Gravity Optional - Kinetic Art | Wellington Performance Photographer

Wellington Performance Photographer

I first noticed the group Kinetic Art when they performed in the Zombie dance off in Monster Burlesque.  I turned to Craig and said "these guys are amazing!"  And would you know it the next week they had called me and wanted me to do a series that showed off their tricks.   Brilliant!  Oh my goodness did we have fun on this shoot.  Perfect weather...low tide, cloudy day, amazing moves, and a funny as heck group of guys.   If you have an event or promotion coming up and want to inject some serious energy into it then I would definitely suggest you bring these guys into play. Brilliant.  Check them out at Kinetic Art.  This was a great opportunity for me to see what they can do.  Now I just need to figure out what I am going to have them do next (she says rubbing her hands together and raising her eyebrows in a joyful way).

Chrisna the Artist | Wellington Portrait Photographer

Gorgeous Chrisna had her beautiful baby three month ago.  She has been completely relishing her role as a new mother but was feeling slightly disconnected from herself as a woman and artist.  So she decided to come in and be pampered and reminded of what an amazing woman she was.  We wove flowers and ivy in her hair, did her makeup, played music for her, brought her tea, and reminded her she could dance and swing...we twirled because twirling is good for the soul.   At the end of the shoot her gorgeous son was brought in and we got this beautiful photo with Chrisna looking as beautiful and radiant as her boy.   Now that is what I am talking about!  

Win a Sugar Skull Photoshoot on Halloween

Win a Sugar Skull Photoshoot on Halloween!

My son is half Mexican and when he was in year one at school we held a big Dios de Los Muertos Party and invited all of the children in his new class....not surprisingly no one came from his school , and we got the reputation for being an odd, slightly scary weird family....oops.
We later discovered that the area we had moved into was very Christian and thought it was some sort of devil worshiping of party....Lets just say it took a little while for Sam to find his feet in making friends there.
All of our friends who knew we were not devil worshipers did come as well as TV3 to film the whole thing showing how Dios de los Muertos is actually a very spiritual party, we had our alter and our friends and family brought images of their loved ones who had died and gifts for them...their favourite chocolates, a pack of smokes you name it.
The kids were entertained with my American side Halloween antics and my ghoulishly decorated garage, bobbing for apples and witches brew punch and drinks.  It was a messy blending of cultures and it still intrigues me that the origins of Halloween and Dios de Los Muertos stem from the perception that at this particular time of the year October 31st for the Celts and 1 November for the Latinos was a window between our world and the world of spirits was thinner....Intriguing really.

When I was in the states last year I came across a photography book by a group called 666 Photography and I fell in love with their Dios De Los Muertos photography and wanted to have a chance to do something as exquisite.

Amandine has been working on some designs for sugar skull painting and we wanted to find some  ladies that would like to win the opportunity to have a mini art session with us.  You will need to own a corset for this then you need to do the following:

How to Win

Email your name, any photo you have of yourself and a compelling reason why you should win to artists@lamode.co.nz .  We will post all of the entries into a Facebook gallery and the one that gets the most "likes" by the 29th of October will win the shoot.  The two winning ladies will need to be available ideally during the day for 3 hours on Halloween for the makeup and photoshoot.  We will then be posting the results on our blog on Dios de Los Muertos.  Looking forward to seeing you!   We are gonna have a blast!
Cheers,
Mandi

Glam Grans | Wellington Portrait Photographer

We have noticed a wonderful trend lately of women who have passed into the Nana sisterhood coming in to have their portraits done.  I am loving it.  There is a different sort of body confidence and just flat out comfort in their own skin that I see in these ladies and am seriously enjoying the shoots!

Holy Harper | One minute with my niece

I am up in Rotorua visiting my beautiful wee niece Harper Buchannan.  Now I know I am ridiculously biased but isn't this just the cutest little moppet!!!  Loving her so much.  This photo shoot took place at about 7 in the morning she was sitting on her dads lap and I was carrying on a conversation with her....Oh my goodness there are so many levels of cute here I just want to squeeze her!  Why do we always want to squeeze cute things?  This series took aproximately 1 minute to shoot....ahhh if they could all be this easy :).  Helps I suppost that she spent the first two months of her life alternately waking up in mine or her parents bed.  I miss her so much!!!!!

Oh Baby Magazine | Wellington Editorial Photography

Look out for this months OH Baby Magazine and check out "A Very Important Date" our latest editorial spread featuring the beautiful dresses of Return to Eden.

This is the section....Pretty eh?

Thread Homepage | Frock stars

Our reVamp Party made the front page of Thread.  Very exciting check our the whole story here

Model For a Day | The Gorgeous Kelley

Just a little teaser from today's shoot.  Kelley works for Kiwi bank and decided she wanted to get some beautiful portraits of herself just for herself.  She was so much fun.  We even got some beach time in between the rain clouds.  Lovely day with such a bubbly gorgeous lady.

Lucy Lou Leg wear | Wellington Commercial Photographer

Lucy Lou was created by Nicky.....both the daughter and the tights brand.  She is a ball of fire and full of heaps of amazing ideas.  Emma the ballerina is my partners beautiful daughter who simply came along for a preliminary shoot...she wanted to see what it was about and got recruited for her beautiful legs...for the tights  oh my goodness the tights....and the coolest part is what Nicky has planned....I can't tell you yet but soon I will be able to.   Anyway here is a sneak peak at some of their beautiful range....Oh my goodness are we planning the coolest photoshoot soon!  I just can't wait!!!!

Wellington Beginners Photography Course

Have just put up a new date for a November morning class, for those that would like to get their heads around their cameras before the holidays begin. Cheers, Mandi

Online Ticketing for Beginner Photography Field trip powered by Eventbrite

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art and Women in Film

Thank you to the gorgeous Sue Bryce for pointing out these two amazing videos by Philip Scott Johnson 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art & Women in Film.

Zuzu | Wellington Portrait Photographer

Meet Zuzana.  I met Zuzana about 2 years ago on my very first fashion shoot with Cathy Davy's.  Zuzu was working as a masseus in Cathy's Salon and was drafted into being a hair model for Cathy's portfolio that year.  I loved her eyes and her gentle way of being so after that shoot I asked if I could borrow her for another one.  A couple of years passed and recently I got a call from her asking her to help her celebrate a landmark birthday for her by capturing her at this stage in her life.  Together we planned the perfect photoshoot for Zuzu and then threw in a bit of randomness just for fun.  Zuzu wanted Bridget Bordeau meets  Kate Moss, meets a french cafe and a preRaphelite painting.   Here is a wee taste of what we came up with. 

Beautiful Bridget | Wellington Pin Up Photography

Bridget came to visit after hearing about our studio during the Monster Burlesque show.  She has always been a fan of Burlesque although she is a mild mannered student of stage management at Toi Whakaari during the day she loves to attend all things Burlesque at night.  This interest obviously needed to be reflected in her photoshoot. and she chose a circus like theme with a bit of pin up thrown in for good measure.  Miss La Belle was helping me in the studio at the time and did the styling for this shoot with help from Bridget's stage manager friend Todd who secured the Garden Club for her for the ring portion of the shoot.  Such fun!  I absolutely loved this one.  What do you think?  Where would you go with your shoot if you were designing the perfect shoot for yourself?  What would you wear?  Where would you go?