The Waterford County Campaign

You may have seen the stills from the Television Commercial for Waterford County.It was a campaign put together by The Little Green Frog marketing company. Jamie and his staff did a great job pulling this all together.It takes a great deal of organisation with lots of important factors to consider in a shoot like this.There is portraying the clients wishes,the creative aspects, talent scouting,the locations,catering etc etc.We also were working with children and animals....that can be tough. This dog was so excited ( he's young and active) at having the big drive to the bush and all those smells, he was growling and barking at me on first meeting...."Shesh...I gotta lay on the ground in front of this guy" I was thinking.I do both film and illustration work for the Little Green Frog and always enjoy these creative vibrant young guns.I have even earned a staff profile ....although a little "out there" it does involve my portrait holding a camera.


Here you can see the art director Katie (left) and Jo Nelson hair and makeup artist seducing the dog with animal treats in hand and the packet up on the sticks well as lots of woos,yays,whistles and here boys !!!Prue the marketing co coordinator for the little Green Frog was keeping her watchful eye on the details and Matt was animal wrangler and the man that takes the images to web and print.was keeping an on on the details of the shoot Matt ....the aim is to get this little critter to look up installed of sniffing out all the rabbits,cats,possums etc...well done ,you two helped me get that shot.That's me as usual laying in the grass.I'm shooting this with a Nikon D300 and a 17-50 2.8 lens.I shoot everything on RAW.Luminous Landscape has some good stuff to say on this topic.

Please excuse the quality of some of these images they are re-photographed from the Brochure and are very low res.The Waterford County website has larger images.

The Waterford County shoot.

Here are a few of the other images from the Waterford County brochure used as part of the campaign.campaign


No we didn't get to eat the sausages...they were smelling very good though.


This little family was fantastic,
..we had a great time shooting the walk to school scene.Taking time with the kids in the shoot definitely pays off.Its a delicate balance to have them animated but not too hyped.This scene was shot in bursts about 10 times or so...this shot came from asking him to march to some music...all were laughing at him hence the genuine smiles..

Kate and Chad were great to work with.Kate used to work at the Little Green Frog marketing think tank , you may know her great face from the Kooee TV adds.

Shot with Nikon D300, lenses uses 17-50 2.8,24-70 2.8, 80-200 2.8 , I shoot raw.

Waterford County Shoot

One thing that was great about the Waterford County shoot was the credibility aspect.I shot the images ( like the horses above) on the actual land that is being developed. Her you can see me on the phone to the crew waiting on top of the ladder for the horses....The point being , POV ( point of view) to shoot from up here hopefully has the image viewer on another horse.

Horses freak me out, so not only did I need to let them walk over me to get some low angle shots (yikes !! I could smell their grassy breath) but I thought Id try to drive one of these mid-sized little chums...YEP !! they can smell your fear,

Waterford County Shoot...fishing shoot

I always like to allow plenty of time to set up prior to the talent call.Just in case we cant get access, something wont work etc..
Here Jamie from The Little green Frog marketing are launching the boat for the fishing shoot.Yes you MUST get permission to do things like this...there is usually a venue rental cost involved.Make sure you have public liability insurance and workers comp where applicable.It will never happen to me is not the attitude to have.

A little tai chi the stay can work for the photographer....and nervous talent.

aterford County

Waterford County Cycling Shoot

This was to produce an image for Waterford County that depicts a family cycling and having fun together.Its important to provide an interesting POV (point of view) The Little Green Frog marketing company provided a story board for the images they required.Of course its the photographers responsibility to provide excellent exposures for the graphic artist and if at all possible, time permitting some additional images from a different pov.

The look for the series of shoots was a natural look.Time of day was important.

Make sure your equipment works BEFORE the talent arrives and have back ups and spares

I like to keep the talent in the loop , take time with the children, the results are worth it.
As you can see there is a great deal of effort by lots of people to create a successful and appealing campaign. The images the, the website , the icon of the dragonfly ,the jingle there are many facets.....This certainly is a team sport.

My thanks the Waterford County and the Little Green Frog marketing think tank...A great and it was lots of fun.

Officeworks Staff Portrait & In Store Images

I was commissioned to shoot a staff portrait of the manager of Officeworks and some images of a child showcasing the new kid-sized office cart. I really like this kind of work because for a start its about people and portraits, besides there are always challenges, with time,space ,equipment and at times personalities.The Melbourne head office the style sheet and other image instructions.
I was to met Robert,the manage and set up a studio somewhere in store where I was to make several images of Robert on a pure white background. Well I finally set up the backdrop clamped to the shelves near the loading dock.

