Street View

Incognito

Cumberland River

So I've been a bit M.I.A over the past week or so. To fill you in briefly, I've just returned from a much needed break with my boyfriend, Paul to a place that had basically no mobile reception, let alone internet. I've been feeling very overwhelmed by a lot of various things in my life over the past few weeks. Most notably about my work, and what I'm actually doing with myself. I'm working on pin pointing where exactly these feelings are stemming from but sometimes I find that just stepping away from something for a short amount of time can really help with my anxiety. It also makes me feel a lot more concise and clear about where I'm going with everything.

Possession

MSFW: RMIT Student Runway

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to photograph the RMIT Student Fashion Show for Style Melbourne at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW). I missed out on shooting at MSFW last year, so covering the festival this year was a nice big tick of my bucket list. I'd heard that the student shows are fantastic. I definitely now understand why. They are filled with inspiring and daring designs. It's the perfect unison between art and fashion and the garments are so much more fun to shoot than just regular clothing.

Drifting Springtime

DIY Journal Cover

Basically, I'm not a very creative person. I've always wanted to be, but whenever I create something 'crafty' it never truly turns out how I want it to look. I guess it's my inner perfectionist complaining. When I was in primary school my friend, Molly, was super creative. She had her own craft room, her mum was an awesome sewer, and I remember going over to her place to make a plethora of home made goodies. Polar fleece blankets that we sewed buttons on (I still credit learning how to hand sew buttons to this creation), coffee coasters recycled from roof tiles and decorated with purple and lime green glitter paint, the list goes on.

Photographing Tavi Gevinson

When I was in year 11, I did a folio piece titled, Portraits of Power. It was based and titled off a series of portraits with world leaders at the 2009 UN summit which was photographed by a man called Platon. Although I couldn't exactly get my hands on world leaders to take photographs of, I decided to apply it to my own circumstances and photograph my school teachers and principle. The main reason why I decided to appropriate Platon's work was because his original series was about getting these famous, world leaders out of their comfort zones. He set up a studio and would start yelling at them, playing loud music and trying to break down the wall that politicians effortlessly put up. Teachers are very different outside of the school and classroom environment and I wanted to capture this by talking to them, not as a student, but an adult.

Rookie Weekend

Well, this weekend was magical to say the least. First of all, I'm super, super sorry I haven't been blogging over the past couple of days but I hope the awesomely rad photographs in this post make up for my little absence (and perhaps provide you with a pretty decent excuse as to why I was away).So this weekend the awesome Tavi Gevinson from Rookie Mag and Style Rookie spoke at the Melbourne Writer's Festival. I've been following her blog since late 2008, I was 14 and completely at awe at the world of blogging. I was incredibly lucky to get tickets to both of her Melbourne events, her talk 'Tavi's World' on Friday night and Rookie Day on Saturday, a special event for girls (and boys!) under 20 years old. I started out typing out the two amazing days I had but then I felt that my words didn't justify the amount of fun, the amount of emotion and the amount of bliss I experienced. To sum the entire two days up, it's probably going to be the pinnacle of my adolescent life and I'm incredibly thankful for the time that I had and the people I hung out with. It was amazing and I will never forget the kindness I experienced. I feel very, very lucky. And thank you especially to the Melbourne Rookie Meet up girls who are amazing, unique and just fabulous in every single way! These are some photographs from the two days.

Plastic Love, Love Plastic

I'm kind of in love with Jouetie's new Spring/Summer look book. I've never really been that into fashion. It wasn't really until I started photographing people that I discovered fashion. When I photographed at the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2012, it suddenly dawned on me how creative, interesting and huge the fashion world is. It was super fun, very daunting and totally inspiring. 

I'm loving a lot of the trends at the moment. I'm more of an op shop and vintage kind of girl, mostly because I'm a babe on a very tight budget but also because the quality is 1000 times better and only a fraction of the cost. But, I'm finding myself lusting over the bright colours, cute logos and sayings, denim and anything that's bright, colourful and a little bit whacky. 

