Archive for the ‘Interesting’ Category

Hipstomatic and PicMonkey {Auckland and Belgium Family Photographer}

April 6th, 2012

I have not loved Hipstamatic (iphone app). It seemed to add too many colour casts but I’m going to try again with a new combination (shaken the phone to get a randam lens, film, flash). I’ve set my lens to Buckhorst H1, this one seems to be a kind of yellow browny cast, so better [...]
 

I have not loved Hipstamatic (iphone app). It seemed to add too many colour casts but I’m going to try again with a new combination (shaken the phone to get a randam lens, film, flash). I’ve set my lens to Buckhorst H1, this one seems to be a kind of yellow browny cast, so better than blue/green. Apparently helga viking only adds a cast to the shadows so could be one to buy. I have the film set to Blanko (or Ina 1969) as they have no cast, just different borders. Don’t forget to set the lens to high quality.

I took a test on Cass’ lovely desk (I’m in Brussels!) and really like the result.
The first image is the hipstamatic, the second using camera+ and processed in photoshop, the third using camera+, cropping and processing in Instagram using Valencia. I think Hipstamatic is the winner with its soft warm tones and wide angle.

I really wish apple give let app developers access to exposure controls though. I’d love to be able to set the exposure manually and avoid horribly slow shutter speeds (blurry kids).

These two are taken with camera+ and processed in Instagram.

If you don’t have an iphone nor photoshop, billiant breaking news just in (thanks David!). PicMonkey is the perfect tool for those who want to process their images but do not want to invest time and money in photoshop. I am SO impressed. It has a ton of functionality presented in such a simple way. I was not impressed until I discovered you can “fade” effects just like we do with layers in photoshop. Give it a go!

Here is a before/after (poloroid frame on the after).

picmonkey processing

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Happy 2012!! Where have I been?

January 24th, 2012

Playing with my new iphone! Still trying to work out if apple is a religion or love at first sight (though is my first smart phone, how did I ever live without one?). Love the gps, how insanely handy is that, with traffic updates! Love the camera, been snapping away like crazy. Love the video!! [...]
 

Playing with my new iphone! Still trying to work out if apple is a religion or love at first sight (though is my first smart phone, how did I ever live without one?). Love the gps, how insanely handy is that, with traffic updates! Love the camera, been snapping away like crazy. Love the video!! Quality is insanely good. Love love Jamie Oliver recipes! Love whatsapp. Love hipstamatic, sigh, so hard to go to sleep when you can lie in bed browsing gorgeous instagram feeds. I feel like I need to upgrade already though, I don’t have enough space for all the apps I want need!

I love how records of daily life are so easy to capture.

beautiful iphone photography

Iphone photography has taken off due to the fab quality and fab apps so I’ll be trying to learn as much as I can and will share when I can. Check out this site for app sales and reviews. http://www.iphoneography.com/

There are a few camera apps around, camera+, pro camera and best camera are also supposed to be good. I’m using camera+. The red square is your focus point which you can drag anywhere in the screen. If the area you would like to focus on is different to that which you would like to expose for, click the red cross on the corner of the square and a circle will appear. Drag this circle to where you would like to expose. For instance, if you subject is looking too dark, drag the exposure point to a darker area and the camera will expose for that point making the entire image lighter. It also has a stabiliser in case of low light shooting, a timer in case you would like to jump into the photo and burst mode so you don’t miss the action shots.

Apart from playing with my new toy, we’ve been camping. No phone, no electricity, no fridges, no showers…. just a few smelly long drops. Sooo much fun, adorable gangs of kids going from tent to tent, everyday a long day at the beach bar one, crayfish and scallops were shared, cooked marshmallows a regular treat, sparklers a huge treat, pipis for a fun breakfast, star gazing (caught the end of a shooting star), being told to get out of the water as there was a shark (very) near by, returning home along the stunning coastal coromandel town route.

family photography

If that is your idea of a holiday in hell, perhaps you’d be better suited to glamping? I spent the day with the fantastic Good Magazine team out at Bethel’s Beach (Wainamu Luxury Tents) for their glamping feature. Incredibly beautiful canvas tent, wooden floor, wooden double bed, outdoor hot bath and shower, on the back of Bethel’s beach. The mag is packed with lovely pics of the day including my first cover, squeal :)

amazing family photographer published good magazine

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Merry Christmas!

