Lessons

Lesson Info

Bring Your Ideas to Life

Bringing your ideas to life is about who you were. I need it to compliment who I am in my business because I want to make money so for glamour photography I can do more creative textured work. I can do stuff like this because that's not far off from what I do that's just you know a girl on a beautiful dress when blowing I've composited a bit more skirt in and put a filter over it so that textured experimental portraiture but it's not far from who I am and my everyday life whereas this is a long way from who I am in my everyday life but this is for awards work. Okay two different creative ideas for may this one is going to get me more clients because it's great work and people love it online this one's going to win the awards and when I went a woods, then I my profile goes up and it gets bigger and bigger, so there's building my business and my profile right? So at the moment, lara's creative work is taking conceptual fashion shoots when she's not being paid and making her own with styl...

ists to boost her folio to show that she's still working to show her wit whether she's getting paid or not that's not your business and find my portfolio ninety percent of it is personal work and my ideas because clients will buy into that there's my relation and when I go to a meeting, clients see the relation to that I have something to talk about. I can bring myself to my work when she goes to a meeting. Do you find them that the clients that are hiring you are looking for you to do that work and they want you to teo? I think if they want to see the commercial port for lee, they want to see if there's a white background on studio, they want to see that they want to see a smiling girl in my portfolio. I have a meeting with a client soon, and they want to see that smiling girl, and I don't have it in my portfolio, so they want to see to convince someone. But when I go to the meeting, they want to see that I'm related to that and, you know, I'm a young photographer, I'm female, I sit in the meeting room and already it's like they and I said this before they don't get that I am who I am, they just don't understand that I am responsible for the job, and I'm capable of producing that, so buy me putting that personal working the conceptual wake in front of them. They can already see the relation and I can say, you know, this inspired me because of this and I started with self portray ts and this goes into this and they love that and that's what wins me over the job and also the state with which you dwell when you're creating your creative shoot definitely nikki can you get my ipad? Um if it's not in that bag, then it will be up in the makeup room but I want you to see something because today I've drawn my shoots very rudimentary you know? I didn't take any time I did them in under thirty seconds thank you. So, um I look at it like this bringing your ideas to life is about working with no budget ok even that larrys level she could pull a top line stylist a top line assistant, a top line designer stylist here stylist in a model for test for nothing she can shoot it for nothing in her own home because she set up her house is a studio like I have because we live in our career, we'll get away much, but why would you want him? You wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to go somewhere else for work every day I love being able to wake up and live in a creative space that's why you moved because you space wasn't big enough to shoot in yet and you know, that's, why I live in my studio because I wake up every day in my studio. Lucky me, it's, not always great for your family, they don't want to live in your workplace, but, you know, I think they do. But the truth is, is that the end of the day, even at who label, she could pull a top line of people that charge four to twelve hundred dollars a day or half day for showed easily, she could pull that for free because they will get something so you don't need to ring people and ask them to work for free. What you do is ring people and ask if they want to collaborate in folio building and you can get free models, get and give them images you can get stylists, you can get close, you can get here stylist on every one of you go to a hairdresser I beat your hairdresser is a stylist. No one knows at least united to work with you and work out of the cell on because he comes here every day. They're having fun building great here, you know they're not getting to do creative things, so all I have to do is either have my ipad or my iphone with may when I go to the hair salon, I take my ipad with me. Do you know why I take my ipad with me not to play on facebook while I'm getting my hair done? But because all of my images are on my ipad, my website is accessible and I'm about to walk into a cell on with twenty creative addis all he dresses that no makeup at us, that no models, that would love to work for free, that love my work, and so I don't walk in there and try and pitch to people I go and get my here down and take my wig with me, and then I talk about it all. This is the latest shoot that I've just done. Oh, I can't wait to show you here it is. Oh, my goodness, you're really good at that! Thank you. We should do a shoot together because I would really love to blah, blah, blah all this is a shot that I took of my p a katie the other