Mizaage Photography

Queanbeyan Sports Centre

2011-04-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked to photography the in construction Queanbeyan Sports Centre, designed by Adhami Pender Architecture. There was no electricity, and with a such internal space, lighting was out of the question, so I relied on HDR, a technique which I am really liking when used with with finesse, and to fulfill a vision, and not for the sake of it.

Shots of Cars in KL

2011-04-03T01:50:00.001-07:00

Got a new Camera :) Panasonic Lumix GF1. Anyway was in KL recently and went to the Ferrari show room. Amazing. Pictures below

For more check out the set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saadme/sets/72157626144871913/

House renovation

2011-03-29T06:04:00.000-07:00

This house was a complete renovation. I was asked to photograph this by the architect. It went through a complete transformation, as is now unrecognizable. Due to poor maintenance and DIY by the previous owners, there was water rot everywhere, walls were tilting flooring was peeling. But with a modest budget, Adhami Pender Architecture were able to transform this house into a wonderful home.

Baby Karim

2011-03-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

I photographed Nina and Nabil's wedding back in 2009. In 2010 Nina gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Karim. They asked me to photograph him last year, which I was only too pleased to do. This was an absolute pleasure. Check the set on Flickr for more.

The lighting was perfect, with a nice big window so I relied on that for 90% of the shots, adding a bit of bou

Nissan 180sx

2011-03-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

Got a new car, and took a few snaps whilst getting some milk from Coles!

Post processing was a bit of colour correction, some noise correction, and adding black borders for the cinematic feel. Really love this effect!

Photoshoot in the Park

2010-09-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 11 Sep, was the first sunny day in Canberra for some time, so I went out to the park with a friend, and took the LX3 with me.

I took a few quick portraits, using the sun and sometimes the flash for fill. Some quick adjustments in Lightroom to create a vintage style look (slight desaturation and some split toning) and to make the colours pop a bit, and you have these. I really like the results, and shows you don't need an SLR for great quality images, and how useful flash on a compact is.

A nice natural image, with a slight vintage/retro look:

Some square action:

I love shooting square, and this is probably my favourite image of the day. Sun behind, a bit of flare, look great I think:

Some fill flash used. I think that on camera flash on compacts is wonderful, as because it is so close to the lense, it gives a very pleasing look. Direct on camera flash on SLR's however, is horrible and should be avoided:

Again, shows how useful the flash is:

Some more LX3 shots

2010-08-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

All these were shot without flash, in an interior with very little light! For some reason Flickr makes the colours a bit darker but all good.

Photos of my new car and exhaust

2010-08-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

Just some photos for you. The pictures of the exhaust were taken using the LX3 with a cactus V4 triggering an SB28 bounced off the ceiling. You dont need an SLR to produce good quality images, although theres nothing photographically excellent here, just some documenting.

The new car is a Honda Integra Type R, AKA a DC2R

Also got a Spoon Strut Brace

New car stereo

2010-08-02T03:13:00.000-07:00

Picked this up today for VERY cheap. Has DVD, CD, DivX, Ipod, etc, and looks hot to boot :)

Did I mention how much I love the LX3?

Food

2010-08-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Along with photography, one of my many passions in life food hehe.

I made an epic omelette on Saturday, and went to Sydney on Sunday, and ate at my favourite restaurant, New Star Kebab in Auburn.

Mixed Grill. The bread and meat are to die for

The chips with chicken salt, and with garlic sauce, best chips ever:

Oh any my omelette. The trick is to use plenty of milk, and to whip very well so that you get enough air in it to make it nice and fluffy:

Lumix LX3 Macro

2010-07-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

Was playing with the macro ability its amazing. At full wide, the lense can focus much more closely than on the tele end. This means it fills the frame more, and exaggerates perspective. The photo below is of an N Guage Loco, which is slightly larger than my thumb. Being a 24mm effective focal length really exaggerates the perspective and makes it look a lot larger.

Paul And Stacey

2010-07-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

Some shots from a wedding I did recently

Maaria & Anthony's Wedding

2010-07-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Shot the wedding of Maaria & Anthony recently. It was a Muslim wedding, and unfortunately I didn't get to Photograph the Nikah (Islamic Marriage contract) the night before, only the reception, but was good fun! And the food was amazing! As always click for larger versions.

