Set in the great outdoors our ‘TIMELESS’ portrait sessions are natural and fun photo sessions suitable for families and children.We create a series of images that are real to life and that captures the love and laughter that families share together. Our natural and candid style of photography ensures that the images will be treasures for life. Our approach to these sessions is more traditional, yet they are very natural, playful and fun.
Flare:
Fun, Fresh, adventurous.That is the best way to describe the FLARE portrait session. Everything is candid and photo journalistic. We follow you or your children around during the photo sessions and document the adventures you will get into. Take the clock back a few years to your silly days and let the kids roam wild. Enjoy being a kid again for the day, while we capture some gems for you to treasure for lifetime. Photo sessions are a total adventure.
Moments:
What is special about our MOMENTS sessions is that we will document the growth of your children over a period of time. That’s right! Here is the chance to book multiple sessions of your children’s including their sports events or musical performances or a timeline of your babies growth from a newborn to a toddler. The perfect photo sessions if seeking a portrait album or lifestyle book. Available in a collection of 2, 3 or 6 sessions.
Newlife:
Our new life session illustrates the story of life. Combining high quality images with High definition video footage,We will create for you an emotional and powerful audio visual production recorded onto DVD or BLU Ray. Especially moving is the footage of newborns and toddlers as they explore their own little world. Prints from the session are also available. Includes beautiful soundtracks and touching interviews with parents.
We had the privilege of photographing a stunning wedding for a beautiful couple and it was a little bit exciting to say the least.
I love a little bit of excitement and drama on a wedding day, it really illustrates the emotion of the day and helps us understand how much undertaking bridal couples and their families are willing to sacrifice for the amazing commitment of marriage.
Luckily for all of us the weather held off yesterday for the stunning wedding of Jarom & Remy at Sandalford Winery in the Swan Valley.
For the few days before hand weather threatened to damper the wedding party celebrations for this outdoor garden ceremony, however we were treated to lovely afternoon sun.
The light was amazing for wedding photographs and Sandalford vineyards are perfect for photographers to create stunning wedding day portraits the bride and groom.
A couple of ‘small’ incidents’ made the timing run a little late for the day but when the Range rover sports convoy arrived, family and guests were treated to a beautiful and intimate wedding ceremony and groovy reception.
We can’t wait to share some of the reception picture as the place was amazingly decorated with stunning lighting and table sets.
We have begun proofing the images up for the lovely couple to preview once they have returned from their honeymoon in the Maldives (where else would you go when you are airline hostess?)
The couple have selected their images to be displayed in one of our classic bespoke album and the final design will be a treat.
We hope you enjoy the first sneak preview with more to follow soon. And of course you must check out this lovely couples stunning pre Wedding portraits.
And of course a HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the Bride for today – Double celebration coming right up
Booking a portrait photography session with us is really simple, fun and rewarding. Have a look at the kind of images we produce, if that is what you like then it simply a matter of requesting a booking form. A Photographer from our studio will contact you about a session time and discuss a location. This is also a great time to discuss what portrait requirements you have for your home, whether it be an wall portrait, or an lifestyle album. For general portrait information please read on.
Here are some of the facts that make us one of Australia’s thriving and evolving studios.
On location portrait in the wheatbelt region
1. All our sessions are outdoors, using natural light and occasionally a bit of flash to brighten things up.
2. Location and timing are so important, and we provide our expert guidance to ensure that the results you are after can be produced. We will also give you a guide on what to wear to your portrait session.
3. After the photography session, a image viewing session will take place This can be done in the comfort of your home where we can find the perfect sized print for your wall. Your images are normally ready within 2 weeks time to preview, but we also like to give you a sneak preview on facebook before the full viewing. Our viewing session is totally interactive and non pushy. That means you can explore all the options to displaying your treasured images in total comfort.
4. Our main objective is to produce a stunning collection for you and present it in the most amazing way. Our quality products are reasonably priced and we also offer flexi-payment options to suit your budget. Because quality means a lot to us, we won’t be giving away cheap tacky CD’s of images. If that is what you are after, then we are probably not the right choice for you this time.