December 25th, 2011

Beautiful Christmas Eve picnic watching the sunset from our favourite Pohutukawa shaded beach and a warm sunny Christmas day to try and teach master 6 how to ride his new bike. I wish you all had (or have for those ongoing on the other side of the world) the most fabulous loving wonderful Christmas day. [...]
 

Beautiful Christmas Eve picnic watching the sunset from our favourite Pohutukawa shaded beach and a warm sunny Christmas day to try and teach master 6 how to ride his new bike.

I wish you all had (or have for those ongoing on the other side of the world) the most fabulous loving wonderful Christmas day.

xoxo

family photo beach

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Don’t lose your photos {Portrait Photographer Auckland Brussels}

August 5th, 2011

I recently spent $1000 to recover my personal photos. I had them backed up on two separate external hard drives, both drives failed. 1999 (scans) to late 2009. I sent three disks in to be recovered. Two were not possible, all data lost, but thankfully one was (the backup). At a cost. I am still [...]
 

I recently spent $1000 to recover my personal photos. I had them backed up on two separate external hard drives, both drives failed. 1999 (scans) to late 2009. I sent three disks in to be recovered. Two were not possible, all data lost, but thankfully one was (the backup). At a cost. I am still trying to work out what I have lost from the other drives, but it will be minimal due to another backup.

What I have experienced and seen more and more recently is that external hard drives break easily, they need to be treated like eggs. And if they don’t break, they can be stolen along with the your computer as friends sadly have recently experienced.

Workout your backup procedure now. It is devastating to lose photos of your family, holidays, treasured memories.
Here is mine, please feel free to share what works for you on my facebook discussion page.

a) backup on two external hard drives
b) upload chosen and processed jpgs to zenfolio (an annual fee, if you do sign up, use code K72-GND-SNR to get 10% off)
c) copy jpgs from zenfolio to smugmug(also an annual fee, use code Emo0efDu4p702 to get US$5 off)
d) documents, recent pictures, videos, music etc are all located in my dropbox (up to 2gb is free). Anything and everything (except my huge image collection) is located there.
e) Timemachine (macs) so if my computer dies or is stolen, can start her up the way she was.

Whew. I think I’m now covered :)

Dropbox, smugmug, zenfolio, all these online sites also allow you to share pics, videos etc with friends and family. Zenfolio also allows you to print your images directly using the consumer lab photobox (not sure on the quality, will test and let you know).

child photographer happy professional auckland belgium brussels

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Rubber Ducky {Auckland Family Photographer}

June 9th, 2011

Ah can’t wait to show you photos from this shoot. My cousin’s gorgeous daughter’s family. In the meantime, here is a very happy rubber ducky. He has stunning views from where he floats.
 

Ah can’t wait to show you photos from this shoot. My cousin’s gorgeous daughter’s family.
In the meantime, here is a very happy rubber ducky. He has stunning views from where he floats.

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Love and the Rainbow Bookshelf {Auckland Family Photographer}

June 4th, 2011

A glimpse into the home of a beautiful family you are soon to meet. Gorgeous right. This is the Christchurch Earthquake Auction shoot. Stay tuned, they are almost ready to show off.
 

A glimpse into the home of a beautiful family you are soon to meet. Gorgeous right.
This is the Christchurch Earthquake Auction shoot. Stay tuned, they are almost ready to show off.

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Oxfam Trailwalker 2011

April 16th, 2011

“Oxfam Trailwalker is the most life changing, team building, foot slogging, friendship forming, group hugging experience ever!” An incredible experience just photographing the event. Teams of four walk 100km(!) through a very long day and what must have been an incredibly long night. We were all fortunate to have glorious weather – two beautiful sunrises [...]
 

“Oxfam Trailwalker is the most life changing, team building, foot slogging, friendship forming, group hugging experience ever!”

