Peacocks and Paint....Lilly Sim painted by Wendy Fantasia

Well it was a big week and on Thursday Wendy was back to paint Lilly Sim who is a wonderful belly dancer who will also be performing with Anya Anastasia at Hills Secret Garden festival....and as we were planning on a full day of shooting we started with the feathers from the Peacock dance and ended up with variations of painted patterns as Wendy developed her bodyart....was a wonderful 2 days of brightness and creativity....and to catch all of this in action get a ticket to the Hills Secret Garden on Sunday the 3th March!

Secret Garden - Anya Anastasia and Wendy Fantasia

Home.........On Sunday March the 3rd Anya Anastasia is holding an arts festival called the Hills Secret Garden....the location is a secret but you can get tickets by going to her webpage of the same name....this shoot is a pictorial of her search for the location?....Anya is always a huge pleasure to work with as is body artist Wendy Fantasia who transformed Anya into a magnificent flower!

Where is my Garden ? # 2

Searching for the Garden?? Anya Anastasia wearing Kate Sutherland Jewellery

Anya Anastasia and Wendy Fantasia - Metamorposis in the Garden # 1

Beautiful Anya wearing Kate Sutherland Jewellery

A Long Hot Summer

Happy New Year to you all and I hope 2013 sees your dreams coming true....to be quite honest 2012 was a year I was happy to see the back of being a hard work year of one step forward and two back with the end of the year finding me looking for a new home for the studio....however in all fairness 2011 was a hard act to follow....and I am looking forward to making the most of any opportunities that 2013 may bring. The best thing to come out of the past year for me has been the fabulous people I have been surrounded by, at work , home and in the community and I'll be going into 2013 with lots of new ideas and an open mind as to the next chapter of Crackerjack. A personal goal is to get back into a creative mindset and apply that to everyday work so with a pretty busy January I can't wait to see what comes of it all......in the meantime I am enjoying being at home and not too far from the pool during this blistering New Year heatwave....and here is a taste of yesterday where we remained wet all day and hope you Adelaideans stay cool today for our 44 degree scorcher :)

and the end of an era

Well if you had asked me this time last week what I'd be spending the week doing this week I don't think I'd have believed the answer myself but such is the way life plays out and we must go with the flow and make the most of the choices we have. A bit more than 3 years ago I took a chance and put a note in the letterbox of 107 Princes Rd in Mitcham and a week or so later the owner Mary rang me back and asked me to come in and have a look at her shop which had been disused for 10 years. She had been fighting cancer for nearly 10 years but was willing to take a punt on having a tennant at the front of her house....it wasn't perfect but it had potential and so my little space was created as a Gallery and an office....a few months later Sally came along and with Tash's help 'This Fine Day' became a reality. The shops were redecorated and Mary perked up and really enjoyed the company and now had an outlet to sell her home grown olives and fruit.....when Mary passed away in 2011 it was like losing a wise and supportive mentor and threw us into unknown waters as the building went on the market...an agent was chosen and the uncertainty began....our shops were heavily marketed as the strong point of the building and there were offers and retractions and misunderstandings but we carried on as normal while it became increasingly difficult to predict what the future might be. I stayed on a monthly lease not wanting to sign up with an unknown landlord....then 4 months ago  an offer was made and accepted and we were told the 'good news' that we were safe and would be able to carry on with our tennancies as before by the agent which not only made me breathe a sigh of relief but also stop looking for alternative buildings . The fact that the new owners didn't contact us during the 4 months was a bit worrying but we saw the agent on a few occasions who reiterated the owners wish to leave things as they are...the last time adding 'for now' which set off alarm bells at the time.....sure enough last Friday was settlement day and was a busy day for the new owners and we didn't get to have a chat until Sat. On Friday they expressed surprise that there were certain parts of the building being used that they had been told would be available for them. On Sat I was asked how long it would take me to leave as the new owners had told the agent from the get go that they would be needing my space. The result of this was total chaos and I have spent the most part of this pre xmas premium shooting time clearing out my space....the new owners have kindly said they will keep up my signage which is a help and I am moving my office home and trying to get settled asap (even though I could take a couple of months) so that I can carry on with my work as normal. Luckily I operated from home for 15 years before having the studio doing mostly location shoots but with the addition of the 'She" Beauty Shoots I need a shooting space outside of home so these may be on the back burner until the right space comes up. Viewings will also be on location again and I will be hanging out at This Fine Day as a customer instead of a co-worker....Funnily enough I am kind of looking forward to having a rest and regroup over the Xmas holidays and am quite excited about the potential choices that I will have in the future as I am a strong believer that everything happens for a reason. The other rather wonderful thing that has emerged in the last week is the enormous loyalty and support from friends and family, clients and the photographic community and for this has resulted in me feeling pretty lucky and I want to thank each and every one who has offered to help.