day, she's just being a here model, talk about it, talk about the work. I don't need to say anything else, it's thiss person would love my daughter would love to be able to collaborate with us there it is, yeah, you know what that is opportunity there's opportunity everywhere everywhere you know and that's the cool thing isn't it do you think clara wrote walks around going I'm larry jade I'm a fashion photographer do you know who I am nato you know it's stamped all over here and it's not by who she is or her status symbol or how many followers she has on facebook it's about what she tells people about how she does it and that is just magical so you can actually work with nobody I don't believe any creative way it needs to have a budget the most I pay for is to feed everyone on the day and that's it I thought I always have food in my studio I have water on eyes I get I go and get you know diet coke vegetable juice I get a raise some yes always have some lollies yeah you know shot to tend the evil indeed I did have somewhere to kind of trusting me oh so always when you think about it bringing a team together like that I feel like most young creative adis feel like you're imposing on people so larry and I do the same thing we host to shoot so if I host a shoot like this you're coming to my house I'm hosting yeah radio welcome I was so excited to shoot today I put food this water happy still here we are and it's not like a job so it's like a get together we chat, we gossip, we shoot a little bit, you know it's. Great. So what do you have to do? Follow the road gives them images soon as you can take them on facebook talked them up right? Blogged about them feature getting which I recommend them recommend them talk about them if you like them if you don't never use them again. It's ok. But make sure you give back there giving you time. It's in vital people get really annoyed if they give me time to get nothing back. Really important working with stylist models trade for print is a big one more time. Yes, time for print is also really, really big one. A lot of people, I just want to be given work and they want to be talked up and they want to be included in your circle. So it's, very important that you create a system. So now I need you to tell me right now, what is your theme? What is your style? And what is your story around your creative self? Now, if you're one of those people like my big sister, by the way, I just have to say my big sister is one of the most ridiculously talented were you even in your life like she makes me look like a cartoonist? I'm okay with that she's in just ridiculous my sister with is one of those other she'd sit down the back and go at this I'm not going to put boundaries on who I am is noticed I don't have to tell you what style I am I'm all styles because my sister would hate the idea that I would make her tell me and yet most of my audience are saying tell me what what am I don't know who I am and I'm like you you do so let me find it it's easy you just gotta find it you're gonna seem style what's your favorite same fashion into vintage vintage grammar yes kind of like the gatsby yesterday anything nineteen twenties, nineteen thirties glamorous gown so whenever you wanna play that your goatee is always migrating and if you were going to be known for something like when you're seventy five and they're like oh enlarge a career you know it is so famous for it would be vintage glamour and bringing that beauty through okay so again for me I really if I was a pinhole one same for me I'm going to have to go with um I'm really into anything evocative so I want to evoke an emotion that is both beautiful and painful I like a dichotomy and I like a juxtaposition between something beautiful and something painful at the same time, I feel like in my lifetime I've spent my lifetime making people pretty and it hurt me because I felt like people were like, you just did glamour photographer and I was like, you don't no what I give to people, I give them this gift and they like no, you don't you just put makeup on people and you dress them up and photoshopped them and I felt like my whole life I had to fight against the stigma of what I was doing it used to hit because I used to feel like I would spend my day building up people's self confidence and telling them how beautiful they were in the bring it out from the inside and, you know, that's when I met craig swanson, who is the creator of creative live, and he said, you're the greatest paradox because you are an artificial product with an incredibly true message. And when he said that to me, my world chains because he saw hey saw the superficiality or what I do, but he saw the power of how I do it and then I got it so that two may is my creative power might invent to me is where I'm drawn and it is so beautiful and it's so strong to me because you know what it is it's a feeling inside may my body feels this I'm emotionally moved by creating this imagery I want to go and create this image hee and I want it evokes something in you I don't want you to look at my work and be passive or indifferent or whatever hated by all means hate the hell out of it I hate this it's disgusting work it makes me feel good feel something you know, for crying out loud feel something to you we just want to go through your life feeling something something greater than you know