milkwood photography

New Blog Address

2010-08-24T00:01:00.000+10:00

Hi All,

Last blog on blogger, moving onto wordpress due to their more awesome layouts and templates. My new blog is here - http://milkwoodphotography.net23.net/

This blog will re-fresh in 5 seconds to the new address if you're feeling lazy.

Thanks!!

Mindy

Restaurant-ing: Bilsons & Pier

2010-08-21T19:27:00.002+10:00

I was spoilt for my birthday awhile back, I managed to go to Bilsons and Pier - but not at the same time!

S brought me to Bilsons for a lovely dinner degustation, we had eaten there previously but we had never had the degustation before, so it was a treat! We had quite a late sitting due to the popularity of the place, but by the end of the night we were the only patrons which was nice.

We opted for the 'Fine Bouche' with a few glasses of pinot to go with the meal. Here are some shots of the night:

All the mains were delectable! Top Main dishes were:

Freshwater Crayfish & Lobster Bavaroise, Green Pea a la Francaise (2nd pic) - Flavours were so nicely intertwine with each other and surprisingly delicate textures
Roasted Scallop, Petit Sale of Puy Lentis and Foie Gras Vinaigrette (4th pic) - scallop was cooked to perfection - lovely crispiness on the outside and nice and juicy meat. I really enjoyed the lentils with it, interesting texture
Roasted Partridge with Beetroot Braised Red Cabbage, Glazed Carrots and Rocket Pistou (5th pic) - I've never had patridge before but I really enjoyed the meat and went really nicely with the sweetness of the beetroot and the crunch of the cabbage.

Dessert was such a treat, last two photos were the start of the dessert - first the cleanser of the palate. If only i remembered was what in it - but it definitely cleansed the palate. The last picture above was a pear inspired dish - even with pear jelly on the bottom. We were so engrossed that we forgot to take the 'before' picture and so there is a missing element to the dish on the right - oops!

Last dish was 'Autour Du Chocolat' which translates to 'Around Chocolate' - and I definitely like to be around chocolate. It was so delicious - from start to finish. So many different types of chocolate were on the dish - I wish i knew all the names for each part - but delicious! Even the petit four pictured at the bottom were lovely! Cute macaroon and friands was a lovely ending with a nice cup of English breakfast tea. I think we finished eating at around midnight.

So we managed to out-eat everyone else in the restaurant I think - pretty empty when we left so we snuck in some photos including their wall of 'hats' - Bilsons has been a pretty top rated restaurant in Sydney for awhile now and I agree with their high rating - absolutely delicious!

The next day, I had my birthday lunch at Pier Restaurant - I was still ridiculously full from the food fest from the previous night! In hindsight, I probably should not have had the squid ink risotto, since that fills the stomach even more!

Pier Restaurant has a beautiful view and seats a small number of patrons so it did have a cosy feeling to it.

We all had seafood mainly because it is known for its seafood, being a seafood restaurant!

Pics from the top

Crab Omelette with Asian Greens - Interesting fusion of Asian methods and v. tasty (and large)
Roasted Barramundi with caramelised endive ,dutch carrots and bitter orange sauce - Really well cooked barramundi - lovely crunch!
Bread Crusted Kingfish with piqullo puree, preserved lemon and almond foam - look how foamy it is. what a cute dish!
Squid Ink Risotto with Calamari and a hint of truffle - i love truffle - this is what I had it was really tasty! They originally only had it in the entree size but we asked for them to up size it. Only issue with squid ink risotto is that you can't really talk whilst eating it without scaring the people around you with the black spreading over your mouth and teeth!

Anyways, 2 days of excellent and indulgent eating! Highly recommend giving Bilsons a go, top notch!

Happy voting all

mw

Orange - Philip Shaw Winery

2010-08-17T00:22:00.004+10:00

Orange - Philip Shaw Winery, originally uploaded by mindy_w.

We had the best time in orange. Wine, food, snow!

Not necessarily in that order. Its such a treat to get away from the city and working life and go into a 'country town' and just slow down. We're all chipping away at such a fast pace, its nice to stop and consume a lot of alcohol. good alcohol as well, which was v. surprising!

