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This afternoon Naomi and I paid our neighbour Bob a visit at the Emerald Museum where he volunteers. While there I took a few photos and captured three panoramas of the interior.

Make sure you check out the interactive panorama here: www.360cities.net/image/emerald-museum-3

I highly recommend the Emerald Museum to locals and visitors alike! emeraldmuseum.org.au/

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/gnYdw9

Photography Q&A Video Chat – 090728

A new video broadcasting and recording service has been launched recently, called TwitCam, and I thought I’d take advantage of it and have a little fun by doing a short photography Q&A session. Twitcam integrates with Twitter, and Twitter users can enter the room and ask questions. I spent an hour answering questions from the people there. There are some periods when I was waiting for new questions, so please forgive the silence. I’ll do more video Q&As in the future, but I’ll try and have some questions ready ahead of time :)

Unfortunately I was mistaken, and the full transcript of Twitter comments is not saved with the video.

Links mentioned in this chat:

Thanks to those who participated:

@hiway
@tezzitoo
@edowling
@photography4u
@nakey 		@dibytes
@Bojoura
@naomicreek
@thecomicproject
@ThomasDral 		@PrincessZelda20
@happeningsphoto
@dj_priyam
@eflopez

Costume / Fashion Photoshoot at the Museum

Cosplay Meet

On this Sunday the 5th of July at 1pm, I’m running a cosplay/loli/fashion photoshoot at Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens.

Photographers and models are welcome to come along. By photographers I mean anyone with a camera who likes shooting people. By models I mean anyone who wants to get dressed up and have their photo taken! This will be a casual affair, just for fun.

I have chosen Melbourne Museum for the location as it has some awesome modern architecture, as well as being set in some beautiful gardens. Also, the stunning Royal Exhibition Building is right next door and would make a great backdrop for photos. We will meet on the rows of stone seats immediately opposite the main entrance to the museum, between the Royal Exhibition Building. There is parking under the museum and a tram from Parliament station up Nicholson Street.

The event will go ahead if the weather is poor, but we will meet in the museum foyer and decide where to go from there. There is a large foyer area in the museum where you can enter without paying, but museum entry is only $6 for adults, and free for children or concession.

This event is being organised via a facebook group. This is the first time I’ve used facebook to organise an event, but it’s working pretty well. If you have a facebook account, and would like to come to the event, please visit the event page and indicate that you are attending: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=119391263641

As of writing there are 13 indicated guests attending, plus half a dozen more who have confirmed by word of mouth. This should be a lot of fun! I hope many of you can make it, especially those who came along on our photowalk earlier in the year.

Google Map:


View Larger Map

Here’s an example costume shoot we did a few months ago: http://neilcreek.smugmug.com/gallery/8670548_ui3VE#572692946_uVB8D

If you have any questions, please ask below, or on the Facebook event page.

MeetHeads – Promoting my Business at a Tweetup

Twitter has increasingly become a key part of how I promote myself as a photographer (Find me @neilcreek). I stay on top of the latest photography news, I engage with fellow photographers, I promote my blog posts, but most importantly, I am able to forge connections to people in the real world. This became especially obvious to me several days ago when I attended a “tweetup” – twitter meet up.

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“Tweetup Mellers” was organised by @sammutimer and was attended by approximately sixty twitter users from Melbourne, Australia. As always, I take my camera to such events, but I knew I wanted to do something a little more to promote myself as a professional photographer. These are a group of well-networked and highly influential people, including some of the most successful online “personalities” in Australia. If I could figure out a way to take advantage of this without being exploitative, it could be good for my reputation.

I discussed this with my friend and skilled networker @jadecraven and eventually I came up with the idea for “MeetHeads” – meet up head shots (click here to see the MeetHeads page). The idea is, I set up a tiny “studio” at the venue and offer to take anyone’s head shots for free. They are then allowed to use this photo online for any non-commercial purpose, such as a twitter avatar, facebook profile or whatever. In exchange they must credit me as the photographer wherever the image is used, and if possible link back to my site.

Here are the photos I took on the night:

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Throughout the night I had many people complement me on the idea and the name, which everyone seemed to love. Over the next several days, after I had uploaded and linked to the photos, several people started using my photos of themselves as their avatars on Twitter. Australia’s most successful blogger Darren Rowse is even using my photo for his new @probloggerdeals twitter account and on every post of his new darrenrowse.com personal blog!

Best of all, in the last two weeks, I have attracted three new bookings for my services through connections made via Twitter!

I will continue to take MeetHeads at future twitter meets, and if you live in Melbourne and use Twitter, I encourage you to come along to the next tweetup and get a free MeetHead! You can find out about the meets here.

Portrait Photography Short Course Announced!

I am thrilled to announce that in late July, for the first time, I will be running a short course on portrait photography. The four week course will be held in Southeast Melbourne from July 20, and will have a maximum of ten places. You can book a place in this course now by phoning 03 9885 7952 (Mon-Fri, 9am-4pm) or emailing enquiries@ashburtoncc.org.au. The course will be run on Monday 7:30-9:30pm or Saturday 2:00-4:00pm depending on demand.

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Here are the details so far. This is my first draft of the course plan, and any or all of these details may change prior to the commencement of the course, however they are a good idea of what you should expect. The price has been finalised.

Creative Portrait Photography
Tutor: Neil Creek

Learn how to take creative photos of family and friends using flash and natural lighting.

Cost: $130AUD
Location: Ashburton Community Centre, Melbourne, Australia
Date: TBA – After 20th July
Days: Monday 7:30-9:30pm or Saturday 2:00-4:00pm depending on demand
Classes: 4 x 2 hour sessions including one location shoot with model

Requirements: Participants must bring a digital camera with a flash hotshoe* and full manual controls and have basic photographic knowledge. Maximum 10 students (minimum 6)
* Sony Alpha users will be unable to use their camera in the flash exercises with the provided lighting gear due to the proprietary flash mount.

  • Session 1 – Introduction to Portrait Photography, lighting, basic camera operation and functions of shutter speed and aperture, studying example portrait photos
  • Session 2 – Importance of light in creative photography, types of light, light quality and direction. Familiarization with electronic flash and in-class interactive demonstrations with lighting gear provided
  • Session 3 – Viewpoint, angle and pose, adding impact to your images with creative composition & viewpoint with in-class interactive demonstrations with lighting gear provided
  • Session 4 – Go on location to experience photographing a model in natural light, and using flash to supplement natural light. This will be a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

Students will receive detailed class notes to accompany the sessions, and students will be encouraged to participate in the demonstrations to gain a hands-on perspective of the lessons.

Depending on the demand for this short course, a second one may be run concurrently. If demand is very high, one or two more courses may be run following the first one or two.

I would very much like to know if you are interested in participating in this course. I am looking at the possibility of offering off-camera lighting kits at special prices if I can find an interested retailer. Do you have any other ideas that would make this course even more valuable to particpants?

I hope to see you there!

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