and indifferent feeling I think it's important to go back, go back I've done that the past few months have been like okay, I've stopped feeling what is it? And I had this talk with my agent and she said you've stopped telling a story you stop putting personality into work and I think that is it and I knew it all along so I've started redoing the descent minuit taking jobs that you weren't putting yourself into and I was just putting his self and she sees that I wasn't really I would take every opportunity that came along and I wouldn't think about how that would relate to my work and if I was passionate brave you even wanted to do it yes so you were taking it just to get paid and then you're like, hey, I don't need to get yep the state with which he'd wealth we need t shit and a bumper sticker on maybe a tattoo. We're in seattle we've got a lot of tweets already so there's a place to start. Okay? There's an amazing girl here that worked here couldn't nelson and she's, one of our dear friends and she's on an actress and a dancer and she's really incredible. And I was thinking about a skit doing a skit with here on the state with which we drowned. Then tell her about at lunch time because I think we should record it behind the scenes. It's so funny it's. Kind of like a saturday night live the state with which he dwell on me I'm going to do it. Okay, what is your thing? What did you start? What is your story? Who are you? What inspired him? What do you drawn to? I'm always gonna photograph tree roots. I think they symbolize something to me. I'm a master master breaky healer and my mother is to her and I did it together. They do this thing when they teach you energy and raking energy and it's about putting your root into the ground and drawing the earth's energy up into feet whenever I imagine grounding myself and I do it before I teach I ground myself because I want to come with you two things I want my ego to be in complete equilibrium of giving when I teach and I want to feel a complete grounding on who I am like I want you to know who I am I'm a k way, okay, I I'm proud of where I come from. I have culture and munna and strength and proud of who I am and my coal town proud of my country. I love who I am and I love being a down to earth. Carrie chick that's what I am in the kinetic and I love it so to me I see tree roots and then I see the binding in the gagging, the holding, and I know what that feels like to be constantly stuck in my own voice, my own throat, my own creativity, which is the throat, by the way, your creativity comes from here, and that your ability to express yourself not only physically but creatively as well. And so here I am, putting these tree roots into people infinitely feeling this binding, and I realized that in that binding is security, because when you were held so tight by something or someone, you are also safe, you are safe in your own fear and you're also saved there because you are being held, but that's the problem with being held you also being held back all right, so that to me is me and so now what do you who are you? What are you now you can say well, I I just want to take pretty pictures awesome that's who you are but what sort of pretty what sort of pretty is you? And is it doc pretty? Is it fashion pretty? Is that newt? Is it fine at node? Is it illustrative editorial do you want to tell stories around the world? Do you want to bring awareness to stories like I've just done a compass it for breast cancer I'm going to show it to tomorrow one of my girlfriends had a mystic to me three weeks ago and she's having her first round of chemotherapy she's a photographer she's documenting her chemotherapy to bring awareness in sight, but mostly to bring grace to an incredibly difficult situation that she was so prepared to go through she was really to share it. So I've done a compass it off here looking beautiful here with her face breasts removed and her with her and her husband and the support that she's getting its a beautiful compass it it's kind of tell a story it's going to bring awareness it's going to help a cause it's going to help thousands of other women who are about to go through this in their partners who are supporting them I'm going to create stories and images that changed lives of people if I get the opportunity and get asked her because what a wonderful gift I have to compass it pictures and I'm going to show you how to do that. I'm going to show you howto build it had to make it beautiful but it's also intensely dark and intensely emotional. So what do you write down your words? You know you fashion I you nude? Are you in a field? Are you trees? Are you what are you r forest are you made of? And I think that when I first started I started the journey being one to the next and sometimes people don't know straight away and it's important to sometimes try things. Try what you're drawing too but it's not a serious something you're going to be later down the line. You could kind of follow that journey toe another path as well. Like jennifer jennifer hudson brilliant, beautiful work and see she's got a same going you khun, try jennifer's work but you can try it and then move on from an experience a shoot in that water tank that she does it's incredible I would love to do there I would love to try that, but it's clearly not my thing or I would have done it already but