5. We do travel and more than you might think. Many of our bookings come outside of the Swan Valley region we are based. Why? because we offer a unique style of portrait photography, with flexibility and a range of stunning presentations. During the summer months the beach portrait session is very popular and later in the year when its a bit cooler, the rural and bush settings are more preferred . Each year we travel to our country regional zones which include Kalgoorlie, Bunbury, Mandurah to list a few to offer our country friends the same opportunity as our city folk. We could be just around the corner from you soon, and if you would like us to come to your town, let us know as we are happy to explore.
6. Once you have placed your order, we place your images online for your family to share too. Although we only have it here for a short time, our archival system allows us to recall your images further down the track.
7. We offer several unique products and services that you will only find here. Our unique products include personalized “Life Book” which is a documentary style photo book of your families life. These are custom designed to your tastes. This differs from the customized coffee table book or portrait album we do. Please CONTACT US for a proper consultation. We also produce HD video presentations in a documentary style. Please see our NEW LIFE session below.
Jarom & Remy are finally getting married (so all their family and friends say) and we are the lucky professional photographers . This lovely couples wedding day has crept up so quickly, and now it is only a day away.
Weddings in the month of march are spectacular. The heat is normally just about over and the light is stunning. Its definitely a popular month for brides and grooms to get married.
The Bride and Groom are having a beautiful Swan valley Wedding ceremony and reception at Sandalford Winery (we love shooting swan valley weddings). The boys will get all dressed up in Butler while the girls will doll up in Sorrento. Can’t wait to share some of their beautiful swan valley wedding.
For now here is a fresh look at the images we photographed in the pine forrest for their pre wedding ‘Love Bird shoot’.
Now the big question for tomorrows big wedding day. Will it rain during their outdoor ceremony?
Breaking news Brook Desmond becomes Award winning professional photographer.
28th April 2013 – Brook has recently become an award winning professional photographer at the WAPPA’s (Western Australian Professional Photography Awards. Earlier this Month at the state Professional Photography awards, Brook tasted sweet success for the studio by collection a handful of prestigious photography awards.
The Photography awards – The awards are part of the Australian Institute of Professional photographers annual calendar and include entries from all professional photographers all over WA including regional and internationally residing photographers.
The West Australian Professional Photography awards is open only to practicing professional photographers who attain the highest standard of work and maintain ethical business standards and moral conduct (see the award winning entries here).
The judging process – The intense judging process was completed over a week long process with acclaimed national and international judges carefully selecting the winning images. Success was tasted early in the week, with Brook awarded 2 silvers for his wedding prints, 1 silver for his family portraiture print, and 2 silvers and 1 gold for his travel prints . He was also awarded a silver for his wedding album.
Winners announced – As the week concluded the Australian professional photography institute hosted an overall awards night where Brook revived awards for best overall print in travel, runner up travel photographer of the year, runner up Wedding album of the year and was then awarded the John Whitfield King memorial award which is the highest and most prestigious individual award for a professional photographer for excellence in portraiture. This award was given for a depiction of indigenous youth playing in the dream-time dusts of an Arnhem Land community. To see all of Brooks winning entries click this link
Exhibitions – This image will feature in an exhibition later in the year in which Brook documents the life of the Yolgnu people in a remote indigenous community in coastal Arnhem Land.
Brook is planning a full traveling exhibition from his travel images and teamed up with his associate Paul are running photography workshops in Western Australia and Bali later this year.
Winner of the John-Whitfield King memorial award for excellence in Portraiture
One of the highlights for me personally during my career as a Wedding Photographer is sharing the wonderful occasions and all the magic wedding moments as a Bride and Groom begin officially their union together with their wedding day celebration.
Storytelling with a lens – Its something that I do not take lightly. I see myself as a storyteller, using images to illustrate and tell your story, like piecing together a puzzle, piece by piece.With each new Wedding brings a unique and amazing new experience. This is the main reason I continue to shoot Weddings each week. Of course the challenge is great, and the workload huge, but the experience we share with so many Brides and Grooms is just so wonderful.
The Standard photographs – Each new Wedding I look for the standard set of images, Mum admiring her Bride daughter, or Dad walking his daughter down the isle proudly just to name a few.
On each and every Wedding day comes a wonderful magic, a joy and peace, love and harmony and sometimes tears. We can never in words explain what happens before the event has taken place, but we guarantee that when the day is done, the words have been spoken, the tears have been wiped away and the smiles have stopped, we will have a memorable set of images that will touch your soul.