This particular winery was one of my top 2 wineries i visited at Orange. Philip Shaw winery had a beautiful cottage where guests were welcomed into a home and were not pressured into leaving - but just to stay and soak in the wine goodness.
My other favourite winery was 'Word of Mouth' which coincidentally not ironically was recommended to us by your B&B host (Milthorpe Bed & Breakfast - which was fantastic btw). I think best Riesling i have ever tasted! Not to say I'm a wine buff, but I thought it was special.

Other highlights include:
- Racine Restaurant at the La Colline Winery: excellent steak and gorgeous fondant!
- Lolli Redini in Orange: v. tasty desserts!
- Beautiful food and views at Borrodell Winery @ Sisters Rock Restaurant: had a lovely mushroom and truffle rissotto there.
- Basalt Wine Bar in Milthorpe: lovely poached pears and quince. yum.

- Lovely breakfast at Tonic in Milthorpe - v. relaxed atmosphere.

Anyways, hope your week goes well.

mw

Sydney Design - Framed @ Powerhouse Museum

2010-08-11T00:09:00.000+10:00

Hiyas,

As part of the Sydney Design festivities, Powerhouse Museum hosted an event called Framed! It was an all day event where they put on a fashion shoot with the works: models, stylists, makeup and wardrobe artists, photographer, videographer etc. Who knew it took so long just to do a few photos! Anyways, it was a fun day where Hamish the photographer walked us through the various things he does to create the 'look'. I had a lot of fun on the sidelines capturing the moments and taking sneaky photos of the models getting ready.

Anyways fashion photography looks like fun, but takes a lot of time, effort, extremely good looking models and a whole entourage of people to make it happen. it was fun to be a fly on the wall and witness it all happening. Kudos for Sydney Design for hosting such interesting events.

In other news, I bought myself a 27" iMac and boy do i love it. The screen is so pretty and i love the wireless keyboard and mouse! Having a bit of a space issue, so it is currently living on my dining room table - so i guess i won't be having guests anytime soon. And yay for Lightroom as well - so much easier than what I was using before.

Anyways, hope everyone is having a good week.

mw

Family Session

2010-07-20T21:28:00.000+10:00

Hello there,

Dexter from lumiere photographie kindly extended another invitation for me to tag along to a family portrait session out at Peakhurst. It was quite a busy week for me last week at work so I was glad to do something non-work related on the weekend!

It was a lovely family where Belinda & Damien wanted to get photos of their two cute boys Oliver & Noah in time for Oliver's 1st birthday coming up. Here are some of my favourite photos of the day:

That soccer ball had a life of its own! Being played with by another kid at the park, being kicked around at the park and landing on the road, being used as a prop to make the kids laugh. so multi purpose!

Anyways, hope you have a MasterChef filled week! Go Adam or Callum!!

Mindy

Where in the world....

2010-07-12T01:12:00.002+10:00

Hi Everyone,

I haven't blogged in awhile, it may be a symptom of not taking many photos. It's been a busy few months, I have quite the backlog and I am determined this week to be less lazy and get stuck into them! That and going back to the gym. And potentially doing the metre pile of ironing ...I am definately running out of clothes.

I was driving home today and I was reminded of how much I enjoy quiet time, time to contemplate, sing-a-long to the radio and let your mind wonder. It reminded me of the relaxing week I spent up north in Yamba.

Anyways, the photo taken outside a friend's house in Yamba is a beautiful spot in northnern NSW. We did the double date holiday where we spent one glorious, relaxing week doing nothing but fishing off the jetty, eating home cooked delcious meals, walking about and playing a lot of Super Mario Bros on the wii. Good times. Might I add, I used to be awesome at Supe Mario Bros 3 but alas no more. The lack of skills I had was appalling, the team really had to carry me - literally.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed your weekend. More to come later. Promise.

mw

Lake Daylesford - which is better?

2010-06-21T23:24:00.002+10:00

Recent trip away with the girls to Daylesford and we were walking around the beautiful Lake Daylesford, can't decide which photo is nicer....thoughts?

Will post up a review of 'the lakehouse' and the other activities we did there soon-ish.

i wish i was...