HP Rack Server shot!

2010-05-13T06:29:00.001-07:00

Did a shoot for an IT firm wanting to sell its gear. It was kind of improvised but I like it!

Used an sb800 above the computer, and an sb28 bounced off a wall behind me. The background was sheets of white A3 paper!

Click for bigger versions:

Neha & Shiv's Engagement

2010-03-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Photographed the engagement party of Neha and Shiv the other day. It was a great evening, and the food was just amazing, provided by Neha's mother! And the the couple were great fun, and we got some wonderful photographs. Most of the shots except the walking one used a single flash with a shoot thru umbrella balanced with the ambient light:

Hello!!!

2010-02-09T20:43:00.001-08:00

Hey guys

Been away for a while, had lots on. Anyway, just photographed Maaria and Anthony's wedding last week, stay tuned for some pics!

New Camera

2009-08-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

Got myself a panasonic Lumix LX3 from the great folks at Camera House in Garema Place, Civic, Canberra. I just wanted a high quality compact that I can take around with me for street photography, and other discrete locations, where an SLR might be overkill or too obtrusive. I might also use it for weddings too, as it will allow me to get some great candid. Stay tuned for a review, and a blurb regarding technology.

Now I just want the leather case to complete the look!

New Printer

2009-07-12T03:32:00.000-07:00

I don't generally print my own work. Its expensive, time consuming, and how could my ink-jet printer produce better results than the $100 000 plus machines that places have. Even Big W here in Canberra, and all over Australia produced excellent prints, and they can do canvas printing, posters and so forth also.

That being said, I am amazed at the quality of home printers today. Using ink, and tiny drops that you cant see them, the quality they produce is amazing, and a lot of photographers use them for albums etc, as some of the newer inks and pigments have got excellent longevity.

Commercial photo printers, on real photographic paper however, cannot print decent black and white prints. They always come with a colour cast, so can look decent if thats what you are looking for. The best black and white is on fibre bases paper, but printing digitally can be tedious like that.

Inkjets with one black ink can do a decent job, but sometimes there is a lack of detail in shadows, as the printer only used one colour to print with. You can get printers that use black and multiple grey cartridges to produce STUNNING b&w prints, and there are third party 6 colour ink systems available, using 6 different shades of grey. Here though, you need a dedicated printer, and can be expensive. I alway prefer sending prints out, but I like making prints at home for proofs, quick display and so forth.

Anyway, I bought a new printer today, and it has a black and a grey ink cartridges. I made a quick black and white print, and was blown away at the quality. I think I will definitely print more small black and white prints at home, and make a little album for a future project.

Its a Canon MP980, and its a very sleek little unit. Its wireless, prints, prints on CDs and DVDs, and scans, and most impressively, you can scan 35mm film with it too! I scanned in an old slide from the 1950s, of my mother with her mother (my grandma), when she was 9 months old, produced a 6 megapixel image, and printed it out. The quality of the scanner is amazing, and is suitable for 99% of applications I can think of.

There is no adapter to scan 120 film, but I cant see why one wouldn't be able to, just dont use the 35mm film adapter. Ill have to get some processed and see.

In the meantime, I look forward to shooting some b&w film, getting it processed, then scanning and printing at home!

Saad

2009-06-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

I recently visited the National Portrait Gallery to check out the 'Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008' exhibition.

It was stunning. For only $10, or $30 for a season pass, I saw a brilliant exhibition of fantastic portraiture of influential people, photography in every style and from every era, colour, black and white, digital, film and so forth.

The work of Annie Leibovitz was every prominents, and I must say her work is stunning. Yes I know in her modern work there is a lot of compositing and photoshop fairy dust, but you can't fake the lighting, the expressions, the make-up, the styling in her photographs. The ones from the annual 'Hollywood' issue of Vanity Fair are especially stunning. This is one of the photos that was displayed:

Pretty damn cool if you ask me. I recommend everyone check this exhibition out, its in Canberra until the 30th August, and its only in Canberra - if you're from out of town I highlysuggest you make the trip down.

