Pretty girls and boring dinners ♥ Brisbane Photographer

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 6:49 pm Posted in Teenagers

my week in a blog post … happiness … business brains … flinders fair … visits from modest noble women … missing … humanitarian kindness … donations big and small … designing new packaging … editing weddings … homework … piano practise … trumpet beginnings … destination weddings … island paradise … embracing beautiful family … ekka debut … realisation sideshow alleys are the same everywhere … sweet husbands … sweet messages from friends afar … boring dinners … commercial shoots … messy paperwork … 20 minute runs … beautiful boys … happiness to sadness to happiness like 0 to 100  … new friends … classroom help … photography … printing … sourcing new products … to do lists achieved … nearly  … studio set ups … model portfolios … and pretty girls like this ….

Until next time .. enjoy.

Cx

by Carolyn B

no comments

add a comment
link to this post
email a friend

Cupcakes with Princess C ♥ Brisbane Children’s Photographer

Monday, August 22, 2011 10:24 am Posted in Babies, Children, Lifestyle Portraiture

Just when I thought life couldn’t get any more delightful, I came across little ‘Princess C’.

She’s a delicate flower of beautiful blue and a stunning bubble of other pretty hues.

She’s sweet and soft and clever and funny.

With taste buds made for chocolate and honey.

‘Princess C’ you made my day, when I photographed your cupcake play.

Keep laughing and playing and smiling and enjoying your blessed life sweet girl.


 

 

Until next time .. enjoy.

Cx

 

 

by Carolyn B

no comments

add a comment
link to this post
email a friend

I’m a mind gardener, cultivating a Business Brain ♥ Brisbane Photographer

Friday, August 19, 2011 5:44 pm Posted in A grateful life, FAQ for Photographers

These past few weeks, I’ve been indulging in a short business course called ‘Business Brains’.  It’s designed by the wonderful ladies from Mind Gardeners.   I’ve managed to indulge in some Mind Gardener products over the past twelve months or so.  They have totally consolidated my thinking in being positive and grateful for the world around us.   Mind Gardener’s have some amazing products / guides which take you through a process to change or mould the way you think about life.   Our household has the Clear Mind Guide and also the Living Happy Guide.   After cyclone yasi I emailed the course founders with a little story and they blogged about it here.

Well, these past few weeks, I’ve once again furnished some positive and creative thinking by enrolling and participating in the Mind Gardeners ‘Business Brains‘ course.   It’s a twelve week course and we’re just over a third of the way through.   I’m so confident with how things are going I thought I’d share a sneak peak of the business purpose and some business communications.

So far throughout the course, we’ve discovered the purpose in our business.  Completing the exercises, I dug deep and discovered that what I do, what my photography business is all about is sharing everyday gratitude through fine art photography, one frame at a time.   The things I love most about each photography session is seeing how grateful people are with the loved ones in their lives.   During each session, whether it be with children, a commercial venture, a family or a loving couple, I get to see first hand the gratitude they have for each other.   After sessions, clients continually tell me how much they enjoyed spending time together, being themselves in the presence of their loved ones.   They continually tell me how when they look at the images from their session, it takes them straight back to that time together and brings back that feeling of gratitude for having that moment, that person, that love in their lives.  Each time I think to myself how this business was instrumental in sharing that gratitude for life and love.

Today I ordered my newly designed business cards along with some stationary.  It looks something like this …

The front of the new business card …

 

And the back has a choice of two designs …

 

The illustrations were designed by a gorgeous friend of mine in the far north, Annette Nielsen.  Netti is an amazing artist living in Tully / El Arish.   These days she dabbles in all sorts of fine art herself when she’s not tripping around in her caravan across Australia discovering new inspiration.   These illustrations will hopefully form the backbone of my new website when it’s up and running … more on this soon … ish.

 

While I was there, I also ordered some stickers for fun.  They look a little like this …

Mind Gardeners is so worth a look.   They are amazing in how to teach and inspire and cultivate positive, creative thought.

 

Until next time … enjoy.

Cx

by Carolyn B

show hide 3 comments

add a comment
link to this post
email a friend
August 25, 2011 - 1:35 pm

Julie - Hi Carolyn,
Im also looking inwardly at the moment via the Business Brain program so I can relate to the drill down and why its important in orienting how you think and where you can take your business. Well done – it looks like you have great insight into your business.

I also love the “first look” experience you have taken on board which fits really well with the purpose part too.

