Then you should visit this link here. Part of a promotion by Hassleblad cameras. Shot in Italy by photographer, Maurizio Cigognetti. While producing a set of advertising pictures for high fashion design products. Go on just take a look. A team of about 20 people working for around a week, to produce a handful of beautiful images. Which you will see from time to time in leading fashion and design magazines over the next few months.

Designed and planed down to the last miniscule detail so that, you the viewer, will get the message that the product is more important than anything else. Imagine how many dollars are expended in creating these sets just for one round of photoshoots. The large crew were assembled for only a few days, but how many hours of planning went into this series of photoshoots before shooting started? Now think about all the high end cosmetic and fashion shoots that you see in magazines, and for a moment think about how much effort went into producing such simple looking shots.

Have a great weekend folks. Hope we see you back next week.

Our young model in this image is Leila, who you may remember appeared on this blog a couple weeks back. This series of portraits was created in the studio. Leila had just finished tossing her hair all over the place for a photo series. She rested for a moment, and while she did, an idea formed. Many years ago, way back in the day when we used film. Excitations led the way in Australia with a style of photography we called pastel portraits. At the time we had been playing with a number of ideas and one struck a cord with us.  Probably the simplest, yet purest form of creating studio portraits we’ve ever used.

Pastel portraits  was simple a photographer, a small high quality 35mm camera and a standard lens. Our subjects sat opposite the photographer, up close and our sessions would begin. The pastel portrait look was created by soft  lighting, a heavily diffused lens and a film stock designed absolutely NOT designed for portraiture. It was so wrong that it was right. We created hundreds, maybe thousands of pastel portraits over a few short years. Then the film was discontinued. New and improved films became available, but unfortunately nothing came close to producing the same effect.

The success of pastel portraits was due not only to the unique look, but also the intimate contact the subject had with the viewer. Being up close and personal with a camera, and having a relationship with a camera up close. Somehow produced images that compelled you to look into them. Probably more so than any style of portrait photography since. The image above of Leila isn’t a pastel portrait, but it reminds me of the style and to a degree I guess we could say it was a digital equivalent of the original pastel portraits style.

Thank you so much in advance for your help.

Our top of the range album back then cost a whopping $954 which just happened to be the same price as a Hassleblad medium format camera. The number one choice of professional   quality cameras.  Used only by the very best photographers or one aspiring to be. Today, Hassleblad medium format digital cameras are right up there still, but now you will pay between $40,00 and $60,00 to own one. We still supply an album similar to the original. Except today it has more photos and is better constructed. The price for that album is $1800. Even today’s top of the range album with everything at around $8000 is way short of $40-$60k

Way behind getting these photos onto the blog. We got caught up in a frantic Christmas period and then January was spent trying to catch up. Finally mostly caught up on backlog and now into 2012 for real. It’s always special when we get to photograph someone we have know almost all their lives. Alisha, came into our lives many years ago when her big sister was working for excitations. Don’t even want to think about how long ago that was. Funnily  seems like just yesterday.

We shot this casual shot of Andrew at Mildura’s Grand Hotel . It was a set up shot, but like most setups we do during a wedding shoot, we start with a base idea and work the location and our groups interaction with their environment and the bridal party. That helps us achieve more natural, spontaneous looking wedding photographs. Which is the name of the game these days. The art of wedding photography is to achieve images which appear natural, less posed and more believable. Or you go the other end of the scale and shoot highly stylized fashion looking images. The choice is always up to our bride and groom. OK, the choice is always the bride.

Talking about natural. We wanted to get a shot of Alisha’s dress, or more precisely the hemline of her dress sort of swishing around as she walked. So this is a quick walk from Alisha to get the dress moving. Luckily we use fast focusing cameras that  hold focus as she moves quickly towards us. Otherwise lots of out of focus pictures… Not a good look in any album.

We covered a fair bit of ground in a short time why shooting Alisha and Andrew’s wedding in Mildura. Our second port of call was the centre plantation in Deakin Avenue. Jacaranda time, and we wanted to have a play with shooting long lenses and blurring out the background to fuse colours together. We shot here mostly for the groups but couldn’t resist a few of Alisha and Andrew together.

Then for something completely different. Alisha and Andrew decided to add contrast to their wedding photography coverage. They would go out into a wheat paddock. Braving the ever persistent bush flies. and bright harsh sunshine to create a set of wedding images which would be in stark contrast to the soft green looks shot earlier. A few things to remember if you’re considering  going bush for your wedding photos. Bush locations are often not user friendly. Ladies in high heels need to be able to walk on unstable ground and feel comfortable. Flies and mosquitoes often come along for the photoshoot. Even if they aren’t invited. Wind, dust, and uncomfortable temperatures are also encountered. However, picture opportunities abound out in the bush. As long as you are aware of the conditions and you and your group are comfortable with that.

