Category : Lifestyle photography Toggle

Miss Saigon comes to the Gold Coast!

 

Kim & Chris - the lead characters in 'Miss Saigon' - The Arts Centre Gold Coast's new musical theatre production

Last week I was asked to photograph the hero shot and program imagery for the new theatre production at The Arts Centre Gold Coast.

‘Miss Saigon’ is set during the fall of Vietnam at the end of their civil war, and addresses some of the many issues that arose from the USA’s illegal interventional policies, both at the time of the conflict and during the decades since.

The Arts Centre have created a beautiful range of stage sets which were great to get a chance to see and incorporate into the shots. Their talented cast were great to shoot and the crew very helpful in assisting with the theatre lighting to complement my studio lights. My kind of shoot!

‘Miss Saigon’ opened this week and tickets to this great show can be purchased here.   🙂

 

Cast member of 'Miss Saigon' - The Arts Centre Gold Coast's new musical theatre production Cast members from 'Miss Saigon' - The Arts Centre Gold Coast's new musical theatre production Some of the lead cast of 'Miss Saigon' - The Arts Centre Gold Coast's new musical theatre production Pimp character from 'Miss Saigon' - The Arts Centre Gold Coast's new musical theatre productionThe cast of 'Miss Saigon' on the 'Dreamland' stage set at The Arts Centre Gold Coast's new musical theatre production

 

Lifestyle photography for Seachange Developments, Gold Coast

Lifestyle photography by Paul Williams photography, Gold Coast, Australia

Last week I shot some lifestyle photography for Seachange Developments on the Gold Coast.

This very fun photo shoot involved shooting out the back of a golf cart, as 10 other carts followed, whilst winding our way through one of Australia’s most impressive over 50’s lifestyle communities. Seachange Emerald Lakes really made me think that retirement can be one long laugh, as the residents cruised around the buggy-friendly community to choose an f&b venue for the night, before cruising home with a few wines under the belt and no transport issues! We got some nice vehicle shots and people shots showcasing this lifestyle on the ‘Bridge of the rising sun’, and the surrounding streets that are lined by an 18 hole golf course.

You can read more about Seachange Emerald Lakes here.
Until the next!   🙂

Lifestyle photography by Paul Williams photography, Gold Coast, Australia

Photo shoot for Gold Coast muso, Alby Carter

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Gold Coast musician, Alby Carter, recently contacted me to shoot a fresh suite of publicity photos. I’d met Alby before when I shot him during his studio session at Bignote Productions on the Gold Coast.

We decided that casual urban locations would be ideal for Alby’s highly relatable music, so headed to Burleigh Heads for an hour of  shooting in various venues until asked to leave – proper old school production that took me back to my old days of shooting on film and dodging security guards! Heh….

After a nice old time strolling and chatting with one very nice dude, we came away with some great shots that work together really nicely around strong black & white compositions and a theme of reflections. I’d chosen this approach for two reasons; the first being the nature of Alby’s pensive song lyrics and his serious return to music after a hiatus. The second reason being the lack of architectural charm on the Gold Coast meant that a more creative approach was going to be needed for this kind of urban environment.

You can find out more about Alby’s music and gigs here. I recommend listening to his sample track titled ‘Maze‘. Pretty damn sweet…

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Album cover photography for the Gold Coast’s ‘Green Room Project’

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Recently I was asked to photograph the album cover for The Green Room Project – the Gold Coast’s live monthly cabaret talk show.

The brief for the photography was to allow the personality of each group member to be shown, so a wider shot with a range of interesting poses allowed this, while also allowing the models to interact with each other. The striped marquee on the shoot location leant a theatrical feel to the photos, with some great wardrobe and props completing the styling!

Host, Matt Ward created The Green Room project as a novel way of showcasing emerging and undiscovered music talent, combined with mentoring by industry professionals. Recorded at Bignote Productions, six of Queensland’s most talented musical theatre and cabaret performers who have been featured on the show came together for the compilation album and were accompanied by musical director, Brad Rush, on a baby grand piano.

If you’re in the Gold Coast / Brisbane region, you can check out more details of this great concept here, as either an audience member or musician!

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Lifestyle photography for Brisbane’s Harbour Day Spa

A few weeks back, Harbour Day Spa in Brisbane’s Cleveland area were looking for a lifestyle photographer to refresh their image content, having just been voted the #1 day spa in Australia. I got the call, having already shot a really nice lifestyle campaign for their offshoot brand, The Harbour Barber.