The magic wedding moment journey – I want to take you on this journey, so you can feel some of these magic wedding moments.Here is a the start of a series of memorable and amazing magic wedding moments we have seen through our lens at the different Weddings we have photographed. Each has a story behind it, each image captured a piece of something amazing and we are happy to tell that story.
These ladies are best friends, helping each other through the trials of life for many years. When one sees a need to help the other they drop everything to do so. This photograph was captured as the Bride nervously prepared herself for her big day. There was much to worry about, weather, the kids and of course new beginnings.
Amongst the chaos, her friend saw the need to fix a little spilt in her dress, the bride seeing the selfless act and knowing her friend hadn’t finished her hair began pulling the rollers out of her hair. Their determination, teamwork and laughs showed the true meaning of eternal friends and what one does for those they care about.
Known as our “Love Bird” shoot, our complimentary pre wedding portrait is a great way to become comfortable with your photographer and as a couple in front of the camera before having us professionally photograph your Wedding day. The beautiful images created in this session are perfect for engagement displays, wedding invitations and wedding guest books. Please speak to us about your Wedding and engagement requirements. You can find some great ideas for this shoot on Pinterest and have a look at some of our favourites for inspiration before your session.
If you are planning a family photo shoot at an outdoors location, it pays to pick a good location that is safe and suitable. It is also very important that the location is friendly to the family in the portraits and that right lighting can be achieved for you photo shoot.
Backdrops that compliment:
Our family photo shoots are held in an outdoor environment. One that has a natural and pleasant background – a backdrop that compliments you as the subject but does not dominate the portrait. One that creates a happy and fun environment. A good location is important to the way your portrait is lit and how it looks overall.
Good light and no distractions:
Dezire Studios brings many years experience photographing in outdoor locations for family photo shoots. Our team will guide you to a suitable location for your family portrait. Beautiful locations are not always suitable for a family photo shoot or portrait session. Distractions such as crowds, bad light and working distance may impact the look and feel of you family photo shoot.
Follow these guideline when choosing a location for a family photo shoot.
Beachscape: A beach,lake or river location that usually offers a bank and water in the vicinity. Perfect for natural, playful portraits. Best time is late afternoons just before sunset or twilight sessions.
Bushscape: A location with natural rocks, logs, trees and scrubs. Great all-round location for playful, natural, and traditional portraits. Suitable for morning and afternoon sessions
Parkscape: Similar to Bushscape but generally has manicured grass, gardens and trees. As long as there is lots of shade, this can be good for early morning and late afternoon sessions. Preferably not with swings or playground equipment
Ruralscape: On a property that has old barns, sheds, horse stables,tractors, vineyards or long fields. For farming families its ideal to have it on your own property. The best times for these sessions are early morning, late afternoon or twilight.
Urbanscape: This location usually has architecturally strong buildings or structures, Can be modern or vintage and could include stairways, arches, graffiti walls or alleyways. For more creative, expressive and abstract portraits. Great for late afternoon and twilight sessions.
Click here to see some examples of these location types
Products and Presentation collections from your family portrait session
There are many options and presentation collections available from our product range. When booking a family portrait with Dezire Studios, please take into consideration how you wish to have your finished images presented.
Not just a disc
Our specialty is producing beautiful wall portraiture and “one of a kind” fine art collections. We suggest you measure up wall spaces for where you would like your images mounted and consider gifts for family members before coming to our viewing session, as this is the time for you to place your order and decide on the Presentation & collections. Our presentation collections includes the following:
Prints
We offer a range of specially crafted images on archival papers. Our wall display prints begin from 14×11 inches up to 60×40 inches. Images can be printed on Matte, Glossy or Metallic papers. Also available in custom collages with full framing options available. Our wall prints are a more traditional method of presentation, colour accuracy is of the finest standard and will maintain fade free for 75+ years.
Wall Canvases
Our canvases provide that artistic and yet still classical look. Our canvases are printed on Gallery quality canvas with the archival Giclee inks and coated with a protective UV coating to protect them while they hang.
Acrylics & Aluminum’s
For that WOW factor have us print your favourite images directly onto Aluminum. These images are printed right to the edge and come ready to hang. For that modern contemporary look, nothing can beat the aurora of a metallic print mounted in between high glossy acrylic.