On Sunday I will be joining This Fine day in having a xmas sale with very good deals on paintings and wall prints and will also have TFD Vintage clothing and jewellery for sale as the Sunday Market at the Mitcham institute will be on across the road so should be a bit of fun.

I will miss my lovely little gallery but it is destined for greater things and I will keep you posted as to where my studio eventually finds a new home....and in the meantime you can reach me as always on my mobile number and via the website x L 

Old iphone pic!

Purple haze

Sometimes it all just works...you see something and act immediately and voila...driving home yesterday from the studio I noticed that of all the beautiful Jacaranda trees there was one that was in a good enough spot to get a few shots using the flowers but that it was probably the last day to do it due to our very hot weather...a friend of Dani's lives in the street so after a quick phone call and wardrobe check we were ready to go....huge thanks to Lucia and Dani who were very co-operative models and Simone Hanckel for the chair that we used (nothing like hard rubbish for getting good props)....here is a quickly edited one...and am looking forward to getting into the studio to get a better look at them on Monday

Getting better photos

Hi there...I thought I would do a quick post on how to get the best result from your camera because I get asked about this a lot and this will be a good reference for students and people who have a DSLR and need some info on how to produce the best quality images...

If you have a point and shoot then its all done in camera which is great but gives you little or no control over the fine tuning...in certain situations this is fantastic but if you want to play with your image then you need a processing engine

If you have a DSLR then you are going to need a computer programme to process your images to look their best...

Photoshop is the best and most necessary programme and if you are a student or a teacher you can get it at a fraction of the cost of the full programme.

If you can't stretch to PS then most of the DSLR's come with Photoshop Elements which is a simplified version of PS to get you going and if you are a bit older and havent grown up with one hand on a computer then its a great programme and fun to play with...and nowhere near as complicated as PS.

Lightroom is another alternative and is a must for most Pro's to sort and do global adjustments on large numbers of files...it can do most things but it really needs PS as well to be able to really fine tune and image....the good news is that is a fraction of the cost.

Your camera probably has a programme bundled with it and most of these are OK but no good long term...the sooner you get on one of the above the quicker you will get the hang of it.

So you need to have one of these because otherwise its like printing a photo without taking it to the lab.

Next thing you need to do is try and capture your images in a non-destructive way....if you have a raw setting on your camera then most of what you shoot can be modified in post processing....in saying that you will not be able to fix/hide glaring mistakes in PS...but you can adjust exposure and white balance, contrast and colour etc and if you are using a raw file then it does it in a non-destructive way. If you shoot on Jpeg then the changes you make will affect the quality of your image but its great if you don't want to have to do much to the image....I shoot on a combination of raw and small jpeg and I use the jpeg as a quick preview because you cant see raw files until they are opened in a raw processor. Both PS and Lightroom allow you to open view and edit raw files non destructively and then when you have made your adjustments you can save them as Jpegs (good for the final print or to use for the web) or as tiffs or DNG's if you think you might want to play with them later.

There are numerous tutorials on utube on how to use these programmes and they are large and quite complicated so even now that Ive been using them for years I still watch anything that comes up because you always learn something new or a new/easier way of doing something....and they also keep upgrading them and adding extra tools so its very much an ongoing learning process....

Once you have PS then there are numerous ways to make your photos look better such as plug-ins and actions (which you can buy) and software such is 'Nik Software" which is a personal favourite....and remember try not to overdo it...its always better to make any changes subtle and realistic...

(Use the comments below for any questions)

I have added a picture of Ruby that was beautiful without anything done to it but I wanted to make it look more timeless...I used Nik (silver efex pro) and added grain.

If anyone is interested I will do a post on layers (simple) and how to use them next week...and hope you enjoy this beautiful sunny day if you are in South Australia x L

Playing in PS - Ruby