I have been recently asked what I do in my “down time” when not photographing glamour or families.  This got me thinking that maybe you don’t know the other side to me, one I am proud of and allows me to express my creative visions and bring them to life.

I got my first taste of the weird and wonderful out of the box photography when I was invited to a creative shoot that became known as “Zipper Face” between the model and photographer they had the theme.  After a full day of shooting I was hooked and wow did my mind go wild.  It was just so easy and fun to work with model Angelic Sinz and her offsider (who is another photographer come model) Jason.

“Zipper Face”

It was that much fun that I had to do another shoot with them.   We threw around some ideas and in the end I wanted to do a bride of something.  In my head it was similar to the romance and wedding of Morticia and Gomez.  I had the perfect location, an abandoned tunnel.  Again using Angelic Sinz and Jason as the models the vision came to life and took on a life of it’s own.

“Bride Of ??”

Another vision came from a collective group on facebook who would use a photo as inspiration and the group would make it their own.  I call this one the “Doll and Lamp” shoot.  This shoot was done in a studio and a collaboration between model, clothes designer, makeup artist and myself as photographer.  All these people and elements go into making these creative visions successful.

“Doll and Lamp”

I have already started planning a couple this year as these thoughts tend to give me sleepless nights and lots of daydreams.  I am always happy to collaborate with like minded people and create something special, weird or unique.  It takes more than a photographers creative vision to make this type of shoot successful and I never forget that.  I have worked now with many talented makeup artists and models and without you these are not possible.   If you are interested in my creative side please email me at info@soloimages.com.au for further details and pricing.

Until next week.

Kassy.

As photographers, whether new or seasoned veteran’s, we continue to push the boundaries of our creative flair and are always willing to learn and improve our craft.

The buzz in the photography world at the moment has been centred around the International Loupe Awards, and as I write, the judging is taking place and results are coming through.

From my own point of view there was something this year that held me back from taking the plunge into the award arena, I felt that some of my skills needed more refinement to be up to higher quality award standard.

Really if you think about it, you will never know what that standard is unless you are in that arena and being judged? This is a great debate within the industry, are you a better photographer just because you win an award? Does that make you more appealing to your current and potential clients? Or are you wanting recognition for your talent? Now I am not going to enter into this debate as I am certainly not qualified to judge either way. Is really comes down to a personal decision.

Actually I am very proud to say I know many photographers within my circle that have won awards this week on their very first time entering, with or without the awards, I still love what they do.

Over the last few months I have been pushing the boundaries with some personal projects to create that award standard. I had a creative plan in my head and went and created some photographs during recent shoots, a few photos worked but I see some clear mistakes and they are not quite portraying what was in my head, so I will keep pushing and learning until I feel it is right.

I will finish this weeks blog showing you some of those photos and let you decide for yourself if they are yet of that award standard, you can be my judges.

This is the image I started with. Raw image with Lightroom processing only

Creative Image
Nikon D4 1/250th f4 ISO 320
Lightroom Processing and
Alien Skin softtware added

This is my start image, converted to Black & White in Lightroom

Creative Image
Nikon D4 1/400th f4.5 ISO 320
Used B&W image and processed with Alien Skin software

Image converted to Black & White in Lightroom

Creative Image
Nikon D4 1/400th f4.5 ISO 320
B&W image processed in Alien Skin software

I must also thank my model Natalie Belbin and MUA Alice Henderson and Tami Perrin of Dr Dread for hairstyle. You girls rocked this day.

Until next week.

Kassy.