if you want to try it and experience it, great, I feel like and this is how I work when I look at people when I mean tore people, I get a really strong sense of where people are. I feel like your first jenny to learn photography with your self portraiture was about you discovering yourself. I think it was about you finding your confidence. I think it was about you taking off your mask and becoming a woman, and then I think when you realize the skill and talent that you had that was very natural, you had a desire to be something and you started to become it before you were ready to sow already you're telling yourself like, I'm too scared to be here because I'm here and people like saying where you're too young and what do you have some rich kid and you're like, you know, I work really hard and you're justifying your yourself there, but the whole time through your teenagers, you were learning about who you were and what you wanted and that's amazing that experience, the experience she got from her own experiential portrait. Portraiture is incredible to see thy self is to know thy self from somebody else's eyes to see themself in a photograph is to know thy self to experience myself is one of the most incredible things you'll do how many of you think you don't have a lot of confidence? You don't? How many? If I made you stand up here now could talk to that camera confidently, knowing how many people are watching you and ever used three and laura's mother, my mom e me, so but the truth is, is that the end of the day, what I did was because, you know, I suddenly realized that I couldn't speak to a roomful of people, but I had this voice and I had this message and I had all this shit to say, god knows you couldn't shut me out, but the truth was I couldn't deliver it. I got in front of a camera and I recorded myself talking. I've seen this before record yourself speaking to camera about something you're incredibly passionate about. Don't try and speak don't think about what your face is doing don't think about your body language just tell me a story into camera about something that you really like and something that really moves you and drives you and I've just created this incredible pace. I can't wait to share it with you. This is how I did it, I went with this make about us. Get lost in the story because this is the moment when even the greatest interviewed becomes this incredible extrovert and all of a sudden you're speaking passionately, you're not thinking about how you're speaking, you're just being yourself and then make yourself watch it, watch it and watch it and watch it and watch yourself and you will discover something amazing. The first thing you'll do is criticize your physical self on the way don't talk about that my mountain of money, why do I put my chin up? Why am I doing that? I don't speak like that. What does my mouth go to the side? And once you get past the physicality of what you don't like, you suddenly just start seeing yourself and going, oh, I see me, and then you start seeing you in the energy, and then you realize what it is that people are drawn to when they want to work with you when they want to be near you. When they love her to understand yourself in someone else's, always, and as soon as you see it, you'll be shocked by it. And then when you're doing this the trees, the water, the forest, the meadow, the nude, the flowers, pretty dark profession, the nude to find out the editorial that illustrative, if you can honestly look at that list and say oh, I just don't know what I like then you don't like any of them couldn't make up something else because I can't tell you how many of those I like okay, I love water shots but I don't see anything in water what's the first thing that's gonna happen and what are you gonna miss up my dress and you going to screw up my here? Okay, two things I like about my shooting for here in the dress biggest things I'm gonna look a second thing is lets go and runs from a mido well, okay, first thing I need to entertain what countrymen and other snakes because, dude, can you just do a close up of my shoes? Do I look like the sort of girl that likes to run three mido's I do all of my photo shoot in a studio I feel pretty comfortable in my studio I like natural light and I like to wear high heel shoes and I'm not really running through any mido's you know, I love needs love male, new teller, female nudes but I don't like nudes for the sake of being nude, so I don't like a nude shot in the black room that's just nude I had to do something to the note it has to be more significant to being note it has to be about the emotion of being vulnerable that is what nudity is to me, its vulnerability. I don't photograph my newts like black and white magazine remember? Black and white magazine went to the stage in the late nineties where it was just straight on crotch shots girl boy didn't matter, and sometimes every now and then they were hands in there and, you know, somebody's gonna tweet this picture way happens today, right? I'm gonna I'm gonna make it time. I look it, you know, it's white magazine and they were handsome there and things in there that shouldn't be in there, and then it was just confronting graphic nude and I'm like, yeah, I get it it's black and white magazine, but that is not what I'm interested in. I'm in twisted and the vulnerability of being