I'm using 2 mono bloc 500w with barn doors to control the spill and bounce and for the Main light the 500w strobe is firing through a medium soft box with a silver reflector as fill on the right side.Its really important to have the right gear on board as you never know what you will encounter at the venue.SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY you must have Public Liability insurance ( $10,000.000 is minimum) sand bag the light stands,rope of the area,tape down the leads if there is the chance of a trip and observe all the clients safety instructions IE fluro vests,footwear etc.

As usual a brand new power board I plugged in didn't work,so I had to source another from way up the front of the store...BACK UPS BACK UPS BACK UPS....really the name of the game

So I set up the studio and to get the exposure right I need the background strobes to read between 1.3-1.7 stops brighter than the main light on the subjects so that the white is blown out .The subject needs to be far enough away from the background so the we don't get flare and lose edge definition.

The way I do this is to make sure that the reading on the front of subjects facing the lens ( in this case F8) is about the same as the reading on the back of the head pointing towards the the background.Get it? If I have F8 at the front and he is too close to the background and I get a reading of f11 or f16 the edge of his face and hair are GONE !! If that happens the graphic artist will tell the boss NEVER hire you again.As you can see from the shot of my hand holding all the the right cards( graphic artists LOVE me) there is a clean edge on my hand and the colours are all defined...in spite of the very low res off the web.

You can use the histogram on the camera to balance strobes but that is slow I use a light meter. Remember don't rely on the image in the screen of the digital SLR, the manufacturers are know the "trick" up that image so all your shots look good.Always use the histogram.Digital images do not like to be overexposed so keep an eye on the right end of the scale.

If you shoot your hand like this BEFORE the talent arrives you have a pretty good chance that your exposures will be close.As it was I needed to adjust the height of the Key (main) strobe as Robert was taller than Id judged.Get the set up finished asap then the most important thing is APPROPRIATE dialogue to have your subject be at ease.Many people are shy and in the corporate world its not been their choice to have the portrait made.

Where is the child for the photograph in store?

Oh, we don't have one....we didn't get the releases in time.

Rather than letting this shoot go,I decided to find my own talent within the the shopping centre.

Which I did ...I found this perfect little boy whose dad was pleased to be part of it.I'm very experienced shooting kids, so engaging him was a snap.

I was able to send these images away to the delight of head office because they were not expecting to have the images of the child and the shopping cart. I got a signed release from the dad and gave office works permission to use his image.

Going that extra mile for the client really pays off, the PR company that rang me in the first place was real grateful that I gave them all the images they need within 24 hours..

These images were exactly what the client wanted ,I followed their style sheet to the letter.If you want to be a FULL TIME professional photographer you need to be able to produce the results and re-produce the results....

By the way I always shoot RAW files....

Carnival Shoot-ric woods photography studio carrington

Tuesday the neighbourhood was invaded by
the FLURO clan.Much to the delight of the neighbours
as filed into the studio...



The idea of doing the proposed "Funeral on the Beach"
shoot was canned due to the rain.So an inpromptu
studio shoot was to follow..



Mt son was "lucky" enough to walk in towards the end on
his way home from work...instant fame

CONCRATULATIONS to the talent, you did

fantastic with the costumes.AMAZING what

a pair of shears can do to a set of tights..

I plan to do a shoot every fortnight.

The theme of the next shoot will be

"FILM NOIR" ( take the jump and check the google images)

It will be in the back streets of Newcastle.

Im casting for men and women now.

Those interested organise that baby sitter

for a couple of weeks away ( usually a week night)

drop me an email and

snapshot of your outfit to

enquiries@ricwoods.com.

Test drive Marees Costume for Beach shoot

I did a shoot the other day with Maree to see how her costume came up in camera.The shoot will be on the beach with 6-7 subjects at sunset.The theme? Well its a funeral, carnival, sideshow or circus troop...possibly the passing over of LULU the bearded lady or the Wilhelm, the sword swallower.....not sure yet...Maybe it was the Sabu the elephant.

In this shot Maree is lit by a 500w strobe on a boom through a grided beauty dish.Also edge lit by 2 500w grided spots for background seperation.Camera is D300 shooting RAW with pocket wizards to fire the strobes.

As you can see from my shirt, it was an energetic shoot...to say the least.Watch for images after the 7th April....ric