2010-06-18T19:18:00.000+10:00

somewhere warm, tranquil and not needing to bring a box of tissues due to a runny nose. sigh. taken in port douglas, northern queensland - australia

Mohamed & Khadija's Wedding (Part 3)

2010-06-16T17:54:00.001+10:00

Final installment of Mo & Khadija's wedding, all reception photos! Reception was held at Bexley at the Ainslee Lodge Function Centre. We arrived early and I was playing around with my flash and managed to drop it! I shrieked and may have scared the people around me. Sorry! Flash was fine!

Anyways, here are some photos that I looked of the night, I tend to take more photos of women - i don't know why...probably because women are the better looking gender I think. Mixture of pairs, families and group shots in the below

Speech time and lots and lots of dancing! Meanwhile, the bride and groom went to visit each table to thank them for coming and give them sweets as well.

And then the dancing, so much dancing! at first all the men danced....the drummer would set the beat and the person at the front what dictate what moves the rest of the men would do. they would then go around the circle! my feet were sore watching them. After sometime the women had a turn on the dancefloor as well, and then everyone mixed in.

The cake was cut and drinks were shared. We then saw more dancing including the couple's first dance as a married couple and we finished up with an epic goodbye with everyone lining the dancefloor to form a people archway and the couple were sent off in fine fashion.

Mohamed & Khadija's Wedding (Part 2)

2010-06-07T01:10:00.001+10:00

hello,

Part two of Mo & Khadija's wedding brings us to the photo shoot that took place at several locations: the rocks, wharf area behind quay restaurant, botantic gardens. The following photos are of the rocks and the wharf area behind quay restaurant. After that, rain came and started havoc, so being the trusty assistant i held Dexter's umbrella whilst he shot some beautiful photos of the bridal party at the Botanic Gardens.

Anyways, here are some location shots of the Rocks and I took some shots of us strolling down to the wharf area. I particularly like the one where I've shot the clock tower at the back. We were having such great weather that day...until it rained.

We pretty much took over this part of the wharf area, we had the videographer getting the couple and bridal party posing and Dex & I were just working around him. Those clouds look like they've been photoshopped in, but they really haven't!

Then the dancing started which was fun to shoot and I think everyone else enjoyed themselves, including the ladies who were clapping their men on.

Next the videographer asked Mo to take Dex's camera and start shooting his bride. Dex took the following photos of Mo taking photos! Ha.

Meanwhile, the kids were being kids and keeping themselves entertained....the second photo is hilarious!

Last couple of shots, we're losing light pretty quickly by this stage and the videographer gets the bridal party to sit down and try and get the two kids to kiss each other to get a cute picture..it kinda works.

Last pic I'll leave you with before I go, is a lovely one I think !

Mindy ...

iPhone Fun

2010-06-05T21:41:00.002+10:00

Sydney 5th June 2010, originally uploaded by mindy_w.

I didn't think I would warm to the iPhone, but I definately do like it! I love how I never get lost anymore, well - i love that I can find my way around when I get lost. Yesterday I downloaded the Hipsmatic app on the iPhone which lets you use different 'lenses' and 'flashes' when taking photos.

Here are some photos I took today on the iPhone at the local Annandale cafe Revolver, some shots of Paddington and the windscreen of Lan's car. Best $1.99 I spent on my iPhone!

good luck to sam stosur 2nite! back to processing photos!

mw

Mohamed & Khadija's Wedding (Part 1)

2010-05-26T01:25:00.000+10:00

Hi there,

Long time no blog! It's been a hectic couple of weeks with weddings, work and w-dieting - just wanted to keep the alliteration. Anyways, Dexter kindly offered me to a chance to tag along with him to shoot Mohamed & Khadija's weddomg on the 22nd May (last Saturday). How could I say no? First what a lovely, down to earth couple with such lovely families - congratulations to you both!

We arrived at the groom's place at around lunch time and we were greeted by Mo. He was quite at ease and feeling a bit under the weather - although it didn't show it all. We were surrounded by his family including some v. photogenic young nephews that were not shy at all! Here are some snaps at his parents home.

Here are some of the cute nephews I was talking about. I was testing out my new tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 lens with a borrowed (thanks S) d700 which meant i had a great arm work out throughout the day. Anyways, Dex encouraged me to test out the zooming capability and here are some of the snaps I took of the nephews. The nephew eating his meal whilst trying to watch WWF wresting is so funny!

