This is an Open Edition Print from a photograph by Brian Mangano.  It is available as a pigment ink print on archival rag.

Every year we look for ways to celebrate Mother’s Day that are just a little more special.  Often this will involve breakfasts, dinners, chocolates and flowers.  Whilst all are quite lovely gifts, sometimes it can be even more special to give a gift that lasts and will not become a faded memory before next year arrives.

For Mother’s Day 2012, why not consider doing something a little different for your Mum? Instead of getting her a bunch of flowers that will be tossed in the green waste or “surprising” her with a box of chocolates that she will regret sharing with you, how about investing in a family portrait?

Here’s the deal.  Purchase a Standard Portrait Package Gift Certificate for $425 before 13th May 2012 and receive 20% off the price of Portrait Package Extras.  That means you get the following:

• Up to 1.5 hours photography shoot at the location of your choice*
• Maximum 6 people (Normally 5)
• Website to view and order prints
• Up to $200 credit towards Portrait Package Extras

Discounted Portrait Package Extras

• CD/DVD containing all edited High Resolution images from shoot –  $340 (Normally $425)
• Low Resolution digital images files -$8 (normally $10)
• Mid Resultion digital image files – $39.20 (normally $49)
• Full Resolution digital image files – $54.40 (normally $68)
• 5″ x 7″ prints – $4.80 (normally $6.00)
• 8″ x 10″ prints – $23.20 (normally $29.00)
• 11″ x 14″ prints – $49.60 (normally $62.00)
• 16″ x 20″ prints – $96 (normally $120.00)

All you need to do is click on the Purchase Cert button below, then contact us to book your sitting time.

*Locations more than a 1 hour drive from the Melbourne CBD may incur additional travel costs.

Here’s a few questions I like to ask myself about what is going on with the light before I click that shutter:

Where is the light coming from?

Is there one light source I need to consider (the sun), or are there other things going on (reflection off a wet surface, etc)? Is it coming from behind me onto the subject, or is it behind the subject? Can I move it to a better spot?

Do I want more or less light?

Sometimes it’s handy to carry a strobe or three and a remote trigger just in case you want more light, particularly if the sun is in the wrong spot and you want to get the detail of an area that would be otherwise obscured by shadow.  Other times it can be handy to hide the sun behind a building or tree, or perhaps wait for a cloud to pass between your subject and the sun.  There’s more options for modifying light than you can poke a stick at, and that’s before you get to the in-camera stuff!

Is the light hard or soft?

Hard light (bright sunny day) can be a pain if you’re shooting a portrait, but can be great for contrasty pictures or if you’re messing about with HDR.  Soft light (cloudy day) can be super flattering for portraits, but can make landscapes seem flat and drab in my opinion.  That said, I’ve taken some great portraits in hard light and some interesting landscapes on cloudy days.  It all comes down to how you use what you’ve been given.

Will the light warm, cool or turn my subject green?

Light comes in all sorts of colours and temperatures.  Shooting around sunset you get to see an awesome spectrum of light, that will change the way different tones are captured by your digital sensor or film.  Man-made light sources (tungsten, fluoro, LED, etc) will all do different things to an image, so be prepared to make sure you have an appropriate white balance if there’s a particular look you’re after.  The green hue of a fluorescent bulb is generally not one of my favourite things to take a picture under, but when I’m stuck in that situation I’ll make sure if I’m using a strobe it is gelled accordingly and the white balance is set to compensate.

Once I’ve asked these questions and come up with some answers, then I can think about how I will compose my image and how to best take advantage of the lighting situation.  In natural light shoots, sometimes the original plan will have to be thrown away simply because the light might not be doing what I wanted it to do.  That doesn’t mean you should pack up your camera and go home though, it just means doing something different!

Light is fun to play with, and you have more control over it than you would imagine!

The Williamstown Festival has a proud and rich 34 year history.

Beginning in 1977-78 and held on Australia Day, the festival grew into a large popular annual public holiday event sited at Commonwealth Reserve, through until the mid 1990’s, attracting visitors to Williamstown from all over Melbourne to enjoy the wonderful site and hear their favourite bands.

Regrouping and redefinition has occurred for the 2012 Williamstown Festival. The theme is Our Common Ground and the program is focused on community involvement. The 2012 Festival is utilises the skills of local musicians and artists, working within schools and with community groups, and business to create a unique twilight lantern parade and community performance on the Saturday night in Commonwealth Reserve and a mini music festival in Nelson Place on the Sunday afternoon.