Coffee table books
These are perfect for the coffee table or even as a gift for that special someone. Printed on press quality paper and with a variety of album covers, our coffee table collection includes custom design and personalization when you have more than a few favourite images.
Handcrafted albums
Our Handcrafted albums are perfect for displaying your cherished images.The quality of the albums and prints will be unsurpassed.Your album can be personalized with our huge range of other cover materials, e.g. leather, metal, wood, acrylic etc.Your favourite images are printed on archival photographic paper and mounted in an classy presentation album. Our stunning and elegant a designs will capture your imagination.All albums can include personalized design layouts, panoramic pages and full page spreads. Our professional and sleek designs will capture your imagination.
Our specialty is producing beautiful wall portraiture and “one of a kind” fine art presentation collections
Many people booking a portrait session ask the very same question – What do we wear? These handy hints for a better portrait session should give you some ideas on how to get your portrait style guide right for your family portrait.
Rule Number 1 – The unbroken rule
The number 1 rule when preparing for a portrait is to ensure everyone is comfortable in what they are wearing, or they will not enjoy the session. Here are some handy hints on what to wear are below. (This portrait style guide has been prepared by a professional photographer who has photographed over 1000 portraits in a 15+year career behind the camera.)
Hint number 1. When choosing appropriate clothing for your portraits consider that clothing should compliment and not dominate the portrait. To prevent overpowering the people in the portrait bold patterns, stripes and distinctive logos should be avoided. Solid colours, subtle prints and classic casual clothing are always complimentary.
Hint number 2. For a visual balance for a family portrait it is better to have everyone dressed in the same tones or colour themes. For example having everyone dressed in light or all in dark or all neutral tones.This does not necessarily mean that everyone must have matching outfits, rather dressed in clothing that has similar tonal range. Following this as a guideline will provide more pleasing and visually balanced portrait, where no individual family member will stand out.
Hint number 3. The next steps are deciding on a colour theme either lights, darks or neutrals and whether everyone will dress formally, semi-formal or casually. Remembering again that everyone needs to feel comfortable.
Once you have booked a portrait session, we will send you out a comprehensive guide (or you can download it here) on what to wear including appropriate colour themes, styles, makeup, glasses and props.
We consider your family portrait to be one of the most precious life long family investments. Professional portraits are more than just a photo. An image created by Dezire Studios will tell the story of a moment in your families life and preserve and share that memory for many years to come. Our portraits are not just photographs, they are personal, intimate captures of who you are and what your family means to each other.
Professional Guarantee
One of the benefits of coming to a professional studio is that we guarantee our finished work. Your final presentation will be superbly finished and only reproduced using quality professional photographic paper and archival quality canvases on our professional printers. These specially coated images will have an archival life of 75+ years. Our wall print range begins from an affordable cost of $425 up to $835. We offer a full service of framing, canvas mounting as well as modern finishing on aluminum and acrylic. our range of products includes custom handcrafted albums from $995. Complimenting your wall art we offer studio prints from $55.
Print or Digital
Many photographers around are offering Digital Files on CD. Although this may seem like a good deal, most people do not get around to printing them and when they do they are often not as happy with the results as they have supplemented expert retouching and professional printing methods with cheap papers and inks often used by mini-labs.
When it comes to your investment we do not take shortcuts by giving away substandard images on CD. After all it is our reputation as well. For those wishing to share their images online, we do share the retouched images from your order on facebook and onto our blog, so your family can also share the enjoyment of your experience. We do also offer the option of purchasing a number of retouched images on CD, but we price them accordingly as they come profiled and with instruction to print at a specialized photo lab.
“One of a kind” fine art family portraiture
Our specialty is producing beautiful wall portraiture and “one of a kind” fine art collections that will become the longest lasting furniture in your home. As a guide to what kind of investment you might make, $500 will give you a neat intimate series of prints to take home, while a complete collection of framed wall prints will be around $3000. We understand everyone is different and therefore there is no minimum purchase value required other than the minimum commitment to a wall print or designer album. For those who value superb quality without the financial burden, we offer flexible payment plan options.
One of the most common questions our professional family photography studio gets asked is “What are some good family portrait locations?”