node I'm interested in the shape of the body or killed out or being isolated, I'm interested in the feeling that comes from being nude, and then I want to put flowers in tree roots and textures in there, I want to hide parts of the body. I wanted to signify who I am emotionally, so all of my creative work has to speak to you and if it doesn't speak to you, so I'm not creating it through me, I'm trying to make a picture instead of trying to tell a story which is what larry just sit about in fashion wig, she stopped telling a story to affection when hetty tell a story through fashion wig uh, you tell a story, everything you do is you are questioning photographer themes? Yep, energy put into it the love you bring to it, the energy you bring to it, and then the power that you then permeate and transmute through your chute comes from your creative self that is just magic, and that is the gift that you are given, and even if you're an accountant four days a week and you've decided to be a creative photographer on the fifth day on the fifth day of every week, I get to just break free. Well, as long is on the fifth day, you breaking free and as long as on the four days before you are working with joy in order to break free because I get that question constantly, how can I don't have time to do creative work? How do you have time? Yes, because you are stopping yourself from doing that. Everybody has time if it's just an hour a week shooting yourself shouldn't idea shooting textures for the next week setting yourself that challenge every week is so important, you know, the people who don't have time to be creative, struggling with money because they holding so tight to the idea that that they stopped working they're not going to get paid and I need the money I need the money so badly need the money on time I'm busy doing the follow the shit that I hate and I've got to do this and I've got to do this I don't have time to be creative because if I don't do this job, I'm not gonna get paid if we don't get paid, how could he take two dollars have to be creative and then the people who are creative or like yeah, money disclose in man, it flows in one phrase on and the more creative I am the more it closer to this the dichotomy because that really annoys me you finally start earning money and then all of a sudden you in money that you can take days off to do whatever you like and that's when it's like easy and then it's like well, no more creative I am the more money that comes in and then it's like, oh, now I get it but not after years a struggling to work unpaid bills himto hold so friggin tight to what what are you holding on to take a day off? All my friends right now of taixing may going, yeah, you should take your aunt's eyes oh yeah just can hear it I can read the texas take you innit oh look it's coming up on the pipe okay really, really important men, women, children, couples landscapes for me I'm joined to women like you and that's like a self yes ut thing I how I kind of came from something yes that's what? I'm joined a beauty are you interested that when you see yourself see myself in your photography see thy self in your own photography see myself through your own photography larry is drawn to people that looked like her in the sense that that's what she is drawn to in creating beauty you are drawn to what you were instantly drawn to think about it right in front of you. So do we ask folks online to share kind of there inspiration what they're drawn to? We have monster pixel photo who says I'm drawn the grungy fitness only because I know the struggle that it takes two for your body and think about that when I seemed image that glenn gee fitness to me, that guy there he wants to go to gyms and just get jim bodies I used to go to the gym and say anybody here want a model for a photo shoot? I've never seen so many people take off their clothes so far these people go every day and honed their bodies over and over again and they repeat and they repeat and they repeat and they rent him repeat because they love it so much in the truth is when I see those images and that girl's boxing and that guy's you know, power lifting or is running and I see that go running I cry because I know what it's like to be an athlete or to do something we'll be fishing and you feel what they have and then I want to put a saying on it and I you know, just do it was something cool like that if somebody made that up and they put it on put it online and imagine the power impact of that gritty sporty you know, because I get that emotion if he's drawn to that he's going to capture images we use see those images like how nike portrayed the brand and its power and its self discipline and it just moves you and you know why it moves you it moves you because the person who created it felt exactly that way what else we have a gemma johnson photographer says I am forests, I am dark, I am moody I'm fear I am history I am me and I'm liberating it on the other side of the photography by shimmer I am partial main I am drawn to atmosphere leave as in natural elements style like I like a combination of structure and flowing movement what you got on the screen there? We have a couple of people who love steampunk. Yeah, and love that kind of combination of what did they say? I really like the way that I love steampunk style because it's so feminine and wicked