Check out http://www.portrait.gov.au for more info

Saad

Strobist Bootcamp II

2009-06-23T08:01:00.001-07:00

This is my entry for the competition over at Strobist.com, Strobist Bootcamp II. Playing with some lighting at a headshot session. Will post some more photos from that day soon. All in all, I'm quite pleased with the results. Got in some excellent makeup artists from the Canberra Makeup Academy, Lois and Sonya, to help, and they were just perfect. Obviously I didn't have any makeup on!

Click the image for a larger version, and to see the lighting information. Any questions just ask. Basically used a shoot thru umbrella, a ring flash, and a flash on the background, with a high camera angle.

The assignment is now closed, but what the hell, if you want to give it a shot go for it. You can find the appropriate information here.

Saad

Water

2009-06-08T08:04:00.001-07:00

I was experimenting taking photographs of a drop of water. They turned out really well, and now have these ones printed and hanging up at home. Really simple to shoot, just a simple off camera flash and background of your choice! Click to look at bigger versions.

Group Shot

2009-06-06T23:15:00.001-07:00

Took some photos of some friends yesterday, I quite liked this one. Was trying out using the ring flash as a bit of fill, I think it worked well! Not happy with the background, but it was just a quick setup in a very small room!

Architectural Shoot

2009-05-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

I recently did some architectural/interior photography for a great Canberra based firm, Adhami Pender Architecture. Great work from them! Click for a larger version, and any questions or comments, leave them below.

My philosophy

2009-05-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

Some photographers may wonder what the hell I am doing, in regards to my pricing and packaging at www.mizaage.com (please contact me for more detail regarding pricing structures). The simple fact is that I did not get into photography to make large amounts of money. I would otherwise be an investment banker - although with the GFS, who knows!

The old time, some would call 'traditional' method of wedding photography involves charging a session fee, provide the client with with several 'proofs', which are small photos with 'copyright' stamped on them. The client then chooses their favourite photos, pays an exorbitant fee for each one, and has an album made by the photographer. The client pays for each copy of a photo they require, and for enlargements. If they want reprints down the line, they go and see the photographer, and again pay a huge fee.

Now I am more than happy to make prints and enlargements of a very high quality for clients. By asking me to do this, you can enjoy life as a married couple, worrying about more 'important things', and are ensuring that the prints you get are of a high standard. (A note, all packages except my most basic come with a high quality photobook, which are not available to the general public, but only to professional photographers. And of course, multiple copies are available.)

This method of paying per print made sense before digital, when all photography was done with film. Handing over original negative was never a good idea, as most likely, a couple would lose them, or they would be damaged, so gone forever. Pro photographers had a comprehensive diling and archival system in place, so in 20 years down the track if you wanted reprints, you could have them. And, especially with black and white work, a lot of darkroom work was reuired to achieve the optimal image, something that most people were not familiar with. And I often take a film camera with me, to shoot a few rolls of black and white. Digital black and white cannot touch a traditional dark room print shot on film. Obviously, there is a charge for prints, as each one needs to be lovingly printed by hand.

In this age of digital photography the traditional approach does not make sense. You can take your photos down to a chemist, and get acceptable prints very cheaply. You can have photobooks made for a low price. And the traditional album is fast going out of fashion. Most people like to view photos on a computer monitor.

And maybe most importantly, after a wedding, there is not a lot of money left in the budget. Sure the couple may want their photos immediately, but it may not be financially possible. By not charging for individual prints, but giving you the digital files at a resolution good for printing at reasonable sizes, you are able to view photos soon after the wedding, and then can have them printed at your convenience.

Of course if you would like the high quality printing and photobook and album service I can provide further down the track, then I am only too happy to oblige.

To summarise, with Mizaage, you will be getting the digital files to do with as you like, no matter what package you choose. This allows emailing of photos to friends and family, as well as making cheap prints for an album that is to be viewed frequently. The price may seem high intially, but once you factor in the cost of reprints, paying a bit extra for digital files makes sense!

2009-03-31T04:14:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Mizaage Photography.

I will hopefully update this blog regularly, with thoughts on photography and other topics. Please feel free to comment, and if you have any questions, or would like me to to blog about anything specific, let me know.

Till then, laters!

Saad