Introducing your photographers - Rosie Joyce

Rosie Joyce (above, with a family of quadruplets) is one of the Photo Studio's newest photographers. She's been in Sydney for less than a year, and at the studio for around five months, but has quickly made her presence felt with her fun, vibrant portraits.
Rosie joined the Photo Studio to specialise in family and baby photography, which she cites as "much more fun and relaxing than fashion photography".

Rosie likes shooting family and kids photos because she wants to get away from the traditional view of family photography as having everyone in a formal stilted pose in front of the camera. Rosie's style is influenced by advertising photography, and is "all about fun and letting the subject express their personality". This really comes out in her baby and children photos, which are brimming with energy and personality.

Rosie says that she likes to let the subjects be the art directors of their own photo shoots. That counts for the kids as well as their parents - Rosie captures beautiful spontaneous images with kids and babies that would be impossible to craft with professional models. She likes to capture the relationship between families in a relaxed and fun way, and her number one rule is to "not be afraid to get down on the floor and act like a big kid!"

Family and children photos make great Christmas gifts, especially for grandparents and family members from overseas. If you have little ones, make sure you take advantage of our special Christmas family photo shoot offers. Just contact the Photo Studio for a shoot and quote 'Christmas Blog Readers offer' to receive a FREE photoshoot and a $100 voucher to go towards any portrait package. This great offer is valid for any booking made before the end of December, so contact the Photo Studio today!

150 Locals for Glebe

The end of October saw the start of an exciting new exhibition - a collaboration between our own North Sullivan and portrait photographer Tom Psomotragos. North and Tom, as respected artists as well as proud Glebe residents, were approached by the Glebe Chamber of Commerce to commemorate the suburb's 150th birthday. They hit on the idea to do this through 150 portraits of locals, displayed throughout Glebe both inside and out.

The range of photographs reflect the vibrancy and diversity of the suburb, with the portrait subjects ranging from artist and musician Reg Mombassa (top) to Sister Xavier from Saint Scholastica's College (above) and local personality Mitch the Bike Man (below). The portraits were printed on large canvasses and displayed at nearly sixty locations throughout Glebe, including public parks and spaces, cafes, and building facades. Over one hundred of the portraits will be displayed outside throughout Glebe, transforming the suburb into an outdoor art gallery for the month.

150 Locals will run from October 24 to November 28, so if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you head to Glebe to check it out. You can download the official map from the Glebe website. This exhibition was created not only to celebrate the suburb's 150th birthday, but also to kick off the Glebe Chamber of Commerce's new initiative - the Grand Tour Gallery. The idea is to take art out of the galleries and onto the streets, providing a forum for Australian photographers to showcase their work and allowing people to view great photography outside of a conventional setting.

North and Tom began shooting for the project last December, and although it has taken almost a year to come to fruition, North is very happy with the results. 150 Locals was launched here at the Photo Studio on October 22. The studio was packed out with an eclectic mix of Glebe locals and photography fans, here to view portraits, including those of artist John Ogburn (below) and pianist Bridie King (above), who performed on the evening.

The evening was a great success, and we look forward to seeing what the Glebe Chamber of Commerce cooks up for the Grand Tour Gallery in the future. In the meantime, 150 Locals will continue exhibiting throughout Glebe until the 28th of November, so if you have a chance you should definitely check it out for yourself.

Qantas relicenses North's famous campaign

Children are notoriously difficult to work with as subjects in photography portraits. So when Qantas needed someone to shoot not one, but an entire choir of kids for their famous 'I Still Call Australia Home' commercial, the first person they turned to was North Sullivan.
These images were shot during the filming of the first commercial in 1998. This campaign was voted Australia's favourite advertising campaign in 2006. The images are recurring favourites, with the picture above being viewed on Flickr over 80,000 times and favourited by 1,500 people.

North is known as one of the world's greatest photographer of kids and families, and he now uses his passion to deliver unforgettable family portraits at the Photo Studio in Glebe.
Qantas have, in their latest advertising campaign, decided to relicense some of the most famous and iconic images from the previous campaigns. Foremost amongst these of course, is North's unforgettable picture of the members of the children's choir lining the Great Wall of China. Eleven years after it was originally shot, this stunning portrait is once again being used to deliver Qantas' brand to the world.