As a part of the Williamstown Festival, I will be hosting the Picture This Exhibition from Friday April 27th until Sunday May 6th. Once again, from the Williamstown Festival website:

“Picture This” offers a joint opportunity to celebrate your suburb and hone your artistic skill! Simply submit a portrait photograph of yourself or a friend in front of something you find “Iconic” in our wonderful suburb. 

So if you happen to be from the area or simply love this part of the world, go out and get a picture taken of you enjoying your favourite part of Williamstown!

Yvonne, a local painter, had a gallery in Williamstown in the 90s.  In fact, it was in the same building I now occupy! If you enjoy the images, please come and view the images.

On 26th February, the 2012 Jalna Big Bay Swim took place.  This event is a 3.2km swim from Port Melbourne to Williamstown, across Port Philip Bay.

Congratulations not only to the winners in each category, but to every person who completed the event.

To the left is my favourite image from the day.  Two of the later arrivals, celebrating the completion of the event.

To view the photo gallery for the 2012 Jalna Big Bay Swim click on either my favourite image (above) or the below slideshow.

We are still in the process of fixing our opening hours, however can confirm times for this weekend:

• Friday 3rd February – Until 10pm
• Saturday 4th February – 1:30pm to 10pm
• Sunday 5th February – 11am to 6pm

9 – Study the work of others

By study, I mean just that.  Find photographers or images you like and look at them.  Note down what you like, what you dislike, and then understand at how they did it.  See if you can figure out how they lit the image; take in the framing and the path your eyes travel around the picture.  Take it all in.  You may start to notice commonality between images you like.  These are points you should consider when capturing your own images.  You don’t need to go out and replicate their work, but take the things you appreciate and apply it in your own way.

8 - Have a plan

More often than not, I have an idea of the image(s) I want before I get my camera out of my bag.  Whether it is a sporting event, wedding, portrait sitting or cityscape, there is always a plan.  Sometimes the plan can be a loosely held together idea other times it can be highly specific and detailed, but I rarely set off without some idea of what I am after.  With some structure in mind, it allows you to work within a situation to achieve an outcome.  It helps manage some of the variables so you are able to concentrate on taking the picture you want.

7 – Be impulsive

Sometimes plans fall to bits.  Other times stuff pops up.  In the case of my picture On the Road to Somewhere, I was woken by a train whilst sleeping in my car on the side of the road.  There were some clouds at sunrise that I wanted a picture of, so was setting up my camera.  Just as I had mounted the camera on the tripod, a truck drove past.  Fortunately I still had a wide lens on.  That is the story of one of my favourite pictures.

6 – Learn from your successes and failures

This is pretty simple really.  If you do something good, do it again.  If you do something bad, try and avoid doing it again.  Similar to studying the work of others, periodically flick through your archive of images.  Consider what has worked for you and what has not and keep looking back over your images so you can see progression.  Every three or four months I will spend half a day reviewing my own work.  I tend to be my harshest critic, so this works quite well for me.  Firstly I will look at my favourites and rejects since the last review, then compare notes to my previous reviews.  The plan is to work on eliminating the things that don’t work for you, whilst building upon and refining the elements that do work.

5 – Do something different

Specialising is kind of the done thing these days, but sometimes it can pay to keep a bit of variety in your photography.  I have found that shooting cycling races has helped with my portrait and wedding shoots, in that I am far more alert to the subtle elements that can make or break an image.  Portrait shoots have had an impact on my landscapes and cityscapes, helping me better consider framing and the path an eye will travel.  Cityscapes and landscape work have benefited my cycling photography, bringing the environment and conditions into the story.

4 – Understand your gear

Every single item in your photographic inventory has strengths and weaknesses.  Know them, understand them, exploit them.  As an example, some ultra-wide zooms can suffer serious levels of barrel distortion when near the lower end of the zoom range.  The impact of this can often be minimised if you keep the horizon at mid-frame and avoid vertical lines in the extreme left or right of the image.  Conversely, this perceived weakness can at times be a strength.  In my picture Springtime Docklands, the barrel distortion gives a subtle faux-fisheye perspective that seems to enhance the image.

