| Over the past two weeks I’ve been a busy little bee with a Canberra based fashion project. Maddy (www.mummawoosah.com) and HerCanberra.com.au editor, Amanda came up with a simple idea of styling some outfits on a budget to help promote this year’s Lifeline ball, and it snowballed into an epic editorial photo shoot involving about 30 of Canberra’s fashion industry talent and personalities and six local businesses. Here’s a short behind the scenes video of the day of the shoot – enjoy! |
| This month I was asked to help style a vintage glam editorial photo shoot for HerCanberra’s ‘In The Can’ magazine. This issue is a Vintage Glam special, showing how it’s possible to put together gorgeous formal outfits on a budget by shopping at Canberra’s many vintage/second hand shops. I styled my 50’s couture outfit with pieces from local vintage seller, Librarian Chic. modeled by the gorgeous Molly Folkard (her to-die-for red hair and the emerald dress was a sight to behold) and photographed by Red Photography. 5 other outfits were styled by Maddy of Mummawoosah, Fiona of Opshoppers, Elle of Elle's Fashion Boudoir and Georgia of Red Magpie. This gorgeous issue of In The Can is out right now! Check out mine and the other 5 vintage glam looks here! |
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me and Closet Voyage. I’ve been seconded to another team two days a week, and the hours are long, with all the urgent legal work I’ve had to get on with the minute I stepped into the new office. For Closet Voyage, photography has been the highlight. This post is especially for those of you who aren’t fans of my facebook page, and I know there are at least 500 of you, to give you a little peak at the work I’ve been doing lately!
I’ve never told myself I’m a ‘photographer’, or that I am passionate about photography. I certainly don’t have aspirations of becoming a professional photography. I’ve just always been besotted with creating and capturing the beauty of the world around us, especially the people. The little quirks (or big one) that set each of us apart makes society rich and interesting, and should never be hidden away! My portraiture and fashion photography always concentrates at bringing out the unique personality of my subjects, and I think when they are successful at doing that, the photos just naturally turn out looking incredibly beautiful.
First up is my impromptu street style photogrpahy with my friend in crime, Nurie!
This week I’ve had the pleasure of playing makeup artist for Love Vintage’s photoshoot for the Canberra Times! Styling was done by the talented Mel from Librarian Chic and the hair was styled to perfection by Hair Flair.
I wasn’t photographer of the day, but I managed to catch some awesome snaps of behind the scenes!
I only had time to do makeup for two models. One was 50’s themed, and the other was 80’s themed. The one’s the 50’s look, with well defined contoured eyes, catty eyes, and bold and full fuchsia lips!
This is the 80’s look, with neon colour eye shadow, thick eyebrows, and big hair!
Next we rushed of to Material Pleasures for a second shoot with the models. This time me back in the photographer seat! This was a last minute decision, and we already missed the daylight, so it had to be all shot indoors. Now you guys probably know I only shoot in natural light, and don’t have any studio equipment, so we made the best we could out of a white wall, a white sheet, and 3200 ISO! I’ve yet to process the photos, so here’s a very brief sneak peak:
My friend Nurie and I got to talking lately…about how we both have to take our own outfit photos because we don’t have a dedicated boyfriend-photographer. So then the solution naturally dawned on us that we should totally do joint photo shoots!
For our first joint shoot, we decided on a fantasy picnic of decadence, and decided to call it the ‘Let them eat cake’ shoot! The scene was a warm and dreamy forest in midsummer, where time stood still, and reality faded into day dream.
Over a floaty silk white blanket we laid out summer fruits and magic caramel mud cake.
I loved Nurie’s picnic outfit, completely bedazzled with lace and flowers, and those adorable red shoes! It gave me an idea for one of our future shoots – Red riding hood anyone?
Check out Nurie’s Tumblr here=> http://kimpine.tumblr.com/
In November Material Pleasures, a recycled designer clothing retailer, asked me to be photographer for their Vogue directory photo shoot. In December we had the second shoot, this time for Material Pleasures’ winter range. The team was again Chloe, makeup, Tahlia, styling, Kathleen, model, and myself as photographer.
