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.