and sensing. So what happens? What happens when you buy in mini cooper? You suddenly see a million mini cooper. Once you identify your style, once you identify that drawing and what it is that you want to speak through, you see it everywhere. You see girls, boys, that would be great models you see people, you see things you see elements you see dresses you see close, you see movies, we see special effects in movies that make you go. Wow, I'm going to create that you go and you find that because you don't even need to find it. It hits you in the face by a man. It could be you see, mini coopers, you define that style of that creative self and instantly it finds you environmental portrait is a really big one. So today I'm going to teach you about eva's world. When we do it, I'm gonna take a photo of a five year old girl I'm going to drop on a different background. And I'm going teo retouch it looks kind of painted but I'm not gonna put any other filters well I might use some actions I'll show you what they are I'm not going to put you know like a corral drawer anything like it because people always say how do you make your work look drawn or heading make it look like a painting so I'm going to show you that to see larry finish the day with emery touching all of these chutes from yesterday so I'm going to teach you that but environmental portraiture to me is when you go and photograph somebody in their environment you don't make an environment in the studio so I don't do environmental portraiture I take elements and build an environment that I want to show you the difference but I want to show you how to illustrate both so the image yesterday that I showed off my sister with the fork in her eye and my friend amy in the bath and a man suit they were illustrated the way I'm going to teach you using dodging boone amusing sharpness and I'm going to show you how to create that really illustrated look so when you're doing environmental portraiture or creating an environment with elements it's really important you think when you talk I do that funny things I walked back and forth but I always see shots in myself and I always like standing like this I'm trying but I got a bit trying members lady lady lady playtime once per month come on one day don't you interfere with my playtime? My playtime that booking in the diary every one of you can book yeah once a month definite one free xiang make a big deal out of it ok make a big deal out of it once a month so I won last year I didn't enter this year and last year I won australian portrait photographer of the year it is the biggest national competition for photography and australasia in the world actually it is the highest rated competition I've been assaying winning a cat a great it's like one of the highest achievement I cried I was mating I wanted the year before us well and I remembered the cord epa we call apparatus acronym and epa is the big thing that comes around every year so people started to ring me and they're like oh hi suit I'd really love to be one of your epic girls and so being a super sized ethical became something my clients wanted that can be one of your epic girls. So I photographed this girl was a portrait and then she became one of my girls and that once re big national competitions around the world and got gold distinctions in three countries and one made all these trophies and everything and cheese I got this image as my epic girl she's one of my girls and she's like can I be one of your other girls again? And you know, every year I do forever girls and it's kind of something that everybody wants make a big deal out of it you know what you're trying to do? Are you trying to do an exhibition of you trying to do a book? Maybe you should create a marketing around these creative shades maybe it's a great way to market yourself online um if you feel like your brand and you're creative work are two different things that you want to keep apart I want your creative brand to have a funky name I love your name I think it has a very distinct quality and I feel like taking your brand away from who you are, who you are if that is, if that is your goal it's a great thing to do it needs to have its own facebook page you can run multiple facebook pages in its own twitter handle and it needs to be facebooking and tweeting every day if you want people to build an online following then uh okay international woods I want to talk about this because I think it's very important you can ask me any question you want about international awards um this was my first attempt to win a gold okay and I tried to be controversial I realized that the good portraiture wasn't really working the illustrated portraiture got far more sort of argument talk and so I was just leaning so what I did is I photograph my makeup artist I printed the image and then I stitched the image with a needle and thread so it's really stitched in like it's not in there and I didn't finish up it I did it and then I re photographed the image so this was right on the sensitive threshold with photo shop was becoming into our studio so we didn't really have it and it almost went gold. Okay, so they were forced to four judges there they were pushing it out one was pulling it down. Now I could do this image a whole lot differently I could pinch your lips, you know, in war I could actually make her look stitched. This