North has done many other famous advertising campaigns - the AMP Olympic Torch relay and his series for Land Rover spring to mind - but children and family portraits remain his passion. This passion has continued with the Photo Studio, where North likes to step in to deliver unforgettable family pictures for a range of clients. Some of North's work will be on display at the the Baby Show this weekend from Friday the 18th to Sunday the 20th of September. Make sure to drop by and see our mobile photo studio at Stand C2. North and the Photo Studio crew will be taking photos of babies with their parents and carers, so make sure you get some shots done for the chance to be voted the Face of the Baby Show 2009! All photos will be able to be viewed after the event, so check online at our website after the event to see all the great shots we're sure to see on the day!

Tayla Made Photo Shoots

Here at the Photo Studio, we've seen many aspiring young models, and helped them add to their portfolio with fun and stylish fashion and beauty shoots. But we have seldom been so impressed with a young model as when we photographed Tayla Monkhouse's fashion portraits last month.
Tayla and her family headed down to the Photo Studio from their hometown of Grafton, impressed with the Studio's reputation for professional magazine style photography shoots and proven track record of promoting the best in exciting new talent that Australia has to offer.

Tayla enjoyed the fun and informal fashion portrait experience that the Photo Studio offers, taking advantage of the extended shoot times and huge amount of photos that our photographers like to take as opposed to other commercial studios. She had multiple clothing, hair and makeup changes throughout the session, resulting in a great range of looks in the finished product.


Tayla's photographer commended her on her shoot. "Other people come in here and I make them look like a professional model," he said, "with Tayla, I didn't need to try." To book your own professional style model portrait photo shoot, you can get in touch with the Photo Studio by clicking the links at the top of this blog.

Upcoming events!

Wow, we certainly are busy over the next couple of months! There are a couple of upcoming events where you'll be able to see The Photo Studio, with its mobile studio in tow, taking a variety of glamour, fashion and beauty photography, as well as kids and family photography and portraits.
We'll be all over Sydney for the next couple of months, and you can visit us at any of these locations to get involved in our mobile portrait studio. There are a variety of competitions and prize draws at each event, so come and enter for the chance to win a full photography session at our studios in Glebe!

First cab off the rank is the Baby Show, running from the 18th to the 20th of September at the Royal Hall of Industry, Moore Park. If you have little ones, are expecting, or just want to check it out, come and see our mobile photo studio in action, snapping pictures of bubs and their mums. Not everyone knows that as well as being an acclaimed fashion and beauty photography studio, The Photo Studio also offers a great range of kids and family photography.

We'll also be setting up the mobile studio at the Athena School in Newtown on September 26. More information as it becomes available!

Along with the 2009 Women's Expo, The Photo Studio is hosting the Sydney Woman competition, to find the woman who best represents the beauty and sophistication of the city of Sydney. The Women's Expo runs from October 23 - 25, and the winner of the Sydney Woman competition will receive:

• A professional magazine style model portfolio, worth $2,000
• A 12 month modelling membership with a leading model agency
• A luxury stayover at one of Sydney's top hotels
• Limousine transfers to the hotel from Wedcorp Limousines
• A skin care pamper pack

Stay tuned to this blog for more details closer to the date!

Then over the weekend of November 7 - 8, The Photo Studio will be at the 2009 Balmain Art and Craft Show. Last year's show was a great success, and we look forward to setting up our mobile photo studio and taking some great portraits over the weekend this year.

Then of course, coming up over November 12 - 15 is Fashion Weekend Summer.
We'll be there, running the Face of Fashion Weekend Summer competition, so make sure that you check it out for your chance to win a professional fashion portrait session in our Glebe studios.
Plenty more information is on its way regarding these and other exciting events that The Photo Studio is getting involved with in the coming months. So whether it's setting up our mobile portrait studio, or getting out at events to take great freestyle pictures, fashion photos, beauty shots, kids and family portraits and everything else you can point a camera at, we'll be out and about photographing Sydney. Keep checking out this blog and our website for more info as it becomes available.

Gabrielle Dover, runner up in our Face of Fashion Weekend competition

As promised, here are the fashion portraits of the runner up to our Face of Fashion Weekend competition, which we ran along with Fashion Weekend Sydney. The stunning young Gabrielle Dover was a pleasure to work with and a personal favourite of The Photo Studio photographer Carlo. The Photo Studio's mobile stall at Fashion Weekend was a popular destination for the attendees, who saw a small sample of what they could expect from a full studio shoot in our portrait studio in Glebe.