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Tracey, Lea, Tash and the rest of the team are such lovely clients and the spa is of course an extremely relaxing environment to be in – even when you’re working! The shoot was excellent, with a range of quality people, interiors and product photography shot to refresh their brand’s image content for the coming year.

The thing I like most about this client, is the fact that they truly ‘get’ branding. They understand that you need an actual commercial photographer to shoot your image content for you (not a cowboy with a camera) and that Instagram is not a replacement for this need. They keep their image content updated and delegate their creative to photographers and designers who develop and execute strategically, as opposed to banging out flyers and fixing crap photography with HDR and other filters in Photoshop.

Photographer preferences aside, they also really know their business. After getting my hair cut there, you could have stood me in the sun and set your watch to my shadow. Great stuff!   🙂

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Brisbane barbershop lifestyle photography by Paul Williams

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The photography side of the business for me was amazingly busy for the last quarter of 2014 – and this blog very much fell by the wayside!
One of the best projects that I worked on over the manic year-end was the brand identity that I designed for a hip new barber shop south of Brisbane, named ‘The Harbour Barber‘.

I designed the logo and full identity for the client, from brand strategy through to all of their print collateral and web design. A subsequent photo shoot followed (naturally!), the results of which are featured here and have featured in 4 or 5 national magazines and newspaper supplements since.

I intended this shoot to be art directed in such a way that was a nod to the nostalgic brand essence that I’d created. Hence, the semi-sepia colour treatment gives a real sense of the old school customer service, while respecting that this is a contemporary business. I also love the confident ‘tude of the models which finds balance in the right amount of approachability. If you’re near the Cleveland area of South Brisbane, why not check out The Harbour Barber? It’s an excellent barbershop, very funky interior decoration and they’ll serve you a free beer with your haircut! Get in!  🙂

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Portrait photography of Gold Coast musician, John Hosking

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Last week I photographed Gold Coast singer/songwriter, John Hosking for his CD single artwork.
John was at Bignote Productions recording a very pensive track and I wanted the photos to reflect the ambience of the music in this black and white portrait, which is more classically lit.

I shot an additional portrait of John in studio 1 at Bignote, which is a great working portrait set against the backdrop of studio gear and the acoustic ceiling.
John’s pumped with the shots and asked me today to shoot his upcoming album cover, so looking forward to collaborating with the man again!

You can connect with John here, as his story unfolds:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/John-Hosking/666702543444809

 

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Photo shoot for Gold Coast fitness celebrity, Sam Wallace

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Last week I shot Gold Coast fitness celebrity, Sam Wallace, for his new website photography. Sam needed some quality fitness shots that showed him training a client as her Personal Trainer.

The shoot had a few restrictions to overcome; we could only access a gym with a very low ceiling, making it tough to control the light. We were also restricted to landscape format shots, which would fit the format of the website’s UI.
Regardless of these, as well as space restrictions, we had an extremely productive evening and got a range of shots that I’m really happy with – and importantly, Sam is “pumped as hell” with the shots!

Lighting from overhead is often what’s needed to flatter a male physique, but side-lighting to allow for such a low ceiling managed to give really nice definition to the models’ muscles and also give them both great separation from the cluttered background.

My fitness photo shoots will be getting more popular now that summer is on it’s way here on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, so get in early if you’d like to shoot and email me at paul@pwphotography.net!

Until the next!   🙂

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Music photography by Paul Williams photography, Gold Coast – Brisbane, Australia

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Last week I photographed singer/songwriter, Mitch King, in a recording studio session at Bignote Productions. He was tracking a new song for his upcoming album.

This photo was taken through a porthole window to the recording studio. I like the rim-light in this shot and the blurred window frame that frames the shot itself – it reminds me of old Super-8 or medium format film.

After the session, Mitch asked me to shoot his album cover next week here on the Gold Coast, which I’m very much looking forward to. The songs that he’s recorded for the album so far are awesome, so it’s a really nice project to be involved with.
This was my 2nd shoot for Bignote Productions who, to my surprise, asked me to be their in-house photographer from now on! It’s such a talented team at Bignote and being able to provide photography for the musicians producing music at the best recording studio on the Gold Coast feels like an ongoing collaboration that will be a perfect fit. So if you’re looking to produce music and you’re in the Gold Coast / Brisbane region, drop by the studios here to say hello. You just might end up in front of my lens as my next blog entry!