I am particularly in love with the cardigan (two photos down) with the little speech bubbles all over it and the pretty shirt that says 'luck' on it. Sometimes I secretly wish I was a fashion blog, so that I could be sent lovely pieces like this to model and photograph. But alas, although I can take good photos, I'm not a very good model.

Canon Collective

On Thursday night I was lucky enough to secure a space at Canon Collective. What's Canon Collective? Good question. I had no idea either until I was sitting in the venue, in my chair, with a bowl of fruit on my lap. Basically, Canon Collective was kind of like a night where Canon could show off all of their cool products, brag about how they invented practically every imaging device we now use for health/printing etc before anyone and give us an insight into this totally cool new website they're developing.

Mixtape Monday: Song That Make You Feel Better

Track 01: The Love Club - Lorde

Track 02: Spiritus - Lisa Mitchell

Track 03: Monuments - Yann Tiersen

Track 04: I Thought I Was An Alien - Soko

Track 05: Castles (Prod. Felix Snow) - SZA

Track 06: Sleeping In - The Postal Service

Track 07: Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells

Track 08: Here Nor There - Robin Allender

Track 09: Minuet For A Cheap Piano - A Winged Victory For The Sullen

Track 10: Bath Is Black - Marika Hackman

Track 11: Stay Stay Stay - Taylor Swift

Track 12: Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas) - Regina Spektor

Track 13: Don't Look Back - She & Him

Track 14: Chicago - Sufjan Stevens

Track 15: Queen Of Apology - Sarah Blasko

Track 16: Royals - Lorde

Stephanie Thy Photography

A while ago, a lovely person started leaving the most heart warming compliments on my photo shoot posts here on the blog. I'm always curious about who comments on my posts, what blogs they read and what they write and blog about. It was then I discovered a very talented girl by the name of Stephanie Thy. I went up to Melbourne on Thursday to meet the lady behind the beautiful fashion and lifestyle photography and articulate words.

Spring Time Blues

Photography gives me kind of this rush, it's hard to explain. It's like performing on stage in a musical or play for the first time after months and months of rehearsals. You hear the crowds cheering, you're so overwhelmed with happiness and sadness and excited feelings all at the same time that you don't really know how to feel, and you just want to do it all over again as the lights dim down and the curtain closes. I spend a lot of time, before a photo shoot, writing stories, themes and looking for inspiration. By the time I've selected a model, a team and a location, I'm practically bursting at the seams, excited and ready for this idea to come to life. On the day, I'm more nervous than I could imagine. Butterflies still flock to my stomach each time I have a shoot, despite it being close to second nature for me now. The shoot seems to fly by with no time at all and by the end of it all, I'm left feeling sad that I can't keep taking photos, happy with what I have captured and excited to go home and edit all the goodies and share them with the world.

Petra Collins & Glassons

Now this post is totally and utterly overdue, but lets take a moment out of today to discuss mega babe and all round awesome photographer, Petra Collins and her awesome collaboration with New Zealand brand, Glassons.

Punny Food Pickups

Something non photography related?! NO! 

Mixtape Monday: Spring Knocking At Your Door

Springtime Knocking At Your Door Track 01: Coin Laundry - Lisa Mitchell Track 02: The Girl - City and Colour Track 03: Birds - Emiliana Torrini Track 04: Something In The Water - Brooke Fraser Track 05: Let It Out - Ed Sheeran Track 06: Why Not? - Jonsi Track 07: Middle Of The Hill - Josh Pyke Track 08: Life's For The Living - Passenger Track 09: Icy Poles - Alpine Track 10: Red Jumper - Bec Sandridge Track 11: Go Outside - Cults Track 12: Two Doves - Dirty Projectors Track 13: It's Time - Imagine Dragons Track 14: Junk of the Heart (Happy) - The Kooks Track 15: Oh! Hark! - Lisa Mitchell

Beau Davis Film Photography

I am really excited to share with you the work of one of my absolutely favourite film photographers, Beau Davis. I first encountered Beau's work through tumblr and instantly fell in love with the way he captured Melbourne. His images brought the magic and wonder back to the city that I felt I lost.  We met towards the end of last year at my exhibition in the city which, looking back now, was both daunting and very humbling to have someone whose work I admire to be looking at my work up and close.I had a little chat with him over the week and I'm honoured that he agreed to be my first artist interview.

