film and more reliable focus systems/techniques will help most people improve their work – but that’s not all there is to it. your best tool is still your eye – so don’t turn your camera into your excuse!

i would love to claim that i’m so ‘rockstar’ that every photo i show here on this blog just fell out of my camera looking that way – sadly that is not the case, haha; each finished picture is the product of a good base photograph, and knowing how to use my processing tools to bring out my vision. everyone sees a different picture in their mind when shooting – and this is why it is important for you to be clear about what you want to achieve before you start, because that will guide you as you shoot and prepare the photo.

my processing tools:

adobe lightroom, which is my RAW file processor. i never shoot JPEG anymore, RAW allows for so much more creativity without damaging the photo. it is also very forgiving: should anything be not quite right when the shutter opens, it is good to know you have a better chance of recovering that shot!

adobe photoshop, my ‘finisher’. lightroom plays more of a lead role these days in my photo processing but i still rely on photoshop to work with the processed file, tweaking or adding special touches not yet available in lightroom. i also use it to prepare files for web viewing in order that they look their best.

i also have a collection of professional presets & filters for both lightroom and photoshop, which i use to save time while processing, or to give me a starting point for the result i want to reach. some i have created myself based on my own style; some have been shared by photographer friends of mine; and others are commercially available, such as Totally Rad Actions, Kubota Image Tools and Nik Software.

here is a photo i took yesterday on a photowalk, original is on the left; finished photo on the right:

the process:
* in-camera settings were: ISO 160, aperture f/2.8, shutter 1/1000 sec, focal length 135mm
i deliberately underexposed the shot to retain all the colour and detail in the sky
* using lightroom 2, i chose a feathered adjustment brush and set the exposure to +0.5, then painted over the seat and surrounding grass to lift it from the shadows
* then, i chose the vignette tool and gave the edge of the photo a slight burn, which draws the eye toward the middle
* then i chose the brush again and set it to +0.3, and repainted the lighter areas of the seat to give more contrast
* then i exported the file and opened it in photoshop
* i chose a filter by nik called viveza which allows you to select a colour in the photo and alter it without changing the rest of the image
* i selected the seat colour, and cooled it down slightly by removing warmth and tinting it blue, to ‘place’ it visually back into the shadow area
* then i resized the photo, and added a slight sharpening effect and frame/watermark before exporting it for web viewing at 80% quality

and that’s it – not a lot was involved, but that’s because my original photo already was close to what i saw in my head. and that’s probably the most important tip of all.

any questions, feel free to ask

babies and toddlers (and pets too) have a special quality absent in most other human portrait subjects that makes them very rewarding to photograph: they are utterly unselfconscious in front of a camera, being largely unaware of its purpose. they don’t shrink, get shy, pose, act, or pull exaggerated/artificial facial expressions. the main challenge is to gain their trust so that they aren’t reacting (negatively) to your presence. and – you don’t have to direct them! possibly my favourite part of all

and because a post without a photo is boring: here’s joshua…

you might also remember him from such posts as this, this, this or this

i stopped drinking straight milk years ago… right about the time they stopped selling it in glass bottles.

when i was very young i’d run down to nanna’s front gate, barefoot in the cool evening, with 2 or 3 bottles in the carrier, payment tokens rattling within. tied round the carrier handle was a used silver foil cap, to let the milkman know what type of milk we wanted. (silver-top was full cream, which we always got; blue top was homogenised and green-top was fat-free skim – yuck LOL).

then we’d listen for the milkman, who could be identified by the distant clinking of glass. the full pint bottles in the carrier were almost too heavy for me, but somehow i struggled them back up to the house, feeling the old plastic handle flex under my tiny fingers.

as i got older i remember walking up to the dairy by myself and buying a pint bottle for mum, and then on the way home i’d puncture the foil cap with my teeth and drink half of it (including all the cream off the top) before i got back! never could understand why this bothered mum so much lol.

but sadly those days are gone; and now the glass pint milk deliveries are a thing of the past. today’s alternatives offer only cardboard or plastic cartons… call me old-fashioned but i find them really off-putting.

the worst thing about plastic carton milk is the way it starts to smell when the bottle is getting empty; and if i can smell it, i can’t drink it. so today, i went looking for the good old days – and found these cool 1-litre glass bottles. now my fresh milk will actually taste that way again! can’t wait to go drink it!

today, one of my cats left me a present. now, this is not the first occasion that i have received this gift, but today’s example was particularly cleverly placed.

in the past they have left me much more gory offerings:

* a very much alive and noisy (huge) cicada in the middle of the night, which i had to chase around the lounge for a good 20 minutes while it flew madly about yelling its head off with the cat vainly attempting to recapture it – quite deafening at 3 in the morning

* injured birds/mice in varying stages of expiration… in fact one bird spent some time recovering in the hot water cupboard and when we checked to see if it was ok it rapidly exited the box and flew straight back into the same (surprised) cat’s mouth, so we had to rescue it all over again

* many dead birds/mice (and pieces of such) both outside and inside the house *blergh*

* the time i heard growling in the kitchen, so i got up thinking a strange cat was fighting with one of mine, and instead i see a semicircle of my own cats looking at the other one who was holding large newly dead rat, which he dropped when he saw me and meowed, very pleased with himself *double blergh*

* the most noisome had to be the actual POO, bang outside the bedroom door one Christmas morning.
worst… present… ever.
all you ungrateful ppl who complain because you didn’t get the wii-fit, shopping mall gift vouchers or titanium bbq tools you asked for, have got nothing on that one. you didn’t get poo, be happy.

this time, my gift merely hindered road visibility for the entire journey and annoyed me whenever the sun caught it. so i’m sharing it with you… i’m sure all you cat-owners (and those who live next door to them!) can identify:

isobel’s mum and dad are old friends of mine, and back in 2006 i was privileged to photograph their wedding (some photos in gallery #2 on this page) and baby shower last year too. they no longer live in auckland so this week i met their gorgeous baby daughter for the first time! isobel was so cooperative and really seemed to enjoy all the attention.

when we arrived at the park, i was disappointed to see the cloud cover obscured the sun, but i turned around and noticed some really pretty light under an avenue of pohutukawa trees and so we ended up with LOTS of great shots! here’s a selection…

her favourite bear

she loved having her nappy off

love this one, a little thai princess

look at those eyes!

mummy make it better

time with daddy

too curious about the camera!

and this, folks, is how you know the shoot is over!

sleepy time.

good night isobel, thanks for being such a great model!

you know your shoot is going to go well when you take the first photo and it comes out like this!

more to follow – stay tuned