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Outdoor studio portraits

What does your outdoor studio look like?

I’d love a dollar for each time we’re asked that question. And sadly there is no answer. Each day, each week is different. And it is big enough to keep changing locations within excitations studio gardens to suit the season, the type of photography we’re doing and what our client is looking for. So today and for the next couple of weeks I’ll post a few pictures… All taken in our outdoor studio. Different places and different moods, but all shot around our studio garden.Young children photographed exploring excitations outdoor studio, Yelta, near Mildura

These two adventurous youg spirits were photographed searching for bugs in an old log. This part of the studio garden is more often used as a background. However, on this occasion, we positioned our explorers behind the log and waited for stuff to happen. Next week, if I remember, I’ll post some additional locations that you may not have seen before.

For us, one of the big advantages of working within the bounds of our very own outdoor studio, is knowing that the locations are unique to excitations. And our clients won’t see our locations or portrait styles hanging on friends walls. Unless of course their friends had family or individual portraits created by excitations. Even then there are so many variables that it is still unlikely.

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Psst wannabe a calendar girl?

Models wanted for a charity calendar to be produced shortly

Here’s one for all you girls with a sense of adventure and a desire to get your hands on a bit of charity work at the same time. We have been asked to photograph a  number of ladies for a local calendar. So far so good. But these ladies are  intent on spicing up the whole calendar thing by posing nude. Bottom line….. They are short a couple of models and wondered if any of our lovely clients might like to have a photos taken for the calendar. I’m not sure what the theme is…. Seems it is a need to know thing at this stage and apparently I don’t need to know.

What I do know is that the MS sufferers of this world will appreciate your efforts. You’ll get to have a bit of fun and get to feel good at the same time. So just how revealing will this shoot be. Again I don’t need to know, but I’m guessing that it won’t be too revealing, cos these things are being sold to the general public, so I’m pretty sure your looking at more covered than not if you know what I mean. I know you don’t think you’re really a calendar girl type. What can I say. From my experience with these sorts of nude calendars. It’s all a bit of fun and nobody is expecting the models to all be super models. Certainly the last couple we have been involved in shooting where not all concerned about body shape. Nor were they girls from memory…. I’m kinda thinking the last couple of these  we’ve shot have  involved a bunch of blokes…. In fact for us, this maybe the first all girl production.

So if you are over 18 and probably under 100 (although it maybe cool to shoot  a centenarian). Would like to have a bit of fun, getting your kit off and helping out a worthy cause. Give Robyn a call on 03 5025 3368 during office hours and get the details from her. Seems she knows all the stuff you might wanna know. Or you can hit us up over on Facebook  although I’m not sure they’ll let you discuss stuff like naked, nude and calendar on that forum.

Abstract nude photograph of young woman and a succulent plant. Photo by excitations Mildura photographer

And a picture just to fill some space. This has absolutely nothing to do with the project on offfer…. But I guess it could. Not revealing, arty and anonymous.

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Workshop, working the pixels

Working the pixels at our recent intermediate photography workshop.

We had a great day at the studio recently…. Well actually I had a great day. I hope our intermediate photography workshop  attendees did as well.

Group of photographers at excitations intermediate photography workshop. Photo by Russell Murphy

Photographers working at excitations intermediate photography workshop. Image by Russell MurphyWorkshop attendees at excitations intermeduiate photography workshops, photo by Russell Murphy

Thanks to Russell Murphy, who it seems took time out to  shoot a few of his fellow workshop attendees during one of the practical sessions.

Photography class working on the steps of excitations barn styled studio. Phot by Anna Zappia

And here is another image of the team at work on the steps of excitations barn style studio. Thanks to Anna Zappia for this shot of photographers at work.

Some of us will be back at it again this coming Sunday, when Sunraysia Inspired Photographers gather for a day of documentary photography. Looks like it is going to be a great day but I hear there are a couple of places left for this one. Just a heads up. This will be much more about photography than it will be cameras. More of the WHY than the HOW.

Details from the SIP facebook page

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Playtime

Playtime for both our models and our photographer.

Photograph of two youg girls during playtime at a photo session. Photo by excitations photographer Mildura.

We’ve been shooting so much stuff recently that we are not able to share with you. Then this morning while frantically trying to catch up after a day in Swan Hill yesterday for a couple of meetings and a family Funeral. This image finds its way onto my desktop. Photographed a fair while ago at an amazing and quite remote location. Klancy and Evie, two bubbly and fun to be around young ladies took some playtime during a photo session. We created this lovely image of the girls during that time out.

Turns out it was playtime for Ian as well. Mixing a very old and often used black and white filter with some natural colour goodness and BINGO…. Lovely semi old fashioned look which works well with the old stone building.

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Excitations studio garden.

Family portraits in excitations studio garden.

Quick post this Good Friday morning. I though we should share with you another location in the excitations studio garden. This is an area that we have used from time to  time when photography children.It is a long thin area of lawn surrounded on both sides by thick garden beds, forming a curving tunnel with lots of depth, which is great for photographers.

Semi formal family portrait photographed in Excitations studio garden near Mildura. Family photos by excitations.

Ideal when photographing young active children, because it’s design restricts their sideways vision and reduces the distractions to the young and inquisitive by focussing their attention of a small area. The area we are photographing in. While this part of excitations studio garden is still developing, it is now providing us with some interesting photographic possibilities. One of which is small semi formal family group portraits like the one of  our good clients the Harris family pictured above. We created a number of group portraits during this photography session in excitations studio garden as well as a series of individual portraits of the girls. From memory we also  photographed a couple of clothing changes to give more variety and choice to the photo session.