Hope all goes well

August 25, 2011 - 8:30 pm

Carolyn B - Thanks so much Julie. Enjoy the Business Brains program. It’s such a fantastic tool to work through important decision making isn’t it? The ‘first looks’ are just gorgeous!! It makes for some beautiful memorable moments for the couple on their wedding day. Cx

September 5, 2011 - 5:31 pm

cat - Hey thanks for sharing, ive been thinking about doing the course so nice to see a testimonial. Cute illustrations (i like #1 wording best btw haha) and loving your business purpose/ theme :)

First Look ♥ Destination Wedding Photographer

Wednesday, August 17, 2011 6:24 pm Posted in We do ... The Big Day, Weddings

Jody and Luke are one of the most beautiful couples you could ever meet.   They live in beautiful Canberra and decided to get married in Mission Beach at Castaways Resort.   I love photographing weddings at Castaways.  The staff are absolutely superb and the setting is spectacular.   For brides and grooms planning a destination wedding, this place is one special place to investigate.

Jody’s a northern girl.  Luke a southern boy.   Both science geniuses with personalities and looks to die for.

I met with Jody a few days prior to the wedding for a lunch date and a catch up on all things weddings.   We spoke about love.  We spoke about plans.  We spoke about light.  We spoke about details for shade.   I was reluctant to ask, being so close to the actual day but decided to suggest a ‘first look’ session with Luke for their wedding day.   They seemed like the perfect pair to do this and it suited the day they had planned.

I was more than thrilled when the talked about it and came back to me with a positive response.   The ‘first look’ session is definitely not for everyone and I believe the couple knows best about how they’d like their day to plan out.  It’s their day.  It’s their memories.   For Jody and Luke, they decided this would work for them.   And it did.  It was perfect for them being a quiet and intimate couple.

So what is a ‘first look’ session?  For those of you not in the wedding business and not heard of this concept, the ‘first look’ session is a period of time on the wedding day when the bride and groom meet together prior to their ceremony.   Set up for the couple to be the first to see each other dressed as a bride and a groom, before the guests and spend some time having couple portraits taken before they wed.   For Jody and Luke, we found a quiet, intimate place around the Castaways Resort where Luke would wait with his back to the open space.   The space Jody would enter and tap him on the shoulder to give him the cue to turn around and see his love for the first time dressed as his bride.   I stood back, a distance from their togetherness to capture the moments of love, intimacy and admiration for each other.   The end result looked a little like this …


After spending some time having this special moment, Jody, Luke and I went for a drive and stroll to get capture some gorgeous couple moments.

The rest of the day was just as beauty-full and it went a little like this…

 

Thanks for sharing your special day with me Jody and Luke.  I loved becoming your friend and capturing the togetherness you have.

Until next time, enjoy.

Cx

by Carolyn B

no comments

add a comment
link to this post
email a friend

ISO and best friends ♥ Brisbane Photographer of bestest friends

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:21 pm Posted in A grateful life, FAQ for Photographers, The family life .. that can question my sanity, The Tully Heads Life

It’s tips on Tuesday time ..

My last tips post I spoke about some general information about exposure.   The post is here if you missed it.

I thought I would go into a little more detail about each of the components I spoke about before.  Firstly I’ll speak about ISO.

The ISO is how sensitive your camera sensor is to handle light.  The higher the ISO the more capable the camera is to capture moments in low lighting situations.   The ISO also influences the combination of shutter speed and aperture settings in order to capture the correct exposure.   If your camera is set on ISO Auto, the camera will do the thinking and select what the best ISO option is for the available light and the shutter speed / aperture all ready set.  This however is not always the best option for a keen photographer.  When taking an image, the first thing I do is set the ISO to suit the available light I’m shooting in.

As a rule, I apply the following ISO …

  • 100 / 200 – Bright midday sunlight.
  • 320 / 400 – Shade, indoors soaked in natural light, times leading up to sunset and sometimes after sunrise.
  • 800 – Indoors with limiting natural light.  At times around sunset and sunrise.
  • 800 – 3200 Indoors at night, Night sky.

There are some factors I’ve observed when experimenting with ISO.  Like …

  • Some cameras handle higher ISOs well while the quality of high ISO shots in some cameras is very poor.
  • The higher the ISO the grainier the picture exposure will be.  (depending on the camera)
  • If the shutter speed is just not quite high enough for what you want to achieve, it’s usually a good idea to bump up the ISO as a first port of call.
  • For natural light photography, the ISO dial will quickly become your best friend.
  • Sometimes, grainy images can look really effective so don’t be too afraid.  It’s worth a try.
  • When photographing people, the ISO setting can make or break skin tones.

In saying all that, I have a great dSLR camera which can handle high ISO settings.   Many compact cameras with the option to adjust the ISO setting, usually have a smaller image sensor than dSLR cameras which are either full frame or half frame sensors.   Therefore, most compact cameras when the ISO is adjusted to even as high as 400 will result in very grainy (noisy) images.

It’s worth experimenting with though, that’s for sure.

 

PS … Speaking of best friends … we miss you Nat and Ebony. Neighbourhood plays just aren’t the same … pleeaassseee come and visit us soon.

 

Until next time .. enjoy.

Cx

by Carolyn B

no comments

add a comment
link to this post
email a friend