As a family portrait photographer, offering family portrait sessions not only in Perth but in country regions of Western Australia, I spend many hours trying to find out what people would like their printed portraits to look like on their walls.
Natural Light
Apart from a discussion family portrait locations, our family portrait clients usually ask about clothing to wear during family photos, and how we can achieve the best natural light to give the best results for their family photographs.
Of course, lighting and timing for your family portrait session are ultimately important. In Western Australia, we have beautiful quality natural light. Choosing the right family portrait locations to become one of the key choices for successful family portraits.
Family portrait locations that are comfortable
The right family portrait locations will engage any couple, family or children being photographed during the portrait session. Good family portrait locations will help them feel natural and comfortable in the environment.
Here is a quick visual guide to finding the right family portrait locations for your next photographic session.
Another guide would be to make a Pinboard on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/ and look for family portrait location ideas and share it with your professional photographer.
Brook Desmond the lead Family photographer at Perth based Dezire Studios, has been shooting professional outdoor location family portraits for over 15 years. The following visual portrait gallery has been mastered during that time as is a wonderful resource for families looking for professional outdoor family photographs.
The Call for the Wildlife Photographers is out. Are you joining us on our next African Photographic Safari? Join myself and fellow Professional Photographer Paul Dowe ( http://www.pauldowe.com.au/) as we team up to bring you WILD LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS on our next Safari to the Africa. If you are interested in Photography or adventure or believe you take a decent photograph then you must be part of our next group in July this year. We promise the most amazing experience and guarantee you will come back with some amazing wildlife photography and a whole lot more. Plus your Photography skills will increase off the scale. Learn from two of the best Professional Photographers currently in the game with over 40 years experience and get your hands on some real cameras and lenses that will not let you down. Keep in touch as we post some amazing images from our last adventure to this amazing frontier and keep an eye out for the latest workshops and tours from WILD LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS.
I’m grateful for the experiences I have and the photographic adventures that I’m apart of. Often the work I do as a photographer opens the door to see and partake in a world we don’t often see. It is during these experiences that I gain a great understanding for the way in which different cultures and peoples live. My mind is further enlightened, my respect for others increases and my understanding of others develops. I really love and search for opportunities to abide with and document people in their own way of life and environment.
On this occasion I was invited to a remote Indigenous community in Far East Arnhem Land. The community called Ramingining is very isolated from everything. The closest city Darwin is over 600km away on rough rugged roads and is inaccessible by vehicle during the heavy raining wet seasons, where roads become impassable. The community has approximately 800 people living in and around the area, many of the people have no knowledge of life outside of the community, yet they live in a loving and welcoming place.
To get to this place far from easy. Not only do you have to live in a different standard of living, but you must also gain permission and grants from the elders of the community. I was lucky enough to do this and take with me my family. In the end we spent a good 6 weeks there and gained a wealth of experiences we could not even imagine. This was a fantastic opportunity for me, and especially my children to learn a different way of lifestyle and interact with people of a totally different culture.
On arriving I discovered that there was little in the way of supplies. There is a tiny shop that stocks food and every day living items from Darwin. They are brought in by a Barge via the ocean and waterways and come in every 2 weeks, so taking careful stock take of what you have is essential. Having our 8-month-old baby with us did catch us out. There simply wasn’t a way of just going down to the local shops for his supplies of baby food and nappies. We actually did get caught short, and luckily enough a surprise flight to the mainland allowed us to stock up on the things we needed.
For the majority of the time we discovered that for every day living it was easier and way more fun to hunt and gather our food. Thanks to our friends and the loving hospitality of the local people we were taken to the best places to find our every day food supplies of mud crab, barramundi, magpie geese, buffalo and turtle. Each day we set off on an amazing adventure to catch what we wanted to eat and at the same time become educated on how to accomplice this.
I remember vividly my 6-year-old son learning how to make spears from scratch using stones and trees. In saying this we preferred using the trusty shotgun and fishing rods for most hunts, although we did also use sticks and made hooks for catching turtles and mud crabs.