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Soft focus child portraits

Creating selective focus images for child portraits

I often say there are no hard an fixed rules for photographing young children. No matter how much we might want them to play by our rules. At days end it will be the child who has allowed us to create portraits that his or her parents are going to love. Sure it mightn’t be exactly what mum and dad had in mind. But it will be a set of portraits of their child. Mostly a true record of that period of time in that child’s development. Every time we go out to create a set of child portraits, we do so with eager anticipation.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen a mum get all frustrated with her child not performing. When in fact the images we’re capturing are beautiful. Maybe not just as mummy had wanted or visualised but beautiful memories that will forever record those special times during a little person growth to an adult.Selective focus use to create soft focus effect in child portraits. Photo by excitations, Mildura photographers

The young man above is Pietro, from a photography session in Excitations outdoor studio a while back. As it turned out, Pietro wasn’t much of a problem for this shoot. We got lots of pictures of him doing all sorts of things that little boys like to do. This image worked well in colour, but I thought it felt better with a slight blue toned monochrome finish.  A young man deep in thought. The only part of this image that is truly sharply focussed is Pietro’s left eye. Everything else in the photograph is soft and blurry. Lovely effect, but as a photographer you have to nail the focus point…. otherwise you have another trashcan candidate.

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Baby photos with white backgrounds.

Creating baby photos with white backgrounds in a studio setting.

I’m not going to turn this into a tutorial on how to create baby photos with white backgrounds. Because in a fully functional studio like excitations barn style studio, any colour and shade of background is possible. Clean pure white backgrounds are one of the more difficult to consistently create. We’re lucky in that excitations have available a medium format digital camera system, which not only allows us to more easily create baby photos with  white backgrounds.

The medium format system consistently out preforms  normal DSLR cameras in creating clean whites which don’t bleed into the subjects. I know this because another photographer raved about the clarity and definition possible with medium format digital cameras when photographing against a pure white background. I still remember thinking what a lot of BS. My DSLR would be just as good…. Then we invested in a medium format digital camera system and as fate would have it. The first job we shot was a near white object against a pure white background. Wow! The difference was amazing. Now I see what he was talking about.An example of baby photos with white background, photographed at excitations barn style studio near Mildura using medium format digital camera.

Our cool little man for this example of baby photos with white backgrounds is Michele. Gotta say he took all this photography stuff in his stride. This image I believe is enhanced by the pure white background, which lends a feeling of innocence to the image. While keeping all the attention on the main man.

I’m not suggesting that you can’t achieve beautiful white backgrounds in baby photos anywhere other than a fully equipped photography studio. You can. However, adding a medium format digital camera to the equation is a game changer. As they say on all those TV cooking shows. Taking it to the next level.

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Where have all the pictures gone.

That my freinds is a very good question.

It would seem there have been some gremlins busy at work on our website over the past 24 hours. We’re currently trying to get our site back up and running but sadly some of our backups have also been corrupted so it may not be a quick porcess.

In the meantime there are a few pictures over at our google+ site

And some more on our Portfolio Page

Young dancer splashing water in action freezing photo, by excitationsMaking a splash, the young and beautiful Ebony. Photographed  on a local sandbar recently. More on this story to com shortly.

Bigger version of this over on Google+

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Camille and Stevan wedding photos in Mildura .

Camille and Stevan wedding photos in Mildura on a glorious afternoon.

Breaking with tradition this week with our post of  Camille and Stevan’s wedding photos in Mildura. Most of you will be familiar with our normal handfull of pictures and a few words telling you a bit about the day. Sorry not this week Ollie. We’re flat out like the proverbial lizard drinking. So mostly pictures with this post, but to make up, we’re added a few extra of those. Enjoy.

 

close up of grooms white lapel flowers agains black suit. Wedding photography by excitations mildura wedding photographers

 

 

Arty high grain toned image of bride hugging young flower girl. Wedding photo by excitations Mildura photography

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Wide angle wedding photograph of group in the main ballroom at Jimba near Mildura

Close up wedding portrait of bride and groom photography by excitations mildura wedding photographers.

Black and white wedding photograph of bride and groom running across lawn at Jimmba. Mildura photography by excitations.com

Wide angle colour wedding photograph of bride and groom on lawns of Jimba. Mildura wedding photography by excitations.

Wide angle wedding portrait photographed onj the lawns of Jimba near Mildura

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Photography lessons in the studio

Recent photography lessons in Excitations barn style studio.

While it’s not something we do often. It is always a bit of fun to give a group of student photographers photography lessons. On this occassion we were shooting portaits  in our barn style studio. using mostly simple setups with studio strobes or flashes.

Low key studio portrait of young woman taken in excitations barn studio near Mildura during a photography workshop.

Our model during this batch of studio photography lessons was the ever delightful and very beautiful Sopany. Who put up with us moving lights and changing setups  without once complaining. the low key image above created with a single studio flash and a couple of carefully placed reflectors. As our students discovered, not all reflectors have to be expensive shop bought devices. While Ian was conducting the photography lessons in our studio. He couldn’t resist picking up his camera and capturing a few images of Sopany. The portrait above has been converted from colour to a cool toned black and white image, with a rough border added in Photoshop.

Full length studio photograph of a beautiful young woman photographed in Excitations Barn Style Studio during a photography workshop.

While these photography lessons were primarily about creating portraits in a studio location. We did take the opportunity to shoot a number of full length images of Sopany. This one against a plain seemless background with what is most likely the simplest of all studio lighting setup. One so simple that you’ll rarely find anyone teach it. Sometimes simple just works.