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!

Fashion Weekend Summer with the Photo Studio

The Photo Studio, armed with our mobile studio and contingent of photographers and photo editors, returned to Fashion Weekend, determined to make it as big a success as last time.

North and the crew are old hands at Fashion Weekend now, and it's always great to check out the excitement and buzz of the event. We took a lot of great portraits over the weekend, and it was really rewarding to see the joy and amazement on some people's faces when they saw what we could do in just ten minutes.

We partnered up once more with Fashion Weekend and Vivien's Model Management for the Face of Fashion Weekend Summer competition. Everyone who entered went into the draw to win a professional magazine style model portfolio worth $2000, plus the chance to be represented by Vivien's, internationally recognised as Australia's leading modeling agency.

The Photo Studio booth was the place to be over the weekend, buzzing with models, mums and many more. We had interviewers for Channel V and Unseen TV come down to check out the action, and even they couldn't resist getting involved, jumping in front of the camera for photoshoots of their own.

We are giving away thousands of dollars worth of prizes from the weekend, and the chances to win don't stop with the weekend! Not only are we giving away a $2000 professional modeling portfolio which includes a 2 hour studio photo shoot with Make-up & Hair, Wardrobe Styling and prints, but all of the pictures we took over the weekend will go up online on our website. You can log on to register and vote for your favourite, and the person who receives the most votes will win the People's Choice Award, a professional magazine style photo shoot valued at $1000. If that's not enough, one lucky voter will receive a 2 hour Magazine Style Photo Session valued at $450. The session also includes makeup, hair styling and wardrobe direction, and a voucher for $100 to go towards any portrait package.
We are also giving away a huge amount of runner up prizes, including photo sessions, hair, makeup and styling, and vouchers for prints and portrait packages, so make sure that you go online to vote for your chance to win!

It was also exciting this week to see one of North's photographs spread across the top of a highway. Qantas have decided to reuse one of North's most enduring and iconic photographs, that of the Children's Choir performing on top of the Great Wall of China. The image was shot back in 1998 and has since become one of the most well known symbols for Qantas. It has been seen all around the world in Qantas advertising campaigns, and can now be seen adorning a bridge along Military Road in Neutral Bay. And remember, if you would like to have your portrait taken by perhaps Australia's most respected advertising photographer, all you have to do is get in touch with the Photo Studio!

We understand that sometimes it can be difficult or intimidating deciding how to prepare when coming in for a portrait session here at the Photo Studio. We encourage everyone to come with a few different outfits, and various looks and styles, so we can try a few different things and come up with a whole range of great photographs for you.
If you're interested in learning how to dress for success, not only for your portrait session but for the rest of your life, the Photo Studio recommends that you have a look at Izziana Image Consultants.
Izziana was started by two sisters who believe that image plays an important part in our overall happiness and confidence. They are keen to share their knowledge and experiences on how to look good and feel good without undergoing radical body surgery. They are passionate about assisting individuals to enhance their personal image and confidence through their fashion style.
If you are after a fabulous outfit for your photo shoot but you are not sure what to wear, don’t despair. There are many different clothing styles and colours to choose from so it can be difficult to know how to select the most flattering ones for you. The advice given to you by Izziana Image is designed to last your lifetime and will benefit you not only for your photo shoot but in every aspect of your life. Izziana Image Consultants provide Image and Style consultations that are tailored specifically to each individual to help you look your best and be confident with who you are. They give you the tools to define your style, increase your confidence and shop with authority.
We recommend that you start with their Colour Analysis and Style Workshops to instantly gain an understanding on the clothing colours and styles that best suit you. This is information that you can use immediately to update your image and wardrobe. Check out their website to find out more information on how they can help you.

2009 Sydney Women's Expo

Well as usual, the Photo Studio has had an action packed week, with portraits, the Women's Expo, and the grand launch of North Sullivan and Tom Psomotragos' exciting 150 Locals series for Glebe. But more on that next time.
We were excited to spend the weekend at the Women's Expo at Sydney Olympic Park, which ran from the 23rd to the 25th of October. The Women's Expo is dedicated to the needs of women and their families, and offered a range of exhibitors from various businesses and professions, including, of course, Sydney's foremost destination for portrait photography, the Photo Studio!

