pete wheeler

over the past few weeks i've had the pleasure to shoot my friend pete's paintings for his latest exhibition coming up in november. he needed the works shot for his catalogue, which i must say is looking very cool. it's designed by our mutual friend jay, who has done a fantastic job.
i did a couple of shoots, the first to simply document the paintings in situ' and get some pic's of pete...and basically to suss out the paintings, coz these baby's are big. the largest being 3.2m by 2.7m.
the second shoot was to document each of the pictures for the catalogue inserts - oh did i mention, the catalogue is like an record album cover....too cool
pete wheeler, all bets are off, jonathan smart gallery, opening 17 november 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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family photos

for my cousin's birthday present this year i gave her a 'voucher' for a family photo shoot and printed photos. Her birthday is just before winter, and even though winter day's in chc can produce some stunning photos, it's still a bit cold! so we waited until spring to get out and snap! And it was well worth the wait - today was a stunner of a day.....so so warm, clear blue skies and great light!

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a&a's wedding

i had the pleasure of shooting my friend angie's wedding last week. it was a stunning winter's day, albeit very windy, which made life a little tough i have to say.
angela and andrew(her husband, now) were the easiest couple to photograph, so relaxed and chilled and happy to do whatever was suggested to them....including sitting down for a pint of beer! we did shoot before the ceremony tho, so it was understandable!
i had a great time shooting this wedding, it couldn't have been more fun!

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tying the knot

a few week's ago i shot my friends civil union up in auckland. i was a fabulous winter's day with bright blue skies, and it was warm....well to start with, my nose wasn't thanking me for my very summery attire by the end of the evening....i even took my blackboard along and got all the guests to write something for the happy couple while i snapped their pic. here are a few of my favs.

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what can't i see

i have been struggling with inspiration for the last while. there is so much else going on in my life, i guess. being sick and new job take up a fair amount of energy. but then of course i get stressed and frustrated that my residency doesn't seem to be taking shape.
my plan last week while i was away was to concentrate on my reading and go to some galleries, movies, whatever to get inspiration. well, i got to two movies (one nowhere, near, inspirational)...but that was about it!
so still empty. well my notebook has a few more scribbles, but nothing substantial. i'm thinking i actually need to take time and 'smell the roses'. that is the main issue - i have too much stuff going on and i am continually getting distracted by it all.
what i did achieve over the past week photographically, beside my 365 blog, was a photo shoot with my friend's three month old twins. check out some of the initial pics below.
again, i have used some jules bianchi's awesome presets. thanx jules!

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the small things in life

recently i have been doing portraits of my friends kids. as much i love photographing, my forte is really making up shit! being able to tell a story in my own words....like my death series for instance....


this was my the other half of my major last year and i achieved what i wanted to achieve with it. i was amazed i was able to produce this piece of work, esp knowing my lighting skills at the beginning of the year. but i worked hard, and pushed myself, came up with new ideas and techniques and pulled it off.

but i digress......kids portraits....so i have been doing a few, and i have to say i actually enjoy it. we all know i love kids, as much as i don't want my own. so getting to hang out with kids for a few hours and snap is kinda cool. it's also a tad stressful, especially being a bit of perfectionist. you can't with kids, you don't know what you are going to get thrown, what mood they will be in and how they will respond to you. i have to say my time as a santa photographer the past two christmases is actually paying off, a little.
the few shoots i have done so far i have been unable to go back and re-shoot, whcih is an ideal situation with kids....if they ain't in the mood on the day, they ain't in the mood, so you need to reschedule. i had this issue with one of my recent shoots, but still managed to pull off some shots which my friend absolutely loves, yipee! I of course see every perfection, but i am learning that when you are take photos of kids or weddings, or just anyone, the clients are going to love seeing themselves, their kids, their pets looking great, being captured how they see them every day, having that memory.
here are a selection of photos from recent shoots




all images © Kirsty Macdonald

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