Genevieve

I have a photographer friend called Genevieve, or Gen. She has wild hair, big eyes, worships the ocean, and thinks that everything looks better in black and white. She's pretty unique.
When she's talking about something she's really passionate about or is making a sarcastic point in conversation, her eyes get really, really big and quite often when she's talking I just accidentally tune out of what she's saying and just look at her eyes. Not a good habit to have.
Anyway I decided I wanted to try and take a photo of her that sort of shows off her eyes, so she came for a walk with me at the lake opposite my house. We left it pretty late in the day and were also going very slowly because we were talking too much, so we used up every last bit of light from the sun and then when that was gone we used a bit of moonlight. 

On our way home the moon had actually risen so Gen had a little dance underneath it, and then we had a few glasses of red and it was a great day.

I'm pretty happy to know such a beautiful, genuine woman.
x

Autumn in the Bush with Jessie

I went for a wander in the bush with my friend Jessie a few days ago.

I had one shoot originally planned with Jessie, which was for my Greek Mythology portfolio (photo won't be released for a little while yet though) :)

Straight after that shoot we shot a few more portraits in the dead ivy crown that mum and I made, then we got talking about other photos that would look really cool and before you know it we had Jessie organised to come back the next day for another shoot.

We decided that we wanted to do a bit of an old-worldly, yesteryear look, so we both hit the op shops before the shoot and got two perfect dresses for the grand price of $8.50.

We headed out on the Rails to Trails tracks where I often go walking with my Salty Sea Dog, as that place just has a real feel about it. It's like stepping into another world for me, especially at this time of year.

Jessie was an incredibly graceful and elegant model, but was also quite competent in the art  of whacking spider webs out of the path with a stick. A true all rounder.

Jessie just has the most amazing hair, and when you combined it with the autumn colours of the bush it just came to life. 

Shooting such a happy and funny person who also has such glorious skin and hair in the beautiful Margaret River bush just makes me so so so happy.

I shot most of these with my Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM again, I just can't go past that lens for portraits. I love the soft feel it creates.

p.s Thanks mum for being the artificial wind x

Chantelle in the Forest

I recently had a shoot with a natural beauty called Chantelle. We shot in the forest in Margaret River in natural light, no pressure, just taking some pretty photos of a pretty lady in some pretty bush with some pretty light. Bliss. My mum works with Chantelle and has been on at me for about a year now to take some photos of her, and we finally got around to organising it. Mum has a good eye for these things! Thanks Mum. 

Chantelle is beautiful. Naturally beautiful, and the best thing is that once you meet her you realise that her personality is just as beautiful as her looks are. That's pretty special.

And check out that smile!

So we went for a wander in Rails to Trails, brought mum and my little dog along and just had a super chilled afternoon wandering in the bush and chasing the light. I shot a lot of this on my 50mm 1.4 L series lens, golly I love that lens.

Thanks Chantelle and Mum x

Paris x

I have been working in my visual diary for some time now on a Greek Mythology series that I plan to exhibit. It will be comprised of about 15 portraits, each one portraying one of the gods or goddesses of Ancient Greece. Since I was 8 years old I have been obsessed with Greek Mythology (I can actually remember my year 3 teacher Mrs Downing first teaching us about Greek Mythology). It fascinates me, and I'm so excited to be able to bring it to life through my work.

I shot my first image from the series last week, Aphrodite. I used my French friend Alex as my model. Alex has gorgeous copper skin, long, flowing hair, a striking face and the personality to pull off Aphrodite, the goddess of love and passion. She was perfect and got right into the mood of the shoot for me. 

Thanks to another gorgeous friend Mary Parker for helping me out with this shoot.

Here is a simple portrait of Alex, taken after the shoot. I'm going to keep the actual Aphrodite photo under wraps for a while, whilst I keep planning the exhibition.

Paris x

Sarah

A couple of weeks ago I had an early morning shoot with a good friend of mine, Sarah. 

Sarah likes the ocean, coffee and all things hippie, but she does not like early mornings.

So I made her meet me at the beach at 5.30 on a windy and cold morning so that I could take photos of her. Not just photos at the beach, but photos actually in the ocean.... in a beautiful silk skirt, at 5.30am. She was such a good sport, and as soon as we were finished I made sure I put an extra large flat white in her hand ASAP.

I myself am an early morning person, so for a couple of weeks I had been down at the beach early, planning this shoot and checking out the sunrise. When I came around to thinking who I would like to be my model, I knew it had to be Sarah. Sarah is very much a Mother of the Earth kind of girl, she knows exactly what she believes in, what is important to her and who she is, and that just radiates off her. Plus she has the biggest, most soulful blue eyes.
I shot these photos on my Canon 5D MKIII with my 50mm 1.4 lens, which is just such a beautiful lens to shoot with. I have recently re-discovered how much I love this lens, and so it has been my lens of choice recently. 
 I hope you enjoy the photos, a big thank you to the beautiful Sarah for helping me out with this.

Paris x