3 – Read the flaming manual! (RTFM)

Sometimes the most profound stuff can be found in the book that came with your camera/lens/flash.  Does your camera have a Mirror Lock-Up function, and did you know that it can help make longer exposure images sharper?  Do you know the difference between all those exposure modes your camera has?  Do you know what colour space your images are being saved in?  Does your flash offer high-speed syncing?  Does your lens have different image stabilisation modes? This stuff is in that book you probably tossed straight back into the box so you could get at the goodies.  Have a read, you will probably learn something.

2 – Spend more time with your gear

There’s no need to sleep with your camera, however you should take it most other places and not be afraid to use it.  Take more pictures.  Take lots of pictures.  Use all of your lenses.  Play around with your flash.  Take more pictures. Point your camera at stuff you wouldn’t normally point it at, within the bounds of the law and common decency.  There’s no real secret here, the more time you invest in using your equipment, the more proficient you’ll get at using it.  The more pictures you take, the more work you will have to critique later.  Time is learning

1 – Did I mention Take More Pictures?

Don’t be shy about this.  Take more pictures.  Commit yourself to a Project 365 if you’re that way inclined.  If you don’t have your big flash camera with you and you see something you like, pull your phone out of your pocket and use the little camera in it.  The best camera is the one you are carrying, and if you’re caught with nothing but a camera phone when something appears it can force you to focus on how you are framing the picture without all the other dials to distract you.

Now get out there and take more pictures!

As a part of my ongoing catalogue review I have created a new section featuring Williamstown; places and sites that are within walking distance of my gallery.  I look forward to adding to this gallery for years to come, and hope you also enjoy the journey through my new home.

As a prelude to what will be shared in the future, here’s a list of the most commonly asked questions with some short answers:

What equipment do you use?

Canon 5D MkII body, with Canon L series lenses as appropriate for the requirement.  From time to time you will also catch me with a Canon 50mm f1.8.

Predominantly I use small flash (Canon 580EX II) and modifiers as necessary.  PocketWizards are tasked with making them fire when off camera.

I consider my tripods and wireless shutter release amongst my favourite bits of kit.

What software do you use?

Lightroom keeps me organised.  Oloneo renders the occasional HDR image.  Photoshop does the heavy lifting if needed.  I do my best to manage colour, exposure and framing in camera though.

Where do you get things printed?

I print everything from greeting cards up to 16″ x 32 prints myself on Museo cotton rag, with Epson pigment inks.  I have a trusted printer based in Melbourne that I use for bigger stuff who are familiar with the same paper and ink combination.  I am also trialling a couple of sources for postcards and other products that are likely to appear in the not too distant future.

Can you print/frame my stuff?

As a rule, no.  There are people out there who can print things far more cost effectively unless you are after a truly archival print.  If you are after archival quality, I can make a few suggestions depending on what finish you’re after.

I have relationships with framers and mounters and am more than happy to organise framing of a print you have purchased from me.  If you are looking to get your own work framed or mounted, I’d suggest dealing with the framer directly.

What ISO/Aperture/Shutter speed do you suggest?

The lowest ISO, and the aperture/shutter combination that renders the result you are after.  Think about the image you want to create then dial it in.

What is the best way to share pictures?

Printed on an archival paper and framed, mounted or in a photo book/album.  That’s right, get those pictures onto paper.  They look better there than on your screen!

If you’re after online photo sharing, it is very much an “it depends” thing.  I predominantly use Photoshelter [note: if you sign up via this link we both save a little money] to get my images online, but also share some work via Facebook, Twitter and Lightbox photo.  I’ve dabbled with Flickr, but just can’t fall in love with the place.  I’m attempting to fall in love with Google+.

What are a few tips for better pictures?

Take more pictures.  Get the flash off camera.  Read your camera’s manual.  Take more pictures.  Review your work from time to time.  Take more pictures.  Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your equipment.  Did I mention take more pictures?

Over the coming weeks I will expand further on each of these points, and may even be prompted to commit further information or thoughts to written words.  As mentioned I do not consider myself a master, educator or teacher.  I am yet another photographer on a journey, continually learning and evolving.

Disclaimer: I’m not paid to promote or endorse things.  If this were to ever change, I’d be sure to let you know on a case-by-case basis.  The reason I use the products I do is because I believe they best meet my needs and requirements.  They may also best meet your needs and requirements, but they may not.