You can check out Mitch’s tunes here:  http://mitchkingmusic.com.au/

Band photography for Bignote Productions, Gold Coast

Last week I was asked to shoot a band recording a track for their upcoming album, at Bignote Recording Studios on the Gold Coast.

I had just 5-10 minutes to shoot each band member while they were warming up, before their studio session began. This is a good example of what can be achieved even in such a rush, with just one small compact flash unit (triggered remotely). For the vocalist, I placed a 2nd compact flash unit beneath the drum kit to illuminate the skins and bring out the background details of the studio, while still keeping the emphasis on the sharp foreground subject.

Everyone at Bignote was really happy to see the results of a photo shoot done within such time constraints and I loved having the chance to see the amazing music being produced there. If you’re a band or independent musician in the Gold Coast or Brisbane region, do yourself a favour and go see the folks at Bignote Productions!

 

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Photo shoot for Government ministry

Brochure samples arrived in the mail last week from my client, who I shot the below job for.
I was shooting for a great Singapore design agency named DPI and their client was the Ministry of Social & Family Development.

Shoot day threw me a few curve balls when the Art Director was unable to attend and I was asked to art direct the shoot myself (which is no problem – my comfort in doing exactly this, is why many of my clients hire me). The curve ball came when I was informed by their client that I wasn’t allowed to photograph the faces of the children who I had been sent there to shoot! The kids were all from troubled homes or were juvenile delinquents, so their anonymity was important for privacy reasons.

I quickly decided that more abstract and ‘arty’ imagery would be needed to meet this brief, so I utilised the sunny day to backlight the kids and have their faces drop out to silhouette. Tight shots, low key shots, obstruction and shadow-play were also utilised during the two shoot days, to gather the body of work needed for the brochure.

The client was extremely impressed with the solution to a tricky brief and the brochures look fantastic – props to DPI!

 

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Photo shoot for Scoot Airlines

On assignment in China.

A while back I was flown to Beijing to shoot for Scoot Airlines.
I was to cover the city of Tianjin, an hour or so on the bullet train from Beijing.
This is my ideal gig – wandering a foreign land with a very open brief and a camera in hand. This very thing is what took my photography from ‘hobby’ to ‘obsession’ so many years ago and these kind of shoots for me, ironically, feel like coming home.

I had an amazing time shooting the city – sitting regularly as inspiration took hold, to write the feature article passages that would accompany my photography.
The piece was well-received in the in-flight magazine and once again, I counted myself very lucky as having had another international shoot of this kind.

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Old local practising Chinese character calligraphy with water on the dusty morning pavement.

Old local practising Chinese character calligraphy with water on the dusty morning pavement.

 

A friendly social dance group in a Tianjin City park.

A friendly social dance group in a Tianjin City park.

 

The serene Tianjin River by night.

The serene Tianjin River by night.

 

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During my stay, I was put-up at the stunning St Regis Hotel, which was a most welcome sanctuary after some very long days wandering the many landmarks and quaint hutongs. Upgrading me to one of their finest suites after some friendly chat, I felt it only right to return the favour by snapping a few interiors of the hotel for their marketing. Appreciating such beautiful interior design is again, one of my favorite aspects of what I do.

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Before I left for Tianjin, a client at Fitch Design in Singapore heard that I was headed to Beijing briefly, so booked me to shoot for Dell computers while I was in town. Our team was wined and dined after each day at some of the cities best restaurants and I tacked a couple of days onto the end of the trip to visit the Great Wall and of course the Forbidden City. The trip was over all too quickly, though a taster of China in this way was, as a Photographer, as good as it gets!

 

Photo shoot for Lawful Rebellion

Last week I had the pleasure of art directing and shooting for a business that I truly believe in for social reasons. This is a rare treat and I was so pleased to see how ecstatic the clients were with the photography.

Lawful Rebellion is a business based on the Gold Coast, Australia, who have launched a clothing range featuring socially-conscious messages. Their mission is to encourage self-education regarding civil liberties and the self-empowerment that’s gained through shared knowledge.

This is a topic that is very dear to me

in this era of rapidly eroding civil liberties  (particularly in Australia) and I’m very happy to throw my support behind initiatives that aim to bring about positive change.

You can see the results of the photo shoot and clothing range here:
http://lawfulrebellionclothing.com/

 

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“If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.”
-Mark Twain