May 26th
George and Melissa moved to Los Angeles three months ago, so while there I took the opportunity to get a few images of them in their new home town. The Walt Disney Concert Hall ended up being the perfect backdrop for a terrific portrait shoot.
May 25th
Today is Memorial day in the USA, which meant the Pier at Santa Monica was full of people enjoying a day of remembrance and taking in the beautiful sun.
May 25th
This month sees me head off again to do some more seminars and workshops in the US, UK and Europe. My trip didn’t get off to a great start. After a practice take-off followed by a 6 hour delay at the Brisbane airport I was off to Los Angeles. The 24 hours I had planned to spend shooting in LA before heading to Jacksonville was cut in half, thanks to a malfunctioning PA system on my Qantas flight. Oh well, I suppose it is not how much time you have to photograph, but what you capture in the time you have.
In preparation for this trip I’ve spent the past three weeks putting together a new camera kit. One of the additions to the kit is the new Lensbaby Composer, designed by Craig Strong. It is .a fantastic piece of engineering that provides a unique perspective on subjects. With a swag of new lenses I was ready to capture a city that I have travelled through many times but have never actually photographed.
I was met at the airport by good friend and amazing photographer, Joe Photo, who lives in this great City – straight out of the OC (Orange County). Here are some of the pics I took with Joe as we rediscovered LA through my new lens.
WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL
Portrait of Joe Photo (above).
May 22nd
Today Brisbane was covered in a cloud of dust when a massive dust storm moved up from Sydney and hit our own town of Brisbane, some 1000 km’s away within hours. Out over at the Brisbane airport visability was down to 200 metres.
Here is a picture of the dust storm taken by Adam.
To see even more images go to Brisbane times.
May 16th
It’s school holidays time again here in Brisbane, and now that we have 3 littlies of our own we are always on the look out for some great events to take them too to fill the days and tire them out.
One event that we absolutely love is the Powerkidz program at the Brisbane Powerhouse. Run all through the school holidays Powerkidz offers a huge range of activities (many of them free) that really unleash the creative sides in your kids and also introduce them to the wonderful world of the creative arts.
We love this program so much that in the past couple of years we decided to support Powerkidz events by lending them our portrait photographer to take some pics of the kids in the different workshops. Anything that promotes creative industry in Brisbane and at the same time educates kids (plus is a lot of fun) is worth our support!
Here are some of the shots that Nicola took while hanging out at the Powerhouse last year. There are so many activites to cover all ages, like costume corner, reading nook, flipside circus and hip hop classes, it was hard not to have fun!
Powerkidz is on at the Brisbane Powerhouse from Tuesday 22nd September through to Saturday 3rd October. Click here for more information Powerkidz.
All the fun of Costume Corner (above & below)
Clay creations at the Pottery Wheel.
The Reading Nook (below)
Theatre Intensive Workshop
The cutest thing we have ever seen…Mini Hip Hop (below)
May 6th
Our fourth baby, the book Royal Mums: A Collection of Memories, was launched this last week by the RBWH Foundation. This beautiful book is a collaboration we have been working on with the RBWH Foundation, Made 4 Media and the RAD Group – all to raise money for perinatal research.
It started when the RBWH Research Foundation was telling us about their plans to create an honour board for Mums who have had their babies at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital. One conversation lead to a bigger idea which lead to 3 months of solidly photographing the Royal Mums of Queensland. Finally the book is out there for all to see and how proud I am that we have been part of this.
I love this book for several reasons. Firstly it isn’t your traditional photo coffee table book. This is a 300 page chronicle of the history of Brisbane seen through the eyes of women in the early days of parenthood. It tracks how things have changed over time and captures some of the historical events in our City.
Secondly it is real. These are real stories written by real women. They are touching, they are sad, they are inspiring, they are joyful, they are enthralling. Once you start reading, you can’t put it down.
Most importantly, it is all for a good cause. All proceeds from the sale of this book go directly to the RBWH Research Foundation to raise money for perinatal research. This research saved the lives of my own twin boys. Did I also mention that’s why I love it – my wife Penny & my twins Rohan & Evan are in it!
Finally, I love it because lots of our Studio Impressions’ images are in it. We donated our time and resources to photographing over 130 Brisbane women whose stories feature in the book. Most of the images were taken by our portrait photographer Nicola Poole or myself, although we did have a helping hand from some of our colleagues around Australia. Thanks Ricky & Bec from Ricky England Photography, Graham at GM Photographics and Dominic at PIne Creek Pictures!
Here is just a very small sample of some of the pics we took.
Royal babies “The Veronicas” with their brother Julian & Royal Mum Colleen. The twins were born seven weeks premature on Christmas Day.
Our Cover Girl – Vikki Groves & the beautiful little Lilly
An amazing mum – Pamela Long & her beautiful daughter Rosalyn.
I was so touched by Pamela’s story – a single mum in the 1960′s who reluctantly adopted her baby out but then reconnected with her beautiful daughter in later life and is now, as she describes it, “blessed with this wonderful family”.
There are so many stories like this, including the amazing mum Muriel Mulley with 17 children and now a total of 155 offspring (grand children & great grandchildren), or Sadie Grace, whose premature babies born in the 1940′s were wrapped in cotton wool to control their temperature, or the wonderful story of the first surviving twins Ronald & Lennox Gordon, born the year the hospital opened in 1938.
I could go on & on or you could just buy the book for yourselves at www.rbwhfoundation.com.au & know that you are contributing to a great cause in the process. Trust me, whether you are a lover of history, a lover of portrait photography, a royal baby, a mum or a Royal Mum yourself, this one will tug at your heartstrings. My wife still cries when she reads the stories and she is one of them! It has been our pleasure to have helped this book come to life for the RBWH Foundation and we truly hope it raises some much needed funds.
For those of you who live in Brisbane, the launch of the Royal Mums Honour Board will be this Friday at the RBWH and telecast live on 97.3 FM. Also coming up is the RBWH Butterfly Ball – 24th October 2009 at the Brisbane Convention Centre – truly a night to remember! Save the date!
Bringing photography to life
Describes what we do. This blog is about exactly that - here we will share a little of our life and a lot of what we love - people, art and photography. Whether you are planning a wedding, a family portrait or building your own professional photography business, I hope you find something to inspire you here. Thank you for visiting.
- Marcus Bell | Brisbane, Australia