This is the shot above from Robyn’s camera. Shooting two cameras on location gives a unique chance to get extra interesting angles and more nice candid style photos. On this occasion the old outback photographer in the bottom left of the frame wasn’t the best idea. But I guess it does at least show the camera angle required to get that vast blue sky full of little white clouds in our first shot. Those of you who are more observant will notice how the sky is different from a different angle. That was because  there was a whole bunch of messy cloud cover sneaking up on us while we were shooting. Looks strong and dramatic from one angle. Soft an mushy from another.

Another image from Robyn’s Camera. Alisha and Andrew are still on the little dirt track. Robyn is shooting through the wheat to give the appearance of our couple being out in the wheat.  Outr other camera is still working low angles and dramatic skies so that we end up with multiple choices when it comes to  designing the final album. Just as a final not when you’re holding a wedding in Mildura, you have a large choice of backgrounds and locations. Sometimes it’s very worthwhile looking at locations out of the ordinary.

We spotted this tree on our way to the wheat field location and decided if we got a chance we’d shoot under it on the way back to town. By the time we arrived back there,  clouds had become a bit mushy and none defined. We needed to rethink our approach. Originally we were going to shoot in colour,  deciding however to go with black and white, and  adding  toning and softening in post production to give it  more drama. Although we shot some closer images we liked this on for its simplicity and the way Alisha and Andrew blended with the harsh landscape. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but variety is the spice of life.

Environmental wedding portraits can take on many styles.

From interior portraits at home to close shots of the couple in an interesting location all the way through to something like the above, where the bride and groom hardly figure at all in the final image. Mixing up you styles of photography and your photo location shots adds interest to any wedding album. It’s important to have a mix of environmental portraits in any good wedding album. after all you spend a lot of time deciding where to have your wedding. Which church, what town, what reception centre, photography locations all go into your mix of planning your special day. It is only fitting that those locations form part of your wedding day photography coverage.

Speaking of wedding coverages, we are about to come out of those lazy days of Summer, and get right back into full swing of things, as wedding photographers. First wedding this season will be near Melbourne, in the hills at a small winery. Looking forward to that. Really looking forward to shooting with some softer light. Summer time here in Sunraysia is, shall we say challenging photographically.

Last week I upset someone because I was unavailable. Turns out I was out shooting. The studio was open but no Ian. Who, this lady just had to see. It also happens from time to time that people call in to have a look at their photos, again we can’t show them because there are other people already in the studio, who have made an appointment to see us. It’s upsetting but viewing photos and making decisions about wall enlargements isn’t like walking into Macca’s and ordering a meal deal. Organizing photos takes time. If you drop in there is a real good chance that we will already be occupied and you may have to wait a loooooong time.

Much better to jump on the phone and give us a call on 03 5025 3368 an schedule an appointment.

Not your everyday pretty garden. Old stables and tack rooms, uncut lawns, trees all over the place in no apparent order. Messy, lacking structure and over all a gardeners nightmare. But, you know what! we wouldn’t have it any other way. Developing a garden and farm yard for photographic purposes is not like creating a nice garden around your house. It’s all about light and shade, and the feel that location imparts on a photograph. The great thing about excitations garden is that it is never the same two days running. Always changing, growing, decaying and creating fantastic photo opportunities.

Portrait of Leila created in excitations garden. Stunningly beautiful natural light created by the environment and a huge hunk of exotic glass go together to created this lovely portrait of a vivacious young lady who just loves being photographed. Last week we had a piece about painting with light and using wide aperture lenses to create shallow depth of field. This natural outdoor portrait of Leila is and example of just that. The only part of Leila in focus is her eye closest to camera. Everything and I mean everything else is beautifully out of focus. Including the very ends of Leila’s  eyelashes.

If you’ve ever been to excitations studio complex you may have noticed our lawns are rarely ever cut neatly. In fact we go out of our way to cut grass only if we don’t have a photo session planned for that area. Why? Because it is the excitations look, and more importantly people seem to relax more easily because longer grass is more comfortable to sit or lay on.

Rough textured limbs of a Melaleuca tree frames and contrasts with Leila’s smooth, near perfect skin. Not very long ago we use to photograph in front of this tree using its soft green foliage as a background. Time goes on and now we have these incredible bunch of gnarled, twisted, paper bark limbs to play with.