represented beauty to me an idea of beauty that sometimes you are so bound by being beautiful or this idea of trying to be beautiful that you're just so bound to those rules. That's what it meant to me, um I didn't realize that I needed to hone my skills if I wanted to win and I'm one of those people that when I want something, I go after it, so I have to want it in order to work well, his creditors had a working days are over you then you wicked data so I asked a friend to pose for me and I don't do any nude posing I make people posing underwear and then I removed the underwear and photo shop and then I started to use compas it and I started to put in tree rates and this is how bad my fish try wass and I put it up for judging the next year and it got seventy three so got a bronze award so I got on the board I got in the book but you know, it was clearly not good enough to win anything and then I started to hone that skill because I was very drawn back then so this was eight years ago I'm very drawn back the into that sort of genre of like putting in tributes and making her grow into the ground will grow out of the ground and so there I started to go more advanced in my technique because they just keep practicing and learning and practicing it on this one won a silver at the national awards like again got on the board got on the book and one of gold that year so the gold is there is what you go for you try everybody tries to win a gold and then once you hit gold status it's either a flute well, you have to do it every year so the pressure to create awards that are at that level is huge and then I produced this the food here now that was three years of learning myself held put trade routes into a photograph I'm going to show you this tomorrow because you're going to see me actually do it and if somebody had shown may I may have got wet in the first year but the whole point is is that I learned and and I learned and I learned and enjoyed it and loved every minute everything I photographed in this image is dead um except for the little sprout on her toe and we're allowed to title our images which gives him power so if you're doing an exhibition if you're putting an image on facebook if you're blogging an image tight you're in addis title your image freedom love, joy rage, you know, wrote improvident this's wrote her days became wrote improvident that was the title for this image her days became wrote without plans repetitive and provident nothing and look I'm eating my peas and carrots and I just jammed a fork in my eye and nobody cares I had so much emotion creating this image I didn't do it for the impact of sticking a fork in somebody's eye there's no blood there's no drama it's just bang fork in the eye wrote improvident you know and I remember thinking I would rather die than live a life of perpetual in consequence and that's how I felt when I did it and then I shot doing that I was putting it into the image I would rather die than live a life of perpetual and consequence ground hog day wrote and improvident that's how I felt that's where I wass that's what I wanted my sister to dio you know? And then you know, I wanted teo also be controversial but then that's why I did that? Because it's always something controversial in my way I would find places like this and I would think to myself, this's somebody in pain no, this girl she's not in pain she's not a drug addict, she doesn't have bad skin, you know? And she's, not in a bad place was a beautiful girl and I said to her, would you pose for me? Would you be my drug addict, my homeless drug addict? And she said, yes, I'd love to do that. And, you know, it was so wonderful doing this show in winning these awards because I got to tell stories and you know, at the time I had a friend going to drug abuse and anorexia, and I remembered feeling all the emotion around it, but it's entirely created but it was created by me and then I went through these images you know this is not she's not sitting in that room she's in my studio she doesn't smoke she's not a prostitute I wanted to create images that tell a story about this woman you don't know this women this is not a picture of mama this is a picture off a girl in a situation and you are reading the story in there a story that I've told you and you don't even know what it is because it's an image so it is through a filter of your own understanding I started to go away from doing the dark stuff because I started to get known for it and then I started to worry that I was just getting known for that so I started to build the big dresses and the big here and then create worlds like that that were entirely men affection but it's exactly putting in flowers putting in backdrops, building dresses, changing here's exactly the same as putting in tree roots just a different energy. And yet when I created this when it created this image every part of my image was portrait of a lady this is pip in walton she is a very celebrated award winning illustrated photographer who came to may first and middle walked up to me and said, I want you to photograph name with the imprint of a sense I'm going to show you here awards wait tomorrow it's beautiful it's very good and I created this for hearing it a big image in her bedroom and it really is magnificent and I started I used to think portrait of a lady portrait of a lady this was