you know Photography I think is a lot about Contrast,
Photographing (if you can) everything from a beautiful wedding to a death Metal Band and all the Commercially type govvy type Stuff you can squeeze in Between,
this Band Aeon of Horus gave me the option to sit in on a jam and it was very very good to see that the live music scene in Canberra is still alive,
They are awesome,
the Sparkling white was popping and Roh and Sonny were Married !!!! an Absolutely Awesome Couple with such a fun attitude and relationship,
I will Do the Odd wedding when the opportunity arises and this was one of those special ones 
CC http://chriscanham.com
Here are a few Snaps I took of the award recipients from the Department of Energy Resources and Tourism,
the stairs of the NCCC are always a nice spot for a group shot or two and a mini ham and cheese croissant or three after the shoot (by permission of course) was also rather nice,
Big thanks to Tom and KAte,
with an election Looming,
or booming,
or in Stasis…… one must ask the question — will we all be polling again in October?
Anyhow here is a group of delegates who had travelled from all parts of the world to see how we do an election Australian Style,
Now …..
How do we do an election?
I am confused
Here we see some bottle shots I made to show off a range Of Wines from MR Z4,
He makes a fine drop and never too peppery on the pallette,
Product Photography goes really well with lots of Light and Minimum apertures,
Also setting to a Tripod Is a good way to keep those angles nice and horizontal or vertical if that is your thing and crisps up the shot http://chriscanham.com
Portrait Photography Stage 2 Making it Happen in Canberra Australia
By Chris Canham
There is a fair bit of Q and A that with the right info garnered from the client can save you time energy and stop the chance of a poor outcome when making Portraiture.
A series of questions relating to the specifics of the shoot will unearth and give you the answers that will not only give you peace of mind and understanding as to what your client wants which in turn gives you all the more options to keep the client happy as this is the real goal in any service industry
Some questions you might want to run past your client.
How many people to be photographed are there?
Did you want to steer towards any specific theme ie classic, fun, eccentric etc
Do you prefer Studio or potentially outdoors somewhere on location?
What are you after as an end result?
You could also talk about colour schemes etc for clothing— I Always try and get my clients to dress in blocky colours rather than stripes and spots which can be contrasting and make the imagery not as strong.
When photographing Babies specifically you will need to ask questions like “age”? and can the baby hold it’s head up?
And then offer or suggest that the parents bring with them some toys that they can use to get the baby smiling and giggling.
Small Children can be tricky ages 2 – 6 or 8 years as they often have their minds made up as to what they want or how willing they will be to work with the photographer- I have found that since having my own child – child Portraiture in this age category becomes a lot easier as you understand a bit more about children’s psyche and keeping it fun through the imagery capture will give you the best results to get lots of smiles and great results,
Anyhow I Will go further on these topics in portraiture article 3 as to finalise the ways to of Portraiture and how I think it is Best approached in Canberra and Australia.
http://chriscanham.com
Chris Canham is a Canberra Based Photographer and has worked as a fulltime professional in Canberra and Australia for over 10 Years.
Photographing Real Estate Properties for sales by Canberra Photographer
Chris Canham Part 2 of 2
A lot of Real Estate Agencies here in Canberra will opt for buying their own cheap to mid range digital camera and go and do the photography themselves without any real idea on what is good composition, the right angles, using Light whether it be Strobe, available or a mix of both but to be honest I don’t see any real harm in this strategy as it is a simple statement I think by the agent that if they will not pay a professional for representation of a vendors home to market, at what is a realistically lo Ball figure price wise then the vendor might ask the question—“Where else are they cutting corners on the sale of my property”
Try and Document for Real Estate Purposes as many rooms, angles and key exterior shots of the property and always remember that if you are charging a ridiculously low price then all that will present itself at the end of the day is more and more work at a bitterly set figure and the potential downfall of what can be rewarding work both fiscally and creatively and a burnout at the other end where you are doing mass amounts of dusk work photography for no money and missing your dinner at home (and family time)
Agents will try and get the absolute lowest dollar figure for your work which in my experience creates a conundrum as there is their own reference often to the “Highest Levels of service standards and professionalism” but don’t want to pay another professional in another industry what they are worth— I believe that the reason for this is that many so called “professional photographers” don’t really have a grasp on any element of what it means to be and produce professional standards of work and will therefore undercut the market to get in to a job or 2.