North and the Photo Studio crew were there with our famous white background, shooting portraits of women from all walks of life. We have a great range of images coming soon to our website, so make sure you check it out to vote for your favourite image for your chance to win! You could win a two hour magazine style photo session valued at $450.
 The session also includes makeup, hair styling and wardrobe direction, and a voucher for $100 to go towards any portrait package.
The winner of the People's Choice Award will receive a full model portfolio valued at over $1,200!

Along with the 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 winner 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

We're going to keep running competitions and giveaways on our website, so keep checking in with this blog and the website for your chance to win a model style photo shoot in our Broadway studios!

Introducing your photographers - Adele Thomas

Adele Thomas (pictured above) is one of the Photo Studio's young producers and aspirant photographers. She has worked in her producer role for the studio since November of 2008, making her way to Sydney from London via Thailand and China. Adele has had a passion for photography since her childhood, and her portfolio includes many beautiful Cornish landscapes as a memento of those days.

One of Adele's major interests is travel photography, and in her journeys she has captured many stunning images, from the vistas of the Great Wall of China to Johnny Depp at the Pirates of the Caribbean London premiere. In addition to travel photography, Adele is interested in shooting portraits as well as photojournalism. She left London after breaking her leg on her 21st birthday. After recuperating in a Cornish hospital, she decided to travel and pursue her interest in photography.


Like many others, Adele only intended on staying in Sydney for a short time, but fell in love with the city and has established herself here indefinitely. She decided to obtain formal photography qualifications and has spent a year studying Photo Imaging at Ultimo while working at the Photo Studio as a shoot producer.

Adele says she loves working at the Photo Studio because of the variety - one day she's organising a portrait session for a Sydney family, the next day she's helping out on a commercial shoot in the middle of the wilderness.
She cites the commercial shoot for Emirates' new resort in the Blue Mountains as her favourite experience with the Photo Studio - we're sure that the chance to stay in a $2000 per night 6-star resort didn't hurt!
If you want to see some more of Adele's work, check out her website here.

Emanuel School Formal Paparazzi

The Photo Studio, as a part of the School Formal Expo launched our exciting new event photography package - the Paparazzi Pack! The Emanuel School in Randwick was the lucky winner of the Expo prize pack, which included having eight photographers and producers of the Photo Studio rock up to the expo to shoot a paparazzi style red carpet event.

This new paparazzi style event photography is unique to the Photo Studio - if you want a great new exciting and innovative form of photography at your formal or event, give the Photo Studio a call. It was great to see the shock and surprise on all the young faces as they clambered from their limousines and stretch-Hummers to fin themselves confronted by the whole Photo Studio crew, jostling each other back and forth to get the best images. Everyone loved it and got really involved, even those who at first, in true celebrity fashion, stuck a hand out to shield their face as they had to wad through the sea of frantic photographers. As a result, with so many of the Photo Studio there, we got a huge number of stunning photographs.


The formal took place at the Dockside Group's gorgeous Waters Edge venue, perched on the end of Pier 1. The amazing views of the Harbour Bridge and North Sydney were the perfect backdrop for the Photo Studio crew to work their magic.
There are a number of great photos from the event up on the Photo Studio website, so simply click here to register on our website if you would like to see more.
If you want event photography with a difference that only the Photo Studio can provide, contact us through our website.

The Photo Studio's weekend of baby and family photography

The Photo Studio spent the weekend at the Baby Show, which ran from the 18th to the 20th of September at the Royal Hall of Industry, Moore Park. North and the crew were there to set up their famous white mobile studio to capture all the fun and excitement of the weekend. Families were lining up around the block for a chance to get a high quality print of themselves with their baby, and the Photo Studio didn't disappoint, delivering classic pictures for the families to treasure.

