Only Forward / Open Fields - An Editorial for Big Ink Magazine
We shot this editorial for Big Ink magazine at the end of the summer. I keep coming back to the Virgin Suicides aesthetic in my inspiration boards, and I wanted to take advantage of Canberra's endless open fields before the cold weather started to set in.
Model // Alexandra Rayne
Hair and makeup // Stephanie Church
Styling // Jessica Di Scipio
Concept and photography // Jenny Wu
Soundtrack // Lana Del Rey 'Born To Die' album
Published // Big Ink Magazine issue #19
Using Lightroom Preset Part 2: Customizing Contrast, Fading, and skin tones
Why customize?
Personal style. You might like to be able to control how much highlight or shadow fading there is in your images, amongst other things.
Consistency in varying shooting situations. Being able to tweak settings can help you achieve a similar look across both high contrast and low contrast scenes.
Skin tones. Sometimes skin tones can look a bit funky in certain lighting with certain presets. Tweak the settings to flatter skin.
In this post I go through how to customize your presets to suit a variety of situations. I will be mostly using my own presets (you can find them at my preset store on Etsy), but I also include an example of customizing a Dawn Charles preset.
How to install and use Lightroom Presets: Part 1
BASIC FOUNDATION ADJUSTMENTS - START HERE
When your image comes out of the camera exactly as you expect it- it is editing heaven, especially when you want to do the one click preset magic thing. This post goes through what you need to do when that doesn't happen.
Authentic Design: An editorial
I loved being part of this editorial which explores authenticity of design and the journeys of four extremely talented furniture designers. It is truly inspiring to see the amount of talent in Canberra- what I would now consider a melting pot of creative energy and a (surprising?) shift from how things were even as recently as 5 years ago.
Models // Bronte Morgan and Alexandra Rubio (Haus Models)
Creative direction // Jessica Di Scipio and Stephanie Tallos
Words // Stephanie Tallos
Makeup // Steph Church
Published // Big Ink Magazine Issue 19
Furniture design // Chelsea Lemon, Nicholas Harper, Peter Bollington, Rolf Barfoed
Photography // Jenny Wu
CAMPUS - an editorial
Just a casual little editorial that we shot in an hour whilst wandering around ANU.
Model // Ashleigh Wilson from Devojka Models
Published // Leiden Magazine
Session edited with my Life//style Lightroom preset
Sarah and Kaya: Stromlo Observatory Engagement
A couple of weekends back Sarah, Kaya, and I explored Mount Stromlo for their engagement shoot. I could not have asked for a more beautiful Autumn day with clear skies and beautiful soft light at sunset. The old observatory and nearby buildings are some of my favourite places to visit and shoot, and we found a little forest a few hundred meters away just as the sun went down.
We also did some fun photos with their 2 dachshunds around a nearby park beforehand. Challenging to get them both looking at the camera at the same time! Such frenetic energy!
Can't wait for their wedding later in the year.
Session edited with my Life//style Lightroom preset
Black and White Preset Lightroom Bundle NEW
My black and white editing has evolved since I released the last collection, so I've discontinued that one and replaced it with a new updated one! This preset pack includes:
- Clean Fade: smooth silky dreamy B&W
- Clean Fade HC (high contrast)
- Filmic Fade : B&W with characteristics of film
- Filmic Fade + : increased grain and fade
- Filmic Fade ++ : even more dramatic version of the above.
- High Contrast : Contrast contrast contrast
- Signature : a beautiful all rounder, great for portraits.
Download the pack here.
Timi // Editorial
Model and Stylist // Timi Zipamo
Agency // Devojka Models
Published // Leiden magazine
Location // Kingston, Canberra
Portrait of an artist- Alec Morris
A couple of weeks ago I took some photos of a friend of mine- portrait photographer extraordinaire and all round great guy Alec Morris. Here's a little bit about his work:
"Alec’s work centres around documentary portraiture and fashion; on the one hand inspired by a good story and the power of the portrait, and on the other the creative freedom of building an image from the ground up. Some of his recent projects include an essay on femininity and womanhood in Central Java, and a study of education initiatives for remote and at-risk communities in Western Australia. He is also the photographer behind Forty-Two Cakes, and the current CSIRO Artist-in-Residence."
See his work at alecmorris.photo , and his work for Forty-Two Cakes at @fortytwocakes.
HYPEBEAST HB2 inspired/ SAVAGE 2 Lightroom Preset- Street style, Portraits, Editorials
VSCO x HYPEBEAST Preset collection (HB1 and HB2) was created by the fashion and lifestyle collective HYPEBEAST. With it's clean highlights, blocky crushed shadows, and bluish cast in shadows, the collection has a very street style, editorial vibe- great for street photography, fashion blogging, urban landscapes, and editorial style portraiture. HB2 has a grittier, grainier look compared with HB1, and warmer skin tones (comparison photos between the two at the bottom of the post, and my HB1 blog post can be found here.)
The VSCO Cam filters are designed for mobile photography. In my HB2 preset, I am emulating the tone curves and colour shifts that gives HYPEBEAST HB2 it's look- at high resolution.
Both presets available at my StraightNoChaserPix Etsy store.
Leah & Rael: NGA Sculpture Garden Wedding
Leah and Rael had their wedding ceremony at National Gallery of Australia's Sculpture Garden. It was an intimate gathering of a small group of family from the UK - I felt honoured to be part of capturing such a special day.
I love the National Gallery of Australia because there are so many beautiful areas for portraits, some of them tucked away in secret little nooks. After the ceremony Leah, Rael, and I went for a bit of a walk and explore, with lots of portraits on the way.
Safari Diary Part 2: Amboseli + Masai Village
Amboseli National Park an awesome place to see huge herds of elephant families. They seem to be on the move a lot- one moment they're a distant silhouette on the horizon and the next moment they're thundering past you enveloped by a small dust storm.
Read Safari Diary Part 1 (Masai Mara) here.
Portrait of a photographer: Sam Broomby
Sam Broomby is an incredibly talented photographer currently based in Canberra (but will be Montreal based as of next year). He has a compelling and evocative photographic style and is a constant source of inspiration for me.
Sam kindly agreed for me to take his portrait last weekend. We spoke about the past and the future I was grateful that he allowed me to capture some of the raw emotions in these portraits.
See his work at www.samuelbroomby.com
Safari diary part 1: Masai Mara
I went to Kenya on safari for our honeymoon in October - it was an incredible experience and I wouldn't even know where to begin trying to describe it. Seeing zebras, elephants, wildebeest grazing together in their natural habitat; seeing massive herds of animals crossing the road infront of us, kicking up plumes of the African dust, sometimes so fast that I barely have time to get a photo with the right framing; seeing predator and prey in the wild- it's nothing like a day out at the zoo.
I thought the fact that stepping out of the vehicle could result in me being quickly and unexpectedly eaten by a lion also made the safari oddly exciting- we're not in Kansas anymore.