secret lovers this was may putting in love hat in the tree this was the little creepy bonzai tree outside my dentist this is a fake tree top in a fake roots on the ground and that's a couple that came in for a portrait shoot and asked me to shoot some ludes off them and I said, okay, I do I do note but I don't shoot penises or vaginas I'm not interested in doing a rodica I'll make it very clear I would do loving beautiful lying down shots you know you can keep underwear on and I'll remove it and photo shop but I'm not going to see crutches anyway and that's exactly what they wanted they spent three and a half thousand dollars are beautiful nudes I asked him if I could compensate them into this shot and that was about secret lovers um and today I'm going to shoot four concepts so sue before we go to break, I'd love to get in since you said a few questions about how to go about getting awards show up looking for them so essentially jm photo and ten mo I would love to know where do you submit artwork to win awards where do you start? Where do you apply of no idea and then finally also allen birch from missouri regarding competitions do you just create your vision and enter or do judges have specific things that they look for all that combined? Yes judges dio that the judging an international standard is incredibly interesting and you can watch it online you can watch it online so basically new zealand had entered ibp which is unusual in professional photography body you can enter the new zealand photography awards it's a good one then you can enter is an overseas entrant you can enter the w p p I which is at um and that you can enter online as well you can into the international amateur awards which is online competition where is w p p I entered I pp and I ii pay which is australian institute of professional photography they have an international body where you can interest an international client you consent and you look at the category that specifically suits you as a photographer so I'm going to inter create a portrait or illustrative I'm not going to inter family portrait which is traditional no photo shop because it's not where I am or who I am I'm not going into commercial fashion that's what larkin inter fashion she get into four images into the fashion section when the fashion section it gets judged live it gets broadcast but if you're in the area you can go to w p p I you can go to new zealand even go to australia so what it does is it sets a really great challenge for you to create images to put in so let's say you simply want to win some awards I've I know of people that just want to win a woods you know you've heard me say it winning awards for photography is just creative masturbation it's public masturbation that's all it is you get to stand up and beat your chest to go I just want an award you get to cry if you don't win one day you'll see lots of tears and lots of drama lots of people needing to validate themselves through their awards I liketo win I'm very competitive um I gave myself a go but the only person I compete with us myself okay I'm somebody that says I want to lend that I want to win that I'm gonna do that nobody stopped me nobody stopped me in the singer's is I want to do that for me and I want to beat myself every year would be better every year I went out to do myself every year I want to create creative work like this it is better and more beautiful that gets more more more every day every time I've got to try and be bitter and myself and every year I try to outdo myself so those three bodies of the biggest international amateur is online anybody can enter there anyway around the world they have international judges from joe be saying to me tio big name photographers all around the world that our master judges that really brilliant judging you pick a category you choose a theme for yourself you would you work towards four images the big competition have a limit to how many you can put in for the tops but the online competitions you paper entry you can paint anywhere from fifteen dollars to thirty dollars you've got to get the prince dun and you also win status so every time you win an award in new zealand or australia to get points and as you accumulate points over three four five years you become an associate photographer to an a a national body of professional photographers you become a master photographer you become a fellow you become a grand master and that takes years and you work towards a title so I'm a double master triple master and the injured I pee pee in new zealand I'm a master in australia and that might mean nothing to my clients or nothing to you but I can carry the title of interred I peopie iike peopie international master on my website that's the status that I've earned over the last ten years and you know whether that's public masturbation or no it's you get noticed in your industry, you win big prizes, who went awards, you can get more commercial connections, and, you know, you get noticed and it's. How I got noticed, where is lara was book covers. Deviant at self portrait chairman was awards. And you know, I have about twenty beautiful big crystal trophies from three different countries on my house, and they just dust collectors. But they are each very significant of a time where I worked very hard, creatively, to grow myself and challenge myself is another's.