Perdita

First and last two images were taken with a Pentax k-x and the rest were taken with a Nikon L120
All images (except the black & white photo) are unretouched
Model is my sister, Ireland
Photos taken by me

I really enjoyed taking these photos of my lovely, elegant, semi-willing photography subject, Ireland (although she would call herself my "photography victim"). It takes quite a bit of begging before my sister agrees to do a photo session with me, although I can understand why: I'm very bossy when I'm behind the camera, I get her to lie down in uncomfortable patches of itchy flowers, it means she has to change out of her 'comfy clothes', and I put her in summer dresses whilst forgetting that it's almost winter.It was a surprisingly warm day today, so I didn't think the light dressing would be an issue, but towards the end of the photo shoot Ireland was getting cold and annoyed as I pleaded "Just one more...here, just look over there...no, that didn't work, again....wait, wait, wait, do this". So, big thanks to Ireland for these photos (and for putting up with me).

With the dress, flowers and garland, this shoot felt a little 'Grecian Goddess meets Perdita' although the garland was something I quickly made as an afterthought and the charity shopped silk dress (which in reality is greener than it looks in the photos) was haphazardly plucked from Ireland's wardrobe. 

Forgotten Mini-Shoots

Hello everyone! Hope you're all doing well! I haven't really been doing much in the way of photography lately, but I really wanted to do a quick post. Luckily I happened upon a few brief photo shoots (that I had completely forgotten about) of my incredibly photogenic sister. I'm hoping to take some more pictures of Ireland soon, she's just been away so much (lots of visiting her boyfriend, James, who lives quite far away, so she can be gone for weeks!). She gets to have a lot of fun while she's staying with him and his family, doing the things she loves: training his mum's horses, riding motorbikes, doing mechanical work on bikes and cars, hunting, etc. (we may be sisters, but we have very different interests - I shoot pictures she shoots arrows, but we still get on really well). While I love that she has fun, I had been missing her a lot. I'm not sure how I'm going to cope when she and James move in together in a couple of months!

Anyway, to the photos. The first shoot was done the same time I took these pictures of my beautiful god-sister, Jazz in spring last year. Ireland is wearing a vintage pleated maxi dress that used to belong to Jazz's mum (my lovely, lovely, lovely god-mother). The photos below were taken at a beach and a nearby swimming spot, Ireland's swimsuit is BlackMilk and is a Christmas present from me (and I was very happy to find out that they are made in Australia, so no slave labour).
Anyway, I'm off to bed, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the photos!

P.S. The tiny photos on my last post were re-added in full size once I got internet again (but the edit annoying changed the date from January to February) but if you'd like to now see them without needing to squint, they are there! 

No Internet (sort of)

Hello everyone!

Just a very brief post because I have no internet other than on my phone, and I made a New Year's resolution to do at least one post every month - so here's my post for January! 

I've added some photos that I downloaded onto my phone from my Flickr account. The figure on the beach is my sister, Ireland, and the girl with the shadows on her face is my lovely god-sister, Jazz.

Hopefully I'll be able to post more in February.

Photo shoots of Ireland.

Once again, it's been too long since I've posted. But I have some excuses up my sleeve: Internet problems, the winter light (which isn't so great for photos), lack of sleep, a good book (always a really good excuse), stressful family matters, the royal baby (only kidding), people visiting, etcetera. 

So this post was sort of hurried just to squeeze in a post for July, as well as to add some of the recent photos I've taken of my sister, Ireland. 

In the shoot above she's wearing a vintage army coat (I don't know where she got it from), my seventies boots, a pair of blue stockings I found at a charity shop (still in their original, unopened package), and a sixties corduroy mini dress "borrowed" from one of the many huge piles of vintage and charity shopped clothes my mum has collected over the years. Most of the photos are edited as the light wasn't so great that afternoon.

Ireland's wearing a vintage underskirt, a silk scarf worn as a sash, a vintage cotton camisole, vintage faux pearls, and vintage gloves all found at various charity shops. On her hip is a bit of chicken wire fencing with flowers zip-tied onto it. I'm really happy with the black and white portraits I took of her in this shoot, aren't her eyes gorgeous? And her smile just incredible? 

Some photos taken much less recently, in March. Ireland's wearing a fifties nightgown from a charity shop.

Sunsets from Spring

One of my favourite things about spring and summer are the sunsets. The skies look like vibrant abstract paintings made up of purples, oranges and pinks. I recently discovered a shoot I did with my sister in spring last year that I thought I had lost and have decided to post them along with a couple other images I took of spring/summer sunsets. The pictures of trees were taken on a walk with my mum, and the image second from the bottom was either taken late spring or early summer, it is definitely the most spectacular - with the amazing bright apricot, purple and almost fluoro orange colours.

I almost feel like the shoot I did with my sister, Ireland, was meant to be; as she had recently re-dyed her hair red and just so happened to be wearing a purple top which matched perfectly with the sunset. As soon as I saw the amazing sky, I grabbed my camera and took my sister (who was doing the dishes) by the arm and lead her onto our veranda to take pictures. She still had her washing up gloves on - which also matched the sky, as they were bright pink.

Anyway, I hope you like the pictures! On another note, I recently signed up to twitter, my username is currently 'ArtClothesAndC' (couldn't fit the whole blog name in.) You should be able to find it on my blogger sidebar under 'Contact.' I also now have an 'About Me' page on this blog.
I will be going on a trip to Sydney (New South Wales) on Thursday, and will be gone for nine days, so I probably won't be able to do much looking at or commenting on blogs, but will catch up when I get back.

Twenties Parasol

I took these photos of my sister Ireland yesterday afternoon (which was one of the first days of sunshine after too many rainy and gloomy days.) I'd been meaning to do a shoot with this twenties parasol for a while now. I bought it at a second hand store for ten dollars, and although you have to hold it to keep it open, it still makes an excellent prop for photos. After it was determined we'd be using the parasol for this shoot, we worked from there, creating an early 1900's burlesque slash mourning look. Possibly a little Moulin Rouge inspired. Along with the parasol, the look was comprised of a sixties/seventies bias-cut nylon skirt and a satin kimono (both selected from my mum's hoard of charity shop finds). Ireland's corset came from a charity shop, and I've forgotten where I got the felt flower.

Portraits of Ireland

Photos by me. Model is Ireland. Taken in early June this year. She is wearing vintage velvet gloves, vintage felt hat, and charity shopped top.

Portraits would have to be my favourite kind of photography (especially black and white portraits.) The first two photos above are photos that I'm really proud of, despite Ireland's demands of in colour full body photos, I was sneakily taking black and white portraits! And am so glad I did.
I am so fascinated with people's faces, and I love to explore that with photography. I'm also really interested in natural effects with light, shadowing and reflections. I recently did some shoots with the gorgeous Jazz (who modelled a beautiful vintage Alice-esque dress in front of the camera for me in this post) and have some photos from a couple of the shoots with some great effects from shadows and lighting. We did three shoots that will all be posted on this blog soon.

I'm really happy with how her hair catches the light in this photo, even if you can see the washing line in the background!

Photos of Ireland taken by me in a week or two ago.

These photos are ones featuring Ireland's new fringe/bangs. I had planned a sixties themed shoot (which I briefly mentioned in my last post) but it ended up getting too late (and my sister had to leave to go and stay with our grandma the next morning) so we only squeezed in a quick shoot with me wielding the camera and my lovely willing model smiling and posing with flowers.
Ireland is still away and has been gone for over a week now - the longest we've ever been without seeing each other. I think I have separation anxiety, I'm really missing this gorgeous girl! I'm sure we'll have a dramatic running-hug when she comes home tomorrow.