The mobile studio that The Photo Studio sets up is great for providing a glimpse of the full fashion shoot experience that we can offer in our Glebe studios. Of course, it can be difficult to get out to the events that we are taking the mobile studio out to, but stayed tuned to this blog and we'll let you know about all the upcoming events that we'll be at. Otherwise, you can always get the full studio experience anytime just by booking in for a personal or family portrait shoot through The Photo Studio!


For more great portrait shoots from The Photo Studio, make sure you check out our Flickr Photostream, and don't forget that Fashion Weekend Summer is starting 12 November 09 at the Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park. We'll be there with the mobile photo studio again, so make sure that you drop in if you get a chance to see a sample of the full fashion or family photo shoot experience that we can provide at The Photo Studio!

Portraits that tell a story.

As the upcoming judge of a rather prestigious photographic portrait prize, a few people lately have been asking me what I think makes a great portrait. So as the first entry in my newly created portrait blog, I thought that was a good place to start.

Photographing people is something I happen to be passionate about. I love the chance to engage with someone new and to gain that privileged access to a small part of their personality. I’m fascinated by people. Everyone is different and inevitably everyone has their own story to tell. And that is the challenge for me, to tell their story in a single frame. Photography is like a window through which the audience can take a peek at what lies behind the public facade. My job is to open the blinds, just a little, so the rest of the world can take a glimpse inside.

Portrait photography however is not documentary or photojournalism or paparazzi. I don’t consider it some random image caught in a blaze of flash and motor-drive in a media scrum or an image captured by a sniper with a long lens from across the street. Those images have their place on the menu and are just as valid, but they aren’t in my view portraiture. A documentary image of a beggar on the street shot without their consent or knowledge is not a portrait, its documentary photography. People pictures of any persuasion are not by default portraits. Portraits are considered, constructed and conducted. Even when the photographer deliberately allows the subject to run free in front of their lens. That to me is a technique not a definition. Some I know will disagree, but that’s my view.

Whenever I take a portrait photograph of one of my subjects, the first thing I want to do is engage with them. I need to form a connection with them on some level. More than any other genre, portraits are collaboration between subject and photographer. Even when a subject for whatever reason is uncooperative, it is still collaboration because the way in which they respond to you and the manner in which they conduct themselves, ultimately defines the photograph and in turn the story the picture tells about them.

It is common for people being photographed to be nervous and uncomfortable. So unless that is a primary part of the story you want to tell, then the first task of the photographer is to help them relax and enjoy the experience. Subjects will invariably be looking to the photographer for direction and reassurance. I believe it is the responsibility of the photographer to guide and direct the sitter with confidence and not leave them stranded out in the open with no sense of where they are supposed to be going. I have always said that a good people photographer is like a ring master in a circus or a conductor in front of an orchestra. To be a good people photographer you need leadership and a good measure of showmanship.

If someone is new to portrait photography, my first suggestion is always to get your technical stuff down pat BEFORE you start your session. There is nothing more confusing for a subject than to have the photographer worrying more about the equipment than about them. Like driving a car, learn the gears and how to steer before you take a road trip through the country or you will never see landscape.

Lastly and most importantly, make your story interesting. No one likes a boring story. Be that words or music or a photograph. If John Lennon had written the words to Imagine and put it to a not so catchy tune, no one would have bothered to listen. It is the music that carries the inspiring lyrics that bears the message. Photographs should be the same. Photography is an art and art is built on aesthetics, not technical rendition. The technical side is the craft not the art. Craft is your vehicle. But without craft there is no art, just images. It’s awfully hard to play beautiful music if you can’t hit the notes. That doesn’t mean you have to master the most complicated Beethoven Sonata. Lennon and McCartney couldn’t read music when they started the Beatles and if you have ever looked at some of their early hits you will see the structure was very basic. But it worked and worked wonderfully. So clearly it’s important to learn the craft but not to play beyond your ability. Some of the greatest photographs in the world have been the simplest.

And the final tip is present your masterpiece well. There is no point in producing a wonderfully insightful and artful photograph if the print is flat and dull and horribly pixelated. It would be like listening to that famous song on some worn out transistor radio from the 1960s. Do your picture justice and present it well.

And remember, “Every picture tells its own story”.

© North Sullivan, 13th January 2008