More family arrived including some adorable nieces who were so pretty in their white taffeta dresses and matching tiaras - extermely cute. We got some nice shots with all the nephews and nieces together as well.

I love this photo of Rae, playing with her aunt's iphone!

The parents were absolutley brimming with joy at this happy occassion and it such a nice event to be apart of. Lots of singing, clapping and processios which I thoroughly enjoyed. Mum & Dad were so proud!

Also another favourite of mine, the grandmother and the grandchildren. So lovely!

A few family portraits by the pool and fixing up their outfits we're ready to head to the brides house

We arrive at the brides house but we're kept in suspense as the bride is not there yet! So we wait with anticipation until she arrives with her 2 bridesmaids. What a stunning dress, I've never seen anything quite like it!

We then walk in the house and the videographer takes charge and tells Khadija how he would like her to pose and we start snapping away - here are a couple of my favourites. well a few.

I may have lied about a 'few', here are two black and white ones I took of the bride. I especially like the reaction of her male relative after receiving a kiss

After getting the portraits of the bride, the groom arrived and we started what I can only describe as the meeting and greeting of relatives. The room is filled wall to wall with women who are on the perimeter of the room and the men stand on the outskirts. It was so wonderful to see so much colour! I've never seen so much at a wedding before! Admist this was chanting, clapping and some dancing at the end. So incredible to witness.

There were some emotional moments where some of the women in the room did tear up including the bride which was v. touching to see.

Of course there were kids roaming around, and I had to capture what they got up to. These two in particular were adorable along with their v. nice parents who offered me authentic lebanese sweets. yumm. The kids didn't mind the sweets either!

A few more snaps of the men and women at the brides house and we stumbled out and proceeded back to mo's house to do a traditional placing of flowers at the doorway.

After the ritual was done at the groom's house, we proceeded to head into the city to do the photo shoot where we had mixed luck with the rain. Here are some final snaps from the groom's house and i'll cover the rest of the photos in Part 2!

g'nite!

mindy

@iHeartFaces challenge - flowers & faces

2010-05-17T23:05:00.000+10:00

Here is an oldie but a goodie. C has such a gorgeous smile, so radiant! She was so sparkling at my friends wedding where she was bridesmaid!

Have a look at the other lovely faces & flowers at the below link:

Mal & Lan's Wedding - Part 2 (Photo Shoot @ The Rocks)

2010-05-12T01:26:00.001+10:00

I've been so slack with post processing and posting *check out that alliteration*. anyways, its 1am and i have been facebook stalking and blog stalking enough and decided to do a teensy bit more in terms of going through mal & lan's photos.

We went to the rocks for the photo shoot after the wedding at All Hallows in Five Dock. Here are a few that were nicely captured by either Simon or myself. Weather was perfect, not too hot or cold and it was a nice afternoon for taking happy snappies.

Next couple are of Lan, who knows how to work the camera ! good work!! It was a nice hugo boss suit that he was wearing, good slim fit.

will continue this blog post once i finish doing the rest of the photo shoot photos.

off to bed! will be playing netball for work tomorrow. haven't played netball in over 15 years. this should be interesting.

night

Mal & Lan's Wedding - Part 1 (Getting Ready)

2010-05-05T00:23:00.001+10:00

Hi there,

After the phenomenal post from dexter who did such a fantastic job during the day and night of the wedding I had a look at the photos that Simon & I took - no where as good! But here's the first part of the day in terms of getting ready at the Wong household.

Ervan Woo and his assistant Elaine came at around 7am to do the hair and makeup. Elaine worked on Marissa, mum and myself whilst Ervan concentrated on Malinda's hair and makeup

He even has his own makeup and custom brushes! Marissa tried to squeeze in a lesson or two in makeup with Elaine. Doesn't she look different with makeup?

Finally we were all ready after fussing about and we all got dressed around 11 and we went to take some photos around the house with the all the bits and pieces floating around. Malinda bought some Stuart Weitzman shoes online - nice dorothy esque ruby shoes which I thought were a nice touch and some Swarovski earrings and a lovely antiquey esque necklace which she got from Marry Me Bridal who also supplied her wedding gown

The flowers got delivered from Blooms 4 U who did a wonderful job with the bouquets and the table arrangements at the venue which I'll post later. The above bouquet was mine! lovely isn't it? malinda's ring is in the middle.

