A Weekend Away in Mount Tamborine: Exploring Queensland with Brisbane Commercial Photographers
The Must-See Highlights on a Weekend Away in Mount Tamborine
Exploring Queensland’s Mount Tamborine with Brisbane Commercial Photographers, LP Commercial Photography
With restrictions slowly lifting in Queensland, now’s the perfect time to plan a relaxing weekend away! My partner and I love exploring Australia, staying at homely Airbnb’s and exploring the nearby attractions, sampling the local food & drinks and immersing ourselves in the experience.
We recently travelled to Mount Tamborine for a long weekend away for my Birthday, staying at a gorgeous Chalet on the Gallery Walk on the top of the mountain. From the moment we walked into “Rest a While” we were greeted by the sound of birds, the fresh mountain air, forests surrounding the area and a gorgeous chalet amongst nature. Entering the space, we immediately felt at home…. with a gorgeous fire, gowns, everything we’d need in the kitchen and a lovely handwritten note from our hosts Narelle and Denise. See some of the little details of our stay below.
You can see more about the airbnb on their fb page HERE
What to see in Mount Tamborine
We ventured out and explored the Gallery Walk, visiting a number of businesses. We went to Fortitude Brewing and tried a tasting paddle and their delicious sweet potato wedges, tried the famous home made pies at Mt Tamborine Winery, did a tasting at Tamborine Mountain Distillery walking away with a lovely bottle of Wild Forest Plum Liqueur and finished the afternoon by the fire at our airbnb.
The next day we explored the wineries all within 5-10 mins from the Gallery Walk, Cedar Creek Estate Winery (also where the Glow Worm Caves are which are great to see), Witches Falls Winery doing a lovely tasting in the winery and enjoying the morning sun, and then having an afternoon lunch at The Polish Place with views to die for! After rebuilding after a fire, this business has created a spot you can’t miss with views over the mountain watching the hang gliders jump off the cliff and fly into the valley.
Some other great activities are the rainforest and waterfall walks, we loved Curtis Falls for a nice easy walk with gorgeous views. We also played a round of golf at the gorgeous Mount Tamborine Golf Course which was absolutely gorgeous with its views and fresh air.
We hope this gives you some ideas for your travels and enjoy being able to explore more of our wonderful country now that restrictions are easing.
Brisbane Commercial Photography | Brisbane Corporate Photography | Brisbane Social Media Photography | Monthly Photography Subscriptions | Travel Photography
www.lpcommercial.photography
The Art of Studio Photography: Brisbane Branding, Commercial, Lifestyle, Fitness & Portrait Photographers
The studio can be the most elegant of backdrops; beautifully crafted light, seamless backdrops, with you, the photographer, in full control. However, it can also be a very difficult space to work with if you don’t think outside the box and know your lighting….
In studio is where perfection is created. It’s the place where the photographer has complete control over everything from the content of the image to how it’s lit. It is where the photographer is no longer at the whim of nature and the sun (or lack of it) but can create any style of light required for an image from wonderful soft sunlight to the harsh contrast of the spotlight… as long as they know what they are doing.
To a photographer that hasn’t studied their lighting, a studio session can prove difficult producing unpleasant results of overlit, brightly glaring shots or maybe deep shadows and darkness.
While we love and thrive on the challenges of location shooting, using a mix of ambient and flash lighting and strange and beautiful locations, we love taking complete control over our photoshoots and working in the studio.
It’s here we can take the time to craft and create exactly the right kind of light for each photoshoot. It’s where you can think outside the box and use different backdrops and props to create your own interesting scene that perfectly compliment your subject rather than having to accept what nature gives you on location.
Across our portrait and commercial brands, we do a lot of photoshoots in studio for health, fitness, couples, commercial portraits, lifestyle imagery and products. We wanted to take you through some of the incredible results we can achieve with your imagery within the constraints of the studio.
Whether we’re photographing branding imagery or personal imagery, we love to create something unique! Coloured backgrounds, white or black backgrounds, smoke machines, water, props…. We love to make it fun for our clients and the images speak for themselves.