An incredible experience just photographing the event. Teams of four walk 100km(!) through a very long day and what must have been an incredibly long night. We were all fortunate to have glorious weather – two beautiful sunrises (one not so sunny bit it was close to the finish line!) and one stunning sunset. The teams were fabulous, showing amazing willpower, stamina and bonding, all in incredibly good spirits. My feet were sore (bad footwear choice), my shooting finger ached (professional cameras are so heavy), my voice raw from cheering them on (maybe not raw but there was a lot of cheering), yet it was of course nothing compared to what the teams were experiening. The most amazing moments were at and near the finish lines. I had constant goosebumps as the teams came in, capturing their joy and sense of incredible achievement as they finally crossed the line. Tears threatened to roll numerous times while witnessing the emotion of the finishing teams and their support crew.

Amazing.

oxfam trailwalker taupo 2011 photographs

oxfam trailwalker 2011 taupo

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Good Again

April 5th, 2011

Running with the good theme of late, check out the latest issue of Good Magazine (#17)! Very happy to see lots of my pics published within. So beautifully printed, such a scrummy mag. Bubs sqealed when he realised his pic was in there too. In the supermarket. Had to show everyone, including the checkout lady. [...]
 

Running with the good theme of late, check out the latest issue of Good Magazine (#17)!
Very happy to see lots of my pics published within. So beautifully printed, such a scrummy mag.
Bubs sqealed when he realised his pic was in there too. In the supermarket. Had to show everyone, including the checkout lady.
Grab your copy while you can, next issue is soon to be published!


good magazine published

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Oxfam Water Challenge

April 1st, 2011

Remember Oxfam Water Challenge 2010? Had another great day photographing the Oxfam Water Challenge 2011 in Devonport last weekend. A ton of fun but I need to remember to practise my sprinting for next year to get to the finish line before winning team. They were FAST. Next weekend off to Taupo to photograph Oxfam [...]
 

Remember Oxfam Water Challenge 2010?

Had another great day photographing the Oxfam Water Challenge 2011 in Devonport last weekend. A ton of fun but I need to remember to practise my sprinting for next year to get to the finish line before winning team. They were FAST.

Next weekend off to Taupo to photograph Oxfam 100km trailwalker. “The most life-changing, foot-slogging, friendship forming, group hugging greatest team experience. Ever. Four people, one goal, 100 kilometres, 36 hours. Your time starts now. “. See you there!!

oxfam water challenge devonport trailwalker

We were reminded what it was all about at prizegiving. One billion people in our world live without safe drinking water. Water is key to health and quality of life. Such an important fundraiser. I was also presented with my own little prize :) Very proud.

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$745 for Christchurch

March 16th, 2011

Thank you so much to those who bid and a massive thank you to Stephanie, the winner! Each and every one of those precious $745 dollars have been paid to the Red Cross Christchurch Fund. Thanks so much Stephanie for your confidence in my work, investment in your family art and memories and massive donation [...]


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Thank you so much to those who bid and a massive thank you to Stephanie, the winner! Each and every one of those precious $745 dollars have been paid to the Red Cross Christchurch Fund. Thanks so much Stephanie for your confidence in my work, investment in your family art and memories and massive donation to Christchurch.

Stephanie and I were work friends 20 years ago and haven’t seen each other since. So can’t wait to see her again and meet her gorgeous girls.

red cross donation for Christchurch portrait session familiy.

It feels good to know we are helping in some way. Honestly, I have been so heartened so see the number of auctions on trademe that donated 100% of their proceeds to Christchurch. Almost every shop we went into had someway of accepting a donation. Everyone wanted to help. We want Christchurch to know we are there to support them.

Now we are watching a mind numbing tragedy unfold in Japan. One tragedy after another, each seemingly worse than the last. The tsunami that wiped out towns. Wiped out evacuation centers where thousands ran to to escape the wave but are now all unaccounted for. 10,000 missing from one town alone. Radiation levels are rising. I hope their spirits can be strengthened by support around the world.

Red Cross fund for Japan.

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