Unusual viewpoints

last week I took a small group of keen amateur shooters on a practical photography course on Brisbane's South Bank. As usual we started out mid afternoon when the light was good and practiced some cool techniques including controlling depth of field and capturing movement. Towards the end of the course the sun had gone down and the lack of light sets us new challenges when it comes to taking images.
I was especially pleased to see one of the students virtually laying on the floor to capture an unusual shot of the Brisbane wheel. The low angle (made easier by the cool flip-out LCD on his Nikon D5000) gave an interesting view on the structure towering above set against the night sky.

Thanks to P Noyes for sending me the pic.

For info on our practical workshops and photography courses check out www.learnphotography.com.au

Shooting fairies

I spent the morning today working with some of the students of nearby Moreton Bay girls college who were having fun staging a mock fashion shoot based on a fairy theme. Whilst the girls were busy getting make up and trying on outfits I spent some time setting up the lighting and cameras before it was time to get things under way. After an hour of shooting the girls started to relax and really get into the swing of things with the tutor finally taking over the role of photographer when it was time for me to go.

Thanks to all the girls, Karen from MBC and Jennie @ moostudio

Variety is the spice of life

What I love so much about being a photographer is not only the creativeness that it allows me but also the diversity of jobs that seem to come my way. Over the last few weeks in my photography business, I have shot portraits of an 80 year old grandmother, an 18 month old grandson, an 80's inspired band, a hopeful student actress and a media company promoting the benefits of the Clem7 tunnel. Each job and project has not only been a lot of fun but also a pleasure to have been the photographer chosen from the many hundreds (if not thousands) out there. I count myself lucky to work in a medium which allows me to indulge in my passion for creativeness as well as meet some amazing people along the way.

www.paul-farris.com

Trip sinister update

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me with a ton of courses and loads of images to edit so I was really pleased to finally being able to meet up again with Ben from Trip Sinister to look through a selection of the images from the photoshoot. During the actual shoot we had a few costume changes which meant there was plenty to go through and only made the selection process tougher - but after much discussion and debate we selected our favourites, a couple of which I thought I would share here.

You can listen to Trip Sinister via their MySpace page

UPDATE - 28.4.10

Just added another image from the shoot to my website (music) page.

Look out for a behind the scenes of the photoshoot coming soon!

Website makeover

I thought it was time to show the Learn Photography website some love today so we now have a new look-logo, top banner, extended testimonials page and I've also added my much-loved Pelican pic to the front page. June dates have also been added to keep up with demand.

If you are an enthusiast photographer looking for photography courses and practical workshops in Brisbane and on the Bayside or private tuition visit www.learnphotography.com.au

JPEG V RAW - which is best for me?

I get asked a lot about the difference between shooting JPEG and RAW files, so here's a brief overview.

All digital cameras shoot images as a standard JPEG with all DSLR cameras (and some top-end compacts) offering RAW capture as an alternative. So which is best and what are the differences?

Firstly lets deal with the JPEG format. JPEG is a universal 'industry standard' image file format recognised by all camera and computer manufacturers. This makes the transferring, copying and archiving of JPEG image files convenient and easy with no fancy software required.
When shooting in JPEG mode however be aware that the image data (created by your camera) is compressed to allow more images to be saved to the memory card as well as increase the camera processing speed. When shooting high resolution JPEG's the compression is not overly noticeable nor is it anything to worry about for most enthusiasts.

June course dates

SLR : Practical : Canon : Nikon workshops and courses - June dates have just been added to the website.

www.learnphotography.com.au

Trip sinister

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with Brisbane band Trip sinister who describe themselves as modern day 'new romantics' inspired by 80’s pop acts such as the Cure, Duran Duran, the Models and modern day acts such as The New Young Pony Club and Garbage.

The photoshoot took place at Moo Studios and was great fun with lots of costume changes, amazing make up, hair and of course a soundtrack of cool 80's classics!!! A few days of editing ahead of me so here's some behind the scenes shots until then.