Summer 2011-12 Look Book

Thought I'd share this little (A6) look book I did recently.
Talent photography: Details as per this shoot
Product photography: Mindi Cooke
Art Direction, Styling, Design: moi

Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch or Dinner in West End

I am almost a little reluctant to put this out there, for fear that Jam Jar will be overrun on the weekends like some other favourite Brissie breakfast spots. Alas, I cannot keep this gem from anyone, it would be most unfair. We've had dinner at Jam Jar twice (very yummy), and last Sunday was the second time we've had breakfast/brunch there, and all meals were exceptional! The service is always speedy and super-friendly, and I love the atmosphere of the enclosed, graffitied courtyard. Walking past it on the street front you'd never think this place was here. This is one of our new regular places to go, absolutely love it!
I recommend the Benedict, a fresh juice, and haloumi is a must, of course!
Jam Jar   138 Boundary Street, West End . Ph: 07 38443395
Super cute logo, too!

Ready for Summer

Very happy to receive my latest delivery from Catch of the Day. This gorgeous coral polish by OPI is right on trend for Summer!

I can count your ribs from over here

Amazing swimsuit by Black Milk. I also like their skull one. Their shoot for this season is pretty rad, too!

Brisbane City of Lights

 As part of the Brisbane Festival there is a nightly laser show over the Brisbane River. Last Thursday we happened to be at South Bank at the right time. I didn't have my tripod with me, so the longest exposure is about 1/3 of a second or so, with me leaning against a pole for some stability. Hope you like.

I got myself a new pair of Feiyues and they came in this nifty paper bag packaging, which looks as though it has Pinocchio printed on it. Random!

Ole!

I didn't take any photos because, let's be honest, I was too busy snarfling (this is now a word) down the food. This place has only been open a week, and it did a roaring trade tonight. We just happened to drop in on the way to the theatre. Their website's not quite up and running as yet, but their Facebook is.
This is a Spanish Tapas Bar, and the food was absolutely amazing - every single dish was beautifully put together and unbelievably flavoursome. We had whitebait & calamari, patatas bravas, the scallop and pork dish, and a black sausage and pork belly dish. I drank a delicious red Sangria and they have a small range of Spanish beers in stock. The service was super-friendly and very quick. We mentioned we were in a rush, and the food came about 5-10 minutes after ordering. We were in and out in about 45 minutes, absolutely sated. We will definitely be back to try their Paella, and I will exercise some self-control and take photos next time.
Ole is located at Shop B12 Little Stanley Street, South Bank.
This has very much whet my appetite even more for Barcelona in a few weeks!

Cute visitor at work yesterday

Summer in Cuba

This is the latest lifestyle shoot I worked on a couple of months ago, and it's out now. We came up with the concept of a couple hanging out in a run-down Havana hotel room on a hot Summer day based mainly on the colours and patterns from the clothes our client bought overseas to match the shoes for next season.
Client: Pulp Shoes
Set: The very talented Leo at Staging Dimensions
Photographer: Paul Giggle
Retouching: David Walden
Hair & Makeup: Tania Travers
Art Direction, props: moi
Talent: Alex F and Matt J from Dally's Models

Shooting with the Nikor 24-85mm f2.8-4 D

I've been looking at getting a new walking around lens for our European adventure in October, because as much as I love my 50mm, it just doesn't have the range I want for holiday snaps. Especially for architectural shots (like I'll be doing in Barcelona) I'll need something wider. I asked around for some advice and got put onto the Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f2.8 ED which is a beautiful lens but the cheapest I could find it for was $1700 so that was a no-go. For almost a third of the price I can get my hands on the Nikon AF 24-85mm f2.8-4D IF. Luckily for me a friend of mine owns this lens and kindly let me borrow it for the weekend. Exuberant, I put the lens on my D40x and I was immediately less exuberant as my camera failed to auto focus. I frantically searched for a button on the lens to switch to auto-focus but there was none. It seems my camera is too old and crap to auto focus on D-series lenses, I need G. :(
I'm not so good on the manual focusing, so this won't be the lens to take to Europe where I'll want to be able to focus fairly quickly instead of fiddling with my camera and missing the holiday.
The manual focus is a little touchy and I need a lot more practice, as can be seen from the orange flower in the images below. The lens might not be great for me for the holiday, but I had a play around with the macro function, which is absolutely awesome. I have bought a different lens (AF-S DX Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF) to take overseas, but this lens will stay on my to-buy list for when I get a new body next year.
A few macro shots below to show how sharp this lens is, and the bokeh. Enjoy.

Riverfire 2011

Some long exposure photography from my friend's balcony

Shadow

Refracted light