Shooting some beauty portraits the other day, then we became distracted.
To be totally honest we love shooting beauty images. While on the honesty trail, we don’t shoot anywhere near enough of them. That can be either because fewer people want or need beauty shots or as times change, clients are less aware of what photographers can do. The later is very much a factor in a lot of commercial photography. Clients only want us to do what they can do on their phones.
Shooting with Jessikah was a whole lot of fun. You could say we had a really hot photoshoot. Although to be fair much of the heat came from Sunraysia setting another record daily maximum. However, we shot lots of great closeup portraits. At one stage, for some reason only known to Ian. He decided to climb a ladder and shoot down. Using our studio floor as a background and getting Jessikah to contort herself into an interesting pattern.
There’s a couple of beauty portaits lurking over on our portfolio site. Just saying.
A high vantage point over the Murray River for a formal portrait of Jenninfer and Anthony, celebrating their engagement.
When in Rome!!! Well, when in a beautiful garden somtimes you just gotta get a whole lotta garden in. I love this spot.
Up close with Jennifer. Once again beautiful models and a location providing classic glamour lighting.
We should call this image, “Road Trip”. We decided with Jennifer and Anthony, we should take a small detour. This image is not quite as we had planned. However, certainly worth the stop.
Back home for Jennifer and some refreshments under an Avenue of London Plane Trees.
A stolen kiss in the garden. We were just lucky someone had parked a vintage car in front of the marquee.
And wouldn’t you know it. There was a vineyard nearby. Luckily, Jennifer and Anthony where up for a stroll.
From the vineyard into the marquee. Which was all lovely, bright and white. Except for one little piece of black material.
We just had time to cut the engagement cake. Before heading off to our final location for the day.
You guessed it. A sunset. An orange sky, water and a couple in love. Another case of over-shooting. We love this photography caper!
This picture pretty much sums up Aleisha and Travis’s day… Lots of laughter and a few high-jinks thrown in for good measure.
Here’s a sneaky way to show of detail in the back of Aleisha’s dress. Tell Travis it’s his turn to star. Well done mate… What’s next… a catalogue shoot maybe?
As a photographer I love conifers. More importantly I love light and shade created by these beautiful trees. This location was simply perfect for a walking shot.
Aleisha makes reclining look easy in this high key image. Of course it wasn’t all that easy. But you have to endure some pain to look beautiful, right!
This just might be my favorite photo of Aleisha. All natural this one. No 4000 joule studio flash blasting huge volumes of light around the room as in the previous photograph. Purely organic this one… Love it.
Can I change my mind? I think this is now my favorite. Again absolutely natural in every aspect. We have Robyn to thank for spotting the light. And of course Aleisha for providing this stunning look.
I’m not sure… Did we mention these two were a barrel of laughs? Seriously funny sequence of photographs to create. I think we may have got just one serious shot… Or maybe not.
Then there were three. Three amazingly beautiful young women. In a stunning photographic location. Selfishly I wanted a slightly different image for this one. A quick look around and there it was. A single shaft of gorgeous sunlight splashing through a wonderful vista. We lined the ladies up against the wall. Then asked them to rush towards us. For the image to work all 3 girls had to have direct light hit them. BINGO, the pixel gods were with us.
This has to be one of the most fun driveways around the district. Nadia and Nicholas seem to be enjoying it as well.
What is better than an amazing doorway? An amazing doorway with a beautiful young lady in it.
Lots of credit to Nadia for this shot. Looks like a casual snap. But behind the scenes we needed to a bit of juggling to get our angle to work. Ok, that should read a lot of juggling. Sometime simple shots are just a little harder than they look. Fortunately for us, Nadia is a seasoned professional when it comes to photography.
A more formal seated pose for Nadia here. You just have to take a rest sometime during a full on photo shoot.
Nicholas’s turn to go all formal. Well fairly formal. This image is a slightly toned black and white with just a hint of colour.
Full black and white for this half length image. Exactly the same location as the photo above. This time however, shot with a telephoto lens to blurr the background more.
Overview of a very small part of the Melbourne Market. This only tells a small part of the picture. Much of the markets activity takes place away from the trading floors, in the massive warehouses that make up this incredible complex.
Ben with the boys, all ready to go. We were taken by this entrance. The added bonus was being able to get up high and shoot down.
Accessory photos form an important part of any wedding day photography session. Finding different ways of shooting accessories is always challenging. This is one, I’m pretty sure we haven’t used before.
As wedding photographers, our eyes are trained to see photo opportunities when they arise. Like this image for instance. If we have a naturally elegant bride. It would be silly not to try for some slightly more creative bridal poses. There is another stunning image of Elvira over on our 
Bride and dad wedding photos often miss out on the blog. Yes, we normally take them but they are usually past over. Not today however. I Love this photograph.
While we don’t normally do adverts for anyone on Excitations news blog. We will make an exception just this once. If you are looking for an Amazing garden in which to have your wedding photos taken. Then Maddy and Craig Chislett have just the garden for you. Green, formal, lots of interesting angles plus of course river views. Stunning location for any wedding photography session. The above image created at the end of the properties long formal drive.
Currently, every wedding photographer has to have her or his version of a “Sun Flare” photo included in the wedding coverage. What makes this one different? Well….. Oh I know! That is the sun causing the star pattern in the trees. And yes it was actually there. No filters, just good old shoot it as it happens photography.
Remember I said these gardens were green… Well here is proof. How much greener do you want? Honestly it was a great pleasure to shoot with these guys. We had a great day. Everything went smoothly and we could have stayed in the gardens for another day, because it is one of those places blessed with amazing light.
Ali and Ben were married beside a very large garden pond. Covered by lavender coloured petals from a nearby Jacaranda tree. A small fountain which provided a constant, soothing background sound, was the centre piece to the pond. Futher away was the original garden. Old, well kept, shady and full of character. In the centre of this old garden, the original farm house. With its wide, open verandahs providing ideal locations for our wedding photography session.
As our garden photo session drew to a conclusion, Ali has an idea… She knows there is a part of the river somewhere near here, where you have these wonderful red cliffs and can look down on the river as a background…. Remember I said she had a great sense of identity and history!!! Fortunately for all of us, the spot is right beside a highway. Just a few short steps and we’re ready to shoot. Working quickly, because the sun was hot, and a couple of us get sunburn easily. This Merbein wedding photography session was over in a few short minutes and it was off to a party.