New Beginnings

I've always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I guess I picked this tactic up pretty quickly when I was bullied as most children do during their primary school lives. It was my belief that these hardships from when I was seven or eight years old made me a more resilient person when it came to similar situations later on.

Our Adventures In Wonderland

Last week, Paul and I went on an adventure to Wangaratta....so it wasn't quite wonderland!

Frostbite

When I lived in the country, frosts during winter were a common occasion. The dewy magic became something I took for granted and I saw it more as a bother than something completely beautiful. I remember one year there was a night where the temperature dropped to minus seven degrees. Everything was frozen over, it's been the closes to snowing than I've seen. Our water wasn't working, our heater barely defrosted our icy feet and noses and my fish tank had frozen over, freezing my poor siamese fighting fish called, Angel, in mid swim.

Isla

Warning: The following pictures may just be too cute for you to handle.

Way back in October last year, I shot this beautiful baby girl when she was only one month old. She wasn't very fond of having a camera poked at her face, becoming restless after one little shot being taken.

Glenn & Becky

I love, love. 

As cliche as that sentence is, it is incredibly true.

Photo Diary21.05.13

I can't remember if I've mentioned it on here recently but I GOT MY NEW CAMERA FINALLY.

And yes, that sentence required capital letters. I was supposed to get it in March but I ran into a few mishaps and only ended up getting it a few weeks ago. I was incredibly excited as prior to this, I was sharing a semi broken camera with my dad, and you can only imagine how hard it was working professionally and trying to make a name for myself when technically I didn't own my own camera.

This is the story of a girl who lost her youth15.05.13

Once upon a time, there was a girl who lost her youth. She wasn't ready to loose this innocence yet and it caught her by surprise. She was left with nothing but fleeting memories and the sweet nostalgic feeling when she dwelled on the past. The wild and carefree days.

Shot on my new Canon 5D mk III. I absolutely adore these photos and I hope you do too!

Studio Portraits 7.05.13

I wanted to share with you a couple of studio photos I've taken over the past month. I haven't done much studio shooting before and only really learned how to use soft boxes and tungsten lighting last month at university. It's something I've wanted to learn for a while now, even though I find studio shooting to be quite stark and boring.

The Year Of 14 5.05.13

When I was fourteen, I had a boyfriend who used to play some songs by The Kooks to me through skype. At the time, they were our favourite band. Although it was a short lived fling, I always   thought it was a very sweet gesture. 

My Day, In Four Photographs 30.04.13

Over the weekend and for the past two days I've been kicking myself that I didn't get a flu shot because I'm awfully sick. And what makes my predicament worse is the fact that I'm so fatigued from travelling 3+ hours each day to uni, I'm finding it pretty hard to get out of bed.

This City 27.04.2013

During my first few weeks at VCA, I was given a roll of black and white film to photograph with. I decided to use up the film over three days, taking photos of little things that caught my eye while wandering through the city.

Commute4.19.13

commute; verb

1 [ no obj. ] travel some distance between one's home and place of work on a regular basis: she commuted from Westport in to Grand Central Station.

The End of Summer

During certain times of the calendar year, I get incredibly nostalgic and find myself transporting my mind back to when I was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old and reliving moments that are etched into my memories. 

L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Show 2013 Opening Show

Wow! What a topsy turvy week this has been!

I photographed the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival last week and although I've had these images from the opening show sitting dormant on my hard drive for a week, I've only just caught up after last weeks events.

Studio Shooting

On Wednesday we all got inducted into the studio at VCA. Not sure about every one else, but I've been hanging out to shoot in a studio ever since I arrived. Probably not as much as working in the dark room though.

