I’m sure none of you really need reminding that Christmas is fast approaching, but you may be looking for some creative gift ideas.. something a bit better and more thoughtful than the standard socks and chocolates.. Well I’m only too happy to try and help :-) Why not give the gift of photography, Memories that will last a lifetime and quite often more than your own lifetime! I have a few places left for portrait sessions in the next 3 weeks, a framed family portrait makes a great gift for grandparents, parents or uncles and aunties. Maybe instead of the standard.. and often cheesy Christmas Card, you could send personalised portraits with your message on it!
I’m offering a 1 hour portrait session, 2 8×10 prints and a cd with the photos for email, facebook and postcard sized prints for $180 per family. Feel free to email me: paul [at] blaquestudios.com.au to book your session, or you can phone me on 0415 864 811 during business hours.
Other great gift ideas, buy a calendar of my landscape photography for your friends and family, it’s a gift that lasts 12 months!
Well today was the first of 2 days I’m spending at a seminar run by Yervant (http://yervant.com/), an excellent photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. Today’s session included some great tips on what not to do when running a studio and how to avoid some of the problems Yervant went through when he was starting up. It’s certainly given me some ideas and thoughts that I’ll have to go through as I finish off the business plan for our photography studio and we go into the setup stage. Things like how to keep good staff and how to make sure that every client is happy with the value you are giving them, while still keeping a healthy business running. Anie, his wife, had some excellent things to say about how they got through the hard times and gave some ideas and thoughts on how to think outside the box when it comes to marketing.
After that he ran us through how he works with the couple when shooting weddings. While he was doing this, we were able to capture some of our own photos and setup some of our own shots. Yervant hired a model (Rachael Cross.. beautiful girl, very easy to work with) to be our “bride”.. he didn’t get a groom though so I was roped into being the groom in some of shots.. haha. Anyway.. I don’t have any of those photos, though I’m sure they’ll pop up around the blogosphere in Perth over the next day or so.. if I didn’t wreck the photos :-)
I’ve got some more photos from our trip away to come, but I’ve got to go through them yet.. it’s been go go go since we got back on Monday.
I’ve included some photos from today in this post though, feel free to leave comments.
Bec and I are having very busy, but great time in Mullewa.. we’ve been working with some great people in the photography workshops and today we had the opportunity of working with the local Indigenous Women’s Group. They have some serious artistic talent in their paintings and their photography.
Mullewa are producing a community book with stories and photos of the community, I will be submitting some photos for the book as well as the loclals. The blog for the project is at: http://mullewathickerthanwater.wordpress.com/
Well Bec and I have been in Mullewa since Saturday now and I have to say that I am really enjoying the place, there is a great community of people there who are very open and friendly. We’ve been around the place taking photos and exploring the countryside all around it.
The photography workshops are having a great response and we did the first practical session this morning (dawn.. ughh), I hope everyone is as happy with their photos as I am with mine :-)
I’ve posted up a couple of photos here and on Redbubble.. I’ll have more fairly soon I hope.. we have no internet access at the moment and our phones don’t have any reception out there.. I’m trying to get a pre-paid sim to work in my phone.. hopefully we’ll have some more updates then :-)
I know it’s been over 2 weeks since I last posted, but it’s been an incredibly busy 2 weeks.. I’ve managed to book another 2 weddings, one in Perth and another one in Phuket, really looking forward to both these weddings. I’ve also picked up a great commercial client, I will be redoing their entire corporate image for all their photography along with 2 websites.
I’ve shot a couple of portrait sessions, some of my own projects as well as done a bit of exploring around Perth, I’ve attached some of the photos to this entry for you to have a look at. In the next week to 2 weeks I’ve got several portrait sessions booked in and I should be getting my new flyers as well, I’ll keep you updated as I go.
Early next month I start a great community project with the community of Mullewa, approximately 100kms East of Geraldon in Western Australia. Bec and I will be driving up there to spend a week photographing the area and doing photography workshops with the local community. Both of us are really looking forward to the opportunity to meet some new people and to photograph some new areas. I’ll have further details on this trip in the coming weeks.
Spent the afternoon with Luke & Christy, I shot their wedding in Lismore, NSW in January 2008. They wanted some portrait photos at the beach today, the weather wasn’t the best weather we’ve ever had, but we thought we’d give it a shot. We got to the beach at Hillary’s and the wind was blowing like crazy! We had a load of fun anyway and got some great shots! We moved down to Trigg beach for a few shots too, we didn’t get too wet or sandblasted and ended up with some really nice photos, here are some of them:
Had a great afternoon Luke & Christy, hope you guys have a safe trip home!
I’ve got a stack of photos coming real soon, some new art prints to be added to my red bubble account and other photos.
I’m planning a trip to Perth as well at the moment, so if you have a wedding or a portrait shoot between December 1st and January 7th, please let me know if you want me to be there as I will already be in town and happy to help out!
I had a fun family portrait session this afternoon with the Greensmith family (and the Cables, Williams and Browns), they had a portrait session 10 years ago and wanted to update their photos. The setting is actually their backyard, they live on acreage at Bridgeman Downs with some nice gardens and a pond that actually has water in it!