We have a number of Brisbane Studio Photography days ready to be booked! Book your session, a 30 minute express or 60 minute photoshoot for your commercial, corporate, lifestyle, fitness, boudoir or personal imagery. Book your session below!
See some examples of some different styles of studio photography below:
Brisbane Commercial Portraits & Branding Photography
Brisbane Fitness, Health & Boudoir Photography
Brisbane Product Photography
2020 BRISBANE STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY SESSIONS: FITNESS PHOTOGRAPHY, COMMERCIAL PORTRAITS, BRANDING IMAGERY, FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY
Brisbane Commercial Photography | Brisbane Fitness Photography | Brisbane Portrait Photography.
Southern Down's Tenterfield has a New Gem, a German Heritage Cafe & Event Location, Rosenhof Cafe: Brisbane Commercial Photography
Southern Down's Tenterfield has a new gem, a German Heritage Cafe & Event Location, Rosenhof Cafe
After spending a lot of time in the beautiful township of Tenterfield (my partner works here 5 days a week), I have started a little personal project recognising and photographing the small businesses and passionate locals of the township. I love the finer details, the stories behind their existance, the love behind their passion and I LOVE documenting this through imagery to tell a story.
I have been eagerly awaiting the opening of Rosenhof after seeing it in the making on my cold morning walks while I was in Tenterfield visiting my partner. I connected with the owners, Kirsten and Christian, to see if I could pop in to pay them a visit and experience the beauty and charm of this 161 year old building.
Hear the beautiful story sourced from Kirsten & Chrisitian Uhrig themselves below:
“The three-year long refurbishment project of Kirsten and Christian Uhrig has seen the heritage-listed building and garden be brought back to life, providing Tenterfield with a unique place to find traditional, homemade food in an inspiring surrounding.
Fully licensed, the Rosenhof makes all breads, cakes, ice creams, jams, and cookies in-house and champions local providers where possible.
Christian says the Rosenhof’s hearty European-style menu has a wide appeal and not everything is wrapped in sauerkraut.
“The Cafe was born from a vision to establish a place where people could find home-grown, homemade and still reasonably priced food in a stylish yet comfortable setting. There’s a strong focus on inhouse made bread varieties, rolls, cakes, tortes, ice creams and for the savoury lovers we offer a variety of German-style sausages, meat dishes, cheese and many, many accompaniments as well as German beers and wine, of course! Every day we do a Dish of the Day for lunch, for those who want to be surprised.”
“It’s been wonderful to have already welcomed locals, families, motor bike tourists and road trippers from near and far. The German influence is as much in the menu as it is in the standard of service, the surrounds and the hearty fare we offer.”
“For us in Europe, mealtimes are when we come together as friends and family to enjoy, to take pleasure in good food and good company, and sometimes even to indulge! We wanted to replicate this, and we aspire to make food that’ll introduce you to what our German grandmothers used to make fifty years ago.”
The Rosenhof, which translates into ‘rose yard’, is situated on two hectares and features 400 rose bushes and 225 heritage varieties of fruit and nut trees. The market garden, raspberries, black and red currants, herb gardens all provide ingredients to be used in the kitchen. Fresh cut flowers from the garden designed by award-winning designer Carolyn Robinson, adorn modest wooden tables in the restaurant.
“Away from the Highway where it’s quiet, the garden is the perfect place to relax and rejuvenate. There are 100-year old natives as well as all the trees we’ve planted and have nurtured through the drought.”
Inside, the revamped building is tastefully appointed with an eye to its historic significance.
“It took over three years to restore a dilapidated building and we had to gut it out before we could bring it back to life. Restoring the floors, windows, walls, the exterior, basically everything including plumbing and electrical and all of that without destroying its heritage, which was very important to us. The homestead was established in 1858 as a farm at first, before becoming Tenterfield’s first bank. It was home to NSW’s first premier and Australia’s first surviving quