While we were down in Canberra last month we had the opportunity to do an outdoor location fashion shoot with the very gorgeous and sweet-natured Tiana. Canberra is very pretty and tidy, so we decided on some more urban settings (out at Fyshwick.) Tiana recently turned 18 so we wanted to reflect her maturity and the fact that she may be off to larger cities and all sorts of opportunities before too long. The photos that give the impression that she's lying on lawn were actually taken with her standing against a wall of artificial grass - that was a good find! Some photos she looks about 15 others, more like 19 - I guess thats what being a teenager is all about?

Tags: Teenager, fashion

The other day we went creekside with the very lovely Sylvia Fenwick (who we first met at the Uplift Festival) for an artistic co-creation. The light was slipping behind the hill as we reached the creek, which solved the dappled light problem and created a more moody atmosphere. Alan was wanting to play with some very long exposures to blur the water movement and Sylvia did a fantastic job of keeping still for 4 or 5 seconds at a time. Sylvia was 21 weeks pregnant so her beautiful little bump was very present in all our thoughts.
We can't wait to do some more photographic explorations with Sylvia and some great ideas are already bubbling between us. Hope you enjoy these!

Tags: Creek, Tree

Last month we got together with Shanne and Jodi, two belly-dancers from Opalesque in Brisbane. This shoot had been quite a while in the planning stage and it all came together in a way that surpassed our expectations. We used a couple of locations that we’d had in mind for years. The changing light and breeze was a major driving force in what we did and led to some things we hadn’t planned - such as the flowing silks on the rock (looks like an operatic stage set to me!). We did a lot of experimenting both in the shoot and in the editing and its left us with so many ideas and so much inspiration for future work.

The other day we had a wonderful collaboration with Elfyn Love, herself a talented photographer, artist and musician. As she is more of a coastal woman these days we chose locations near Byron Bay and some of the beautiful tea-tree forest there. Elfyn’s grey-blue eyes were emphasised by the face-painting she chose for the day and the stunning blue sky. Hope you enjoy these images as much as we enjoyed capturing them.

Tags: Elfyn, Byron Bay, Photographer, Musician

Last month we were approached by Zoe Wechter of Fruitilicious Fashion and Design down in Byron Bay. She was planning a photo shoot for her Autumn / Winter collection and was looking for some llamas to interact with the model in one part of the shoot. We’ve had llamas for years and still have two males, Berry and Druen. Zoe didn’t know we were photographers and had already engaged a photographer, the lovely Carly Brown. They all turned up fairly early on a misty May morning and Zoe and Carly invited us to join in. We all had a ball, the model, Celeste, did a great job and didn’t seem to mind the wet grass and the llamas behaved beautifully! Zoe then used our woodshed for another outfit, which worked out so well. A small black snake was disturbed while they were arranging the firewood in an artistic fashion, but no-one was too bothered by that! Here are some of our favourites. Carly’s great photos of the whole day can be seen on the Fruitilicious Facebook page.

Tags: fruitilicious, fashion, Model, Llamas

Today the very stoic Gabrielle came back for another demanding photo shoot with us. We didn’t ask her to sit in a cold creek this time, just on cold damp leaves and an icy cold mirror. We wanted to feature the last of our autumn leaves in a grove of wild persimmons up on our hill. There was no mist to create the rays of light we were hoping for, so we focused on the fallen leaves. Later we worked on some ideas involving a long mirror and some very concentrated light, which we envisaged would work well in black and white. Here are some of our favourites:

Tags: Model, autumn leaves, Black and white, Mirror

What a courageous model Gabrielle (Wheelie Wicked Womyn) turned out to be. Must be those years of roller derby that toughened her up! Our prearranged dawn shoot turned out to be the coldest day of the year so far. (Well cold for the Tweed Valley and fairly cool for sitting in a pool in the creek for half an hour!) Alan’s pre-visualized image of the birth of a nature spirit came together really well with the light of the baby (aka the flash) lighting up the beautiful trees and rocks. We then moved into a more usual portrait shoot of Gabrielle in some of her favourite clothes - she had never actually worn the stunning coat dress in the last images before. Thanks again Gabrielle.

Tags: nature, Spirit, gabrielle, gabrielle wheelie wicked womyn, Creek

We were thrilled when we met Chrissy recently and found that as well as being very beautiful, she has an adventurous spirit and a creative mind - the perfect model for this moment.
We had been looking for a blonde-haired woman for a photoshoot in the amazing bathtub that a friend of ours had built and tiled for herself. While there we also wanted to create an image using the hand built stone walls of their study and an old-fashioned nightshirt that we borrowed from Leigh of Before and After Bodywear in Murwillumbah. We then went to nearby Cedar Creek for some shots of Chrissy in that beautiful peaceful pool. We were really pleased with our results and are looking forward to the next shoot when Chrissy goes Burlesque!

Tags: Model, woman, nature, water, Bath

Lalita is a gorgeous young woman with a Scandanavian/Siamese background. She needed some outdoor images for her modelling portfolio and as we absolutely love photographing in nature, it was a valuable session for us all, with the chance for us to push our skills in using flash in outdoor settings. Here are some of the results:

Tags: Portrait, Model, Modelling, nature, Pool, Lalita