This shoot was somewhat challenging. We were limited to the wardrobe we brought, as the location was quite a way from the shop, and had to ‘make it work’ Tim Gunn styles when we didn’t have the pieces that we desperately needed for some shots. Wanting to do the shoot at sun down, I asked everyone to turn up at 4pm. But it turns out I completely underestimated the length of Canberra summer days. The sun only started setting at about 7pm, so there were a sad lot of photos taken before then that were just completely washed out. Also, as this was my first time shooting outer, I found that no matter how many angles I tried, in an attempt to show off the clothes, the photos all turned out looking similar (sic. boring). This was probably because with outer, the model’s figure was almost always obscured. The result is that there were fewer photos from this shoot than the last. But luckily, of the photos that worked, Rebecca loved them.
My favourite is this shot of Kathleen against the sunlight in this amazing cape. The whole look reminds me of country clubs and pony rides.
These photos were taken at the National Library.
I’m kind of amazed at what models do. I pose for my own photos in a hundred ways and maybe one or two shots look half decent enough to post on my blog. But Kathleen seemed to know exactly what to do to make each photo look great, and also interesting. It feels great as a photographer when creating beautiful pictures seems so effortless, like you’re on a roll (contrasting with how rotten it feels when every photo is a flop). This again reminds me how important a good team is to the whole operation. While I just turn up and snap a few shots, the styling was a time investment, with Tahlia undoubtedly spending many hours starring down racks of clothing to pull together the perfect looks. I also don’t envy Chloe’s role, having to this time, create a look that was both dramatic and harmonious with the eclectic collection of pieces we worked with that day.
Some behind the scenes snaps:
Tahlia made us all some delicious chocolate…balls! She’s so talented.
I had a meeting with Rebecca yesterday, about the direction of this project. Rebecca explained to me the vision of her brand. Material Pleasures is not just another second hand clothing retailer. For one, she buys only fine designer clothes that are in as new condition. But importantly, Rebecca looks for unique and offbeat designs with a great deal of detail and texture that the bulk of her customers are looking for. Because of her discerning eye, she has held on to a loyal customer base in Canberra for many years. Now she is hoping to expand into a new demographic of younger women, and she was quick to recognize that social media is key to achieving this.
I was very sad to hear the Tahlia has resigned from Material Pleasures and will no longer be participating in the shoots. While Rebecca asked me whether I would like to take on the styling role, I had to be honest and tell her that it’s unlikely I would have the time. Hopefully she’ll find someone who can step into Tahlia’s platform espadrilles.
For those of you who might be wondering where the heck I have disappeared to in the past two weeks, all I have to say is…there is a lot of things going on in my life lately…a LOT. I don’t feel like I have any concrete developments to report right now, but suffice it to say that my life is much like a Bollywood movie right now.
Other news I am pleased to report is last week’s photoshoot for Material Pleasure’s editorial in which I was lucky enough to have been asked to be the photographer! Some of you might already know that my old faithful Canon EOS 1000D died on me a few weeks ago (by being tipped from a tripod on its nose!…by me), and luckily I picked up my 5D Mark II just in time for the shoot. What an amazing camera :O.
The photoshoot was so much fun, and there are a few more planned in the following months.
Chloe did an amazing job as makeup artist. She created a nude look that was so perfect for the four looks we shot that day.
Tahlia, the stylist, put together four amazing outfits from the Material Pleasures’ recycled designer clothing range. Tahlia has so much going on in the Fashion community in Canberra - check out her blog: Dorothy & Mr Lee Re-fashion!
A sneak preview of some of my favourite photos from the shoot below.
We shot everything in an industrial place behind the Material Pleasure boutique in Fyshwick. Amazingly, there was a kitch old Peugeot hatch abandoned
As the photographer you tend to remain pretty anonymous but then again you could always be a camwhore!
I have to apologize for the delay in announcing the winners of my most recent giveaway. That will be coming up in tomorrow’s post!