The local people became very friendly with us and shared with us many things. As we opened ourselves up to their way of life, they began to share more and more, and our kids began to catch on to the basics of their native language. At times I wondered if I could teach the people more about my modern lifestyle and way of doing things. When reflecting on it I thought maybe their way is primitive and needs some serious upgrading, however when comparing simply ways of life I discovered sometimes our way of living in the western European way can seem primitive or complex anyway.
In the community when hungry we would go shoot some geese, pluck them, start a fire, cook the food, eat then relax. This became a very simple exercise in comparison to spending a few hours down the grocery store, time preparing the meal, setting up the table, eating and then more time doing dishes. Sometimes it just seemed easier to do away with some of those steps and seemed much easier and less complicated.
I found the food although prepared and presented a little differently to be delicious and wholesome, and of course the whole adventure of hunting for it ourselves was amazing. There are many stories that I will tell about what we did there and how we did it, but for now I will leave this blog post here by saying it was an amazing experience like none other.
One way of working with your images to create that something special with your images is in photoshop using photoshop smart object. The follow tutorial explains a little about this process and using smart objects. This process is effective when working with raw images or raw data. This is definitely the preferred format for me as a photographer wanting total control on the final result and output.
In short when you shoot jpeg, the camera as smart as it is makes a final decision about what data to include and disregard. Although it can give good results most of the time, by shooting in raw much more precision details can be reached. The raw format allows the extraction of detail that the camera may have disregarded but that you as the photographer and creator of the image may find very important. Shooting raw has its difficulties with file size being one and then time in postproduction another (This can be less of an issue with a great workflow and I will touch on this and a few other tips in a further blog).
Now back to photoshop smart object and how to get a grasp of it. In the first case I will show this image of an image straight out of camera (SOOC).
i.IMAGE STRAIGHT from Camera is a little cold
ii. THIS IMAGE has been colour corrected and makes that small but important modification
iii. The top image also needs a white balance adjustment. Spot the difference only minor but signifcant on the bottom image tweaked in Camera Raw.
Already I see things that need correcting or Photo shopping as many people term it. This is done in camera raw and apart from these corrections there are many stylized effects that can be created. The ones that I like I save as Raw presets. And thats something else I will discuss further.
This image shows the basic corrections for a technically sound image, but from there the alternatives are many and the creativity can flow. Most of the time if I as the photographer have done a good job there is very minimal adjustments to make, sometimes just the colour balance, brightness and a little contrast. If I underexpose, the exposure tool is good and if the highlights are too bright the recovery works good. There are so many other things that raw processing allows and some of my workshops really hone in on this and how to master it.
I will run through it step by step and you can see how the image transforms very easily using smart objects as your tool.
1. After making some adjustments I hold down the shift key, which turns the OPEN tab into an OPEN OBJECTS tab then, I click this or press return (enter on PC). This will open the images as smart objects in Photoshop and this is where the fun can begin. Don’t worry if its a bit slow objects tends to do this and you may look at optimizing Photoshop’s speed to counter this.
2. Now you have the images open, if you have worked with layers in Photoshop before you will notice that it’s not locked to the background as a normal non-smart object image is. The beauty of photoshop smart objects is that you can double click the icon in the layers tab and it will reopen in camera raw so you can make further adjustments.
3. Now for creativity we might try something and to do this we simply duplicate the photoshop smart object by right clicking on the image number in the layers tab. This will bring up a list of options and then we will go to new smart objects via copy. We now have a copy of the original object
4. Double click on the top layer or object to alter it in camera raw. Slide the sliders where you want or add a preset. My first thought with this image is to change it to a high contrast black and white and this will become like a layer effect over the top of the image. When you are happy with what you are after click OK to commit the changes, but don’t worry you can always refine it or go for a totally different look by simply double clicking on it again.
5. Now that this image is on top to have the bottom layer show through you will need to select a blending mode from the layers palette. In his case I have changed from normal to soft light. But there are many options to choose and this includes changing the opacity and flow too. Like I said before the best thing about objects is you can reopen the image to access all its raw data simply by clicking on the image again. If you want to learn a bit more about why to use photoshop smart objects check out this video
6. Lastly if you want a bit more control you can do this by creating a layer mask and making isolated adjustments to certain areas only. (Another day another blog post for that.)
Here are the final images to compare to the original
Now look at the original and the finished image. And here is a couple more that I did all from images I took at our recent family vacation.
Good light and no distractions:
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