Dexter came and he started taking proper photos! Simon took the ones of Malinda and I took the one of Malinda's bouquet and shoes on the piano bench

Then Simon took some photos of me and flowers! Earrings were from Glammadona in the Strand and dress from Veronika Maine. I thought it would be fun idea to put the shoes on the piano. ha ha.

I have to end on a picture of anpanman - an obsession of marissa's. Basically its a red bean paste hero who lets his friends eat him when they're low on energy? I'm making this up I think. Anyways, anpanman made it into a few photos which I thought I might post. Ha.

nitey nite!
mw

Mal & Lan's Wedding - Sneak Peek

2010-05-03T23:27:00.000+10:00

Hi All,

Malinda & Lan's wedding was just yesterday and a fun affair had by all! I was on maid of honour duties so didn't get a chance to take as many photos as I would have liked. Dex & Simon were doing a great job anyways.

This is one of the few photos I did take, I'll post up the rest of the photos when I get a chance.

Taken at the Rocks, like the shoes?

nite!

@iHeartFaces challenge - smiles

2010-04-26T13:26:00.000+10:00

When it comes to cute, kids win hands down. and then dogs i think. whether they're toothless, food stained, or making a mess of the rumpus room they sure know how to pull a great face. Kids seem to be so free and expression-ful, its so refreshing.

This picture was taken when playing with sunglasses, at first J was afraid of the sunglasses but then really wanted to wear it all the time. The joys of discovering a new toy!

be sure to check out all the other entrants, I'm sure everyone will have some doozies!

Lest We Forget - Anzac Day 2010

2010-04-26T01:12:00.000+10:00

I think all Australian students should learn about World War 1, I always think that it is important to understand and know the past before we can move forward.

The sacrifice that those men made on what is known as Anzac Cove. The sheer determination, will and bravery it would have taken to scale those mountainous hills is staggering. What fear and pride they must have been feeling on the dawn of the 25th. It was wonderful to see people out in the city today, men and women in their uniforms paying tribute to the lives before us. Ancestors of soldiers past wearing their medals with pride.

Lest we forget.

Clare & Brendan's Wedding

2010-04-14T18:01:00.003+10:00

Hi,

Long time no blog! Going through my back log of photos, I've finally managed to go through all 987 photos that I took for Clare & Brendan's wedding weekend down at a place called Robertson at Fountaindale Manor. It was a lovely spot, with some eerie fog that came across us after the cermony. It was a lot of fun, with the live band and dancing for young and old. It was great that most people stayed overnight so we could all dance into the night.

Some photos from the wedding

Crowd waiting in anticipation for the bride to walk down the aisle. Series of photos of Brendan and Tim joking around waiting as well. Then the lovely bridesmaids come down the ailse in v. nice summery looking dresses.

Bride finally comes down the aisle with her two proud parents, clare stops off and sees her sister. Ceremony begins and the 2 have memorised their vows. A bit of stopping to ensure that no tears are spilled and it all goes off without a hitch!

Lizzie is a trooper as she hands over the rings to the celebrant.

A series of photos I took, just randomly during the ceremony. I couldn't get a great shot of the first kiss, but I thought the angle was funny anyways. I love the expressions of the ones with Brendan kissing Clare on the cheek.

Couple are married! Now for the guests to provide their congrats & take some happy snaps!I love the pictures of Brendan's granny, so cute!

I love this picture of Clare

In the dining room, ready for dinner service. I love the light in this photo as well. Isn't the birdcage veil so pretty! Dinner & speeches were fun! The dad's did a great job, I nearly cried when Clare did her speech, the bridesmaid and groomsmen speeches were also v. funny. I learnt a lot from Brendan's speech, especially how to say 'i love you' in so many different languages!

Highlight of the evening for me was to witness the dancing that Clare and Brenan had been practising and opening up the dance floor for young and old to boogie on down.

Funny pictures of the couple as they let loose after the formal part of the evening was over. Everyone else just enjoyed the live band as they played great songs from the past, even an impromptu karoke edition of 'total eclipse of the heart' by brendan and clare!