The Baby Show was also a 'baptism of fire' for one of the Photo Studio's newest photographers, Rosie Joyce. Rosie jumped right into it, delivering more than 170 stunning images over the course of the weekend, and had a lot of practice at making her subjects smile. She puts her success down to "tickles and squeaky toys". Rosie is joining the team to specialise in family and kids photo sessions, although she'll keep her hand in with everything that the Photo Studio can throw at her.

Every picture that we took entered the family into the draw to be declared 'the Face of the Baby Show'. The winner will receive an hour long fun-filled magazine style photo shoot for the whole family, plus four fine art prints of their choice from the session, valued at over $1,200. Stay tuned, the winner will be announced soon!
Keep checking our website as well, as the photos from the weekend will soon be up. Vote for your favourite shot, and the winner of the 'People's Choice Award' will win one of the additional free family photo-shoot prize packages. Make sure you register and vote, as that puts you in the draw to win your choice of a family photo shoot or a fashion portrait session!

Check the Photo Studio website soon to check out the images from the weekend and vote for your chance to win your own family photo shoot here at our studios.
As well as giving you beautiful pictures to remember forever, the photo shoots themselves are great experiences as our photographers and staff make everybody look and feel fantastic.
"We all loved the photo shoot, the girls had so much fun. We are really enjoying our family portrait, my husband said it was the best ever gift." - Sharmini Poynder
"Our family had a fantastic morning - I didn't expect it to be so much fun. The photos are really great and have captured the family beautifully." - Lorna Clark
"Thank you for a great shoot with the girls. They loved it." - Louise Kalmus

But it's not all babies and family portraits here at the Photo Studio. Later this week, North and the crew are heading up to photograph the promotional pictures for Emirates' new luxury resort in the Blue Mountains. Located in Wolgan Valley, adjacent to the greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, the resort is opening in October of 2009. Check back in the coming weeks to see some of the stunning images that we are sure to capture!

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.

Fun Christmas family portraits here at the Photo Studio!

Once again, Christmas is creeping up on us! As well as being an acclaimed fashion and beauty photography studio, the Photo Studio is also renowned for its family portaits and kids and baby photography. If you're after the perfect Christmas gift this year, book yourself in for a family portrait shoot at our photo studios here in Glebe.

For a fun christmas gift that will be treasured for generations, book your family photo session now! Our range of photo print offers ensure that you can get the ideal gift, no matter who it's for. You can look at getting a large print of the whole family to hang up in your own family or dining room, a durable and stylish perspex print for the grandparents, or a selection of smaller prints that make great gifts to send around with Christmas cards or letters.


On top of that, a family portrait shoot here at the Photo Studio can be a fun experience with the whole family! Our photographers are skilled at getting the best pictures out of even the youngest kids, and the result of the day is a series of great pictures that you can look back on and cherish forever. Stay tuned to this blog for details of the upcoming Christmas specials that the Photo Studio is doing just for families!

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!

The Photo Studio at Mardi Gras Fair Day Victoria Park.

North Sullivan and the crew from The Photo Studio took their mobile portrait and event studio to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras launch Fair Day at Victoria Park last Sunday.

In a day of patchy weather the photographers and re-touchers created a mini version of the full experience of the excitement of having your portrait taken by the professional photographers at The Photo Studio. The portable studio allows for the cool white background portrait photography the studio is known for on location. With the re-touchers Carlo and Kent adding the finishing touches for the custom postcard prints that were then made on the spot, the day provided a fine example (on a smaller scale) of what you can expect from a full studio portrait shoot.

And there where quite a few takers for The Photo Studio Portrait experience who walked away as very happy campers with their finished mini print. In fact we had some of our early customers returning with their friends to have their portraits taken too. Pets were welcome subjects as well; two dog lovers made excellent portraits with their pooches who had been readied for the Best Dog show on the day. (More about pet portraits soon).

Now you won’t always be lucky enough to catch our team out on one of our promotional exercises but you can have the full studio portrait experience anytime you choose by simply booking your family or personal portrait photography shoot through The Photo Studio.

www.thephotostudio.com.au
The Photo Studio
5 Franklyn St
Broadway (Glebe)
Sydney, Australia
(02)9571 9955
studio@thephotostudio.com.au

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