After our induction, I think we were all itching to get our hands on our cameras and get shooting. We had to photograph an image of each person in our class, experimenting with different lights to create a portrait that would eventually end up in black and white. We decided to have some fun with the portraits, with most of them ending up like 80s school portraits gone horribly wrong. 

Also, Ruben also took about 4 of these photographs that I've included in the set including the 2nd, 9th, 11th and 13th photos.

Week One

First of all, I would like to apologise for this blog post that covers more topics than one should ever post. Secondly, I would like to apologise for the overload of iphone photos.

The reasons for this? My trusty Macbook, after three years, has decided to have it's own mind and not co-operate with me at all. This has meant no access to photo shop out of class time at university and lack of blog posts I've had planned due to not having a computer. So I apologise.

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Little Updates

Hello lovely followers! I'm sorry I've been a little MIA over the past week or so. I've been living up in Melbourne, enjoying my university orientation week activities and getting ready for my first classes tomorrow (?!) I've also been going out too late into the morning and getting a little bit sick.

University starts tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited to meet everyone properly and see everyone's work and talent! I'm far too eager to be around like minded people and to bond over a single passion that consumes our minds. I met a couple of lovely ladies before and during o-week which have just make me even more excited for this year, no matter how tired/poor I may be! 

Last week I also met with the beautiful and equally as lovely Claire Alice Young who showed me where she collects sea glass and her little hideaway home that is more like a secret tree house. I absolutely adore Claire's work and cannot wait to get to know her better! 

These are a couple of snap shops from my life over the past week. I'll have lots more new work, and maybe a little tour of our photography studios down at the VCA in the next week! 

In the mean time, stay golden, lovely people!

The Birds Lament

On Tuesday evening my friend Sally and I went down to the water front at sunset for a spontaneous photo shoot. We carried three gorgeous dresses, a big furry coat and a handful of equipment down to the cold, calm water and watched the sun dip below the yachts and horizon and the moon rise above the waves.

Take Me To New York

Last month, I had the absolute pleasure to photograph model and all round amazing person, Cheyne Buczek. Cheyne contacted me on tumblr in 2012, flatteringly confessing his admiration for my work and age and suggested we one day do a photo shoot together. After months of scheming and day dreaming, we finally got to meet.

friday links: 02

Happy Friday everyone!

I have to admit this week sort of got away from me. It felt like it was only Monday yesterday and now it's Friday? Funny how time flies when you're busy.

Speaking of busy, I've been busy editing lots of photos and taking photos to share with you, (some of which I was meant to have finished and posted up here a few days ago) over the weekend so keep an eye out for those.

a quiet weekend

I've missed quiet Saturday mornings, black coffee, the subtle smell of smoke from a wooden fire, the sea breeze. I photographed a twenty-first Saturday night. Everyone was loud, rowdy and drunk, the very opposite to my morning. Sunday we celebrated my brother's sixteenth birthday with a small celebration of home made pizzas and chocolate cake. These are a few pictures from the weekend that was.

friday links: 01

A big wish of mine is to be able to post on here more regularly. Once my university course begins, I'll hopefully be creating new content to post every other day, since 75% of my course is photographing things. Between finishing school and now, I've found that I've been swarmed with inspiration and my head is bursting with ideas. I've been meticulously pinning pictures to my pinterest and reblogging things on tumblr to try and stay organised.

my boutique, summer 2013

Early December I went for a meeting at a local coffee shop with a girl who had contacted me through the internet. She was the owner and designer of local, Geelong shop, My Boutique. I nervously waited on a soft couch for Dani to arrive. I had my folio of works with me in my large black book and carefully looked over my pervious portraiture and fashion work, hoping to impress.

gina

I was lucky enough to be asked last year to photograph this amazing beauty for my first photo shoot of 2013. Gina recently won a modelling competition with her agency, Katz Models, and part of her prize was being signed with Scene Model Management for a year and being flown down to Melbourne for a couple of days to build her portfolio. (how lucky is she?!) I was rather chuffed that I was the first, and probably the least experienced photographer who got to shoot with her in Melbourne's magical botanic gardens.

an island in the sun