My advice to agents is remember your commission is astronomically bigger than the going rate for a service—image creation—“image being everything” and the real sales pitch for buyers and for Canberra Photographers to charge what they are worth.
http://chriscanham.com
Chris Canham is a Canberra Based Photographer and has worked as a fulltime professional in Canberra and Australia for over 10 Years.
Photographing Real Estate Properties for sales by Canberra Photographer
Chris Canham part 1 of 2
Real Estate Photography in the ACT is a lot like many other styles of shooting where the best times to photo a property (depending on which way the sun is rising or falling) at Dusk or at Dawn,
The obvious preference is Dusk (as there are not too many photographers committed enough to get up early to do the dawn shoots) or let me slightly rephrase that—there is not really enough money in Real Estate Photography in the ACT that would substantiate getting out of bed so early to photograph a property, So the tail end of the day is in most cases the go.
When photographing Real Estate as In when shooting Architecture, what you are trying to do is match the “ambient” or “available” Light that is emitted by the building with the Natural Light in the Sky.
There is usually a 3-5 minute window of opportunity when this takes place that you will have time leading up to the dusk shoot where you can set a few options and then get the money shots when the light is just right.
Tip— Get the vendor of the property to turn on all the interior and external lights for your shot and open all the curtains/blinds so that you will get the absolute limit of light that is being emitted by the building.
Camera to Camera I shoot predominately with a Nikon D3S which can pull off fabulous handheld work at higher ISO ratings but more often I set to a tripod and stop down the ISO and shutter speed while keeping the F stop at around 8-11 for Maximum Depth of field ( this idea that Digital technology generally maxes out with DSLRs at the aforementioned F stop setting) is a fairly popular one amongst Photographers worldwide I have come to understand through my own photography and research but note this was not always the case, where shooting with Transparency film for instance pre the Digital age the idea was that the higher the F stop ie F 22 or thereabouts was always the way to achieve max depth of field. This is the end of Part 1 of 2 please look for part 2 once I have written it.
http://chriscanham.com
Chris Canham is a Canberra Based Photographer and has worked as a fulltime professional in Canberra and Australia for over 10 Years.
Portrait Photography in Canberra Australia by Chris Canham
There seems to be a lot of circumstances over past years in Canberra where Non-professionals in the field will claim to be a Professional Portrait Photographer when they don’t really have a grasp on what it takes to capture and make beautiful images of everything that Portrait Photography encapsulates.
One slightly funny thing that I see come up more and more is when so called “Portrait Photographers” refer to themselves as “Natural Light Photographers” this sort wording of says to me that they potentially just don’t have any experience using Studio strobes for image capture and maybe not anything above the experience they created for themselves by buying a consumer level camera and taking photos of their first child—- here again we see a lot of this flash in the pan style people undercut the market and not conduct themselves, their facility or endeavour in a professional way.
The Great thing on a More Positive note!! With Digital camera technology—all you mums and dads can make a thousand pictures on the old Camera Store-Snap Happy and cull it down to one or 2 suitable pics—– the problem on a more negative note is as I have quoted above—that people can often run away with themselves and start to once again undercut the professionals in the market to make a bit of spare change, The truth as eventually comes out is that you get what you pay for and if a price seems really fabulous and appealing then you will potentially get a) a substandard Product
Or b) stung financially at the other end when it comes to viewing your imagery if any of it is of some level of quality or at least of interest to you.
My advice,
If you have been referred by a couple of friends via a bit of word of mouth and researched through having a look at what they got for their money then you might come up with a winner, but more often than not- a loss all round is the outcome,
Thi is more and more apparent across all genres of photography in Canberra which I will expand on further in coming articles.
http://chriscanham.com
Chris Canham is a Canberra Based Photographer and has worked as a fulltime professional in Canberra and Australia for over 10 Years.
http://chriscanham.com