Clare & Brendan asked me to take some photos re-creating how they first met, when Clare was a bar 'wench' and gave her a coaster telling her the best points about him and his number. Out of this coaster, was the start of their relationship and now marriage. They asked all the guests to provide their advice on love on some custom made coasters which I thought was such a nice intimate touch! The funniest one was, 'we know we love someone when....they do our washing'

Off to cook dinner for the girls, wonton noodle soup today!

Holga effects -

2010-04-05T23:16:00.000+10:00

What do you think, this photo has had a holga action applied to it and heres the original with a bit of tweaking with colours etc. Which one is better? This is probably one of my favourite photos that I took that day for Clare's wedding. That crinkle in her nose is her signature move I think, and I think she was giving that look to her soon to be husband. v. cute.

nitey nite

Post Processing Madness

2010-04-05T04:41:00.000+10:00

So, I'm trying to go through a 3 mth back log of photos - including 2 friends weddings. I took around 950 photos for my friend Clare's wedding back in March and only now during Easter break have I attempted to look at them. I often think of it as a daunting task to go through photos of an event because I know it will be hours of culling and photoshopping to get the right outcome.

Although in the end, its worth it when you look at the finished product. Anyways, time to chuck in the towel for today since its 4:35am. I managed to go through 200 out of the 950. not great progress, but this is my favourite of what I've done today. I haven't even gotten to the ceremony! ha. I usually like to do it all in one sitting, because that's how I operate, but the sheer volume is not achievable in one sitting for me.

Anyways, this photo is of my friend Logan who came down from London to celebrate this wedding out at Robertson at this gigantic manor called Fountaindale Manor. They had lots of interesting rooms, nooks and crannies. So I took advantage of an unwilling model to pose for me, i call this one 'hard left' because thats the order I barked at home to face his head.

Hope all is well in Easter land for you all.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T23:45:00.000+11:00

I'm always greatful to take a breather from work, so i love easter in that respect. It's so good to just relax, do the things that you love to do and just get out there and do something different. Easter is a great celebration of family, friends and chocolate!

My homage to Easter including the coverted Lindt Easter Bunny and topped off with the best hot chocolate i have tasted, and i've tasted quite a few! Also tried their peanut butter easter egg, best $1 I spent that day. And let's not forget that it is a religous holiday, and people were out giving thanks for the reason why we have this holiday through sky writing.

Anyways, I trekked down to Darling Harbour as there was a free festival going on - the Hoopla Festival which showcased circus and street theatre for all to enjoy.

Most of the activities were quite interactive including an amusing pair of brothers that had a fire/ladder/pole act going on and got the crowd participating - they tended to pick on males to volunteer in their act, they actually picked a real fireman. The second shot, he said would be a good photo opportunity, he wasn't wrong. i love the expression, he's longingly looking for the audience to clap.

Walked along, and there was a 'Circus Playground' and inside were circus tricks like the stiltz, juggling balls, colourful ribbons, juggling plates on sticks and other fun stuff and lots of kids and adults giving it a go.

Last but not least we had 'The Tiny Top' where they had two fun characters welcoming everyone intot the tiny top. The lady by the popcorn machine was kind enough to make a face for me. :)

Anyways, hope everyone re-charges their batteries during this lovely break. Hope you all enjoy yourselves and spend well deserved time with friends and family.

mw

P.S. Thanks so much to the website Coffeeshop for the lovely 'Honey Retro' action I've applied to all the photos from the Hoopla Festival. Check that website out for excellent freebies!

Wedding - Steven & Karen

2010-04-01T02:23:00.007+11:00

Happy Monday Morning,

I overslept today, this is what happens when you have naps in the afternoon - you are unable to sleep at night. But I have been able to make use of my time and go through some photos I have not yet post processed. Steven &Karen's wedding was actually last month, it was quite a warm day as I recall and it was an early church service at St John's Anglican church out at Gordon followed by a lunch time reception at Curzon Hall.

Nite
mw

Family Portrait - Lui Family

2010-04-01T02:21:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to post some photos of a family shoot that I did over the weekend out at Jonah's out at the Northern Beaches - what a beautiful spot!
Enjoy!

Middle shot is my favourite and Simon actually shot that one. Really nicely captures the mum and bub in a nice moment. He seemed to really enjoy playing with his car, rabbit and his dad's sunglasses!

I actually really enjoyed Jonah's backdrop, it had a lovely lightness about it and the white walls and light colours that it was decked out in helped in creating a nice dining experience.

Elmo is life sized!

I love that in the first two photos, everyone is fussing over the little one, but then we get our act together and get a nice family portrait. I thought using the jungle gym was cute.

Post more beach shots tomorrow...or the day after....

Let me know what you think about the storyboards!

mw

Wedding - Clifford & Agnes

2010-04-01T02:18:00.002+11:00

Hi ya'll,

So I tagged along with Dexter and his brother from Elusive Photography to see what it was like to be a wedding photographer. It started at 8:30am, i walked out the door and realised that i had left my camera on my table and was carrying a full bag of lenses, flash, food and no camera. good start.

Anyways, the day started at the bride's apartment where it was already packed with relatives and 'sisters' who was getting the bride ready. Next came the games that the boys had to play to gain entry up to the apartment consisting of the groom having to dress up as a pink fairy and screaming 'i love you' from the ground. Needless to say, it drew a crowd. A few pictures captured tea ceremonies at both bride and groom's places and me experimenting on how to do close up of peonies on the staircase.

The ceremony was at a lovely church out at waverly where it had lovely large murals and interesting statues lining the ceiling. They had 2 sets of adorable page boys and flower girls with a lot of fussing parents in between. The couple opted for a full mass which was nice, but some of the kids were worn out by the heat.

We then went to Botanic Gardens to get some shots of the couple, funnily enough Harbour Life was on at the same day so we attracted some attention from passer-byers. Still trying to learn how to NOT get other ppl in the background of my shots. I guess i just need to move more. My feet were at this point in pain - supersoft shoes are not that super soft.

On to the reception at Sheraton on the Park with a nice quartet playing and a pretty fluid order of activities. Highlight for me was when they played games during the night and watching the little kids on the dance floor wreaking havoc.

So for my first wedding experience as a non guest taking photos it was quite interesting, I learnt a lot about lighting, composition, settings and generally what skills you need to be a wedding photographer. it was quite a lot to take in one day, but i am glad i survived. thanks again to the boys at Elusive Photographyfor letting me tag along!

Hope you enjoy the photos!

that's all folks! let me know what you guys think!

Engagement Shoot - Malinda & Lan (Part 2)

2010-04-01T02:15:00.002+11:00

Mal & Lan: Little Hunter St StoryBoard, originally uploaded by mindy_w.

Hi All,

Finally finished the post processing of the photos. It really takes much longer than expected. i play around with the settings so much just to see what works. i think each photo takes me about 10 minutes at least. I wonder if i'm doing the right thing...i do the following

- open it in my RAW editor and play around with the settings, i try to recover as much as i can. i always play around with the temp, brightness, saturation, clarity, recovery, fill light

- open it in Photoshop Elements and crop if necessary, unmark to sharpen the image, touch up any blemishes using the dodge tool and perhaps put on a Gaussian blur to try and make the sking a bit more silky

- then i might apply a colour pop action or apply a burn action around the edges

- then i might add text or add a texture on top of the photo.

i still don't really know how to use curves or anything to fancy but i guess i have to learn. Here are some other shots i liked:

Engagement Shoot - Malinda & Lan (Part 1)

2010-04-01T02:13:00.003+11:00

Mal & Lan - Angel Place (1), originally uploaded by mindy_w.

Sydney is currently hosting an 'Art & About' project where different art projects are springing up. As part of this Art & About project is something called 'Laneways by George' where artists come in and do up laneways within the Sydney CBD.

This was the backdrop to my first photo shoot, it was quite fun. I have only processed half the photos but here are my faves so far:

i'll work on the story boards and upload them
next!

toodles

Focus 10 Photography

2010-04-01T01:31:00.003+11:00

Since i have extra time this morning,I'll post the photos that we took during dusk/night time as part of my class. We went out and trekked around the Opera House and the Rocks area with 2 models on hand to pose for us. Quite amusing, at one point we were outside the Opera House with a red carpet event inside and they thought the photography class were papparazi harrassing these 2 volunteer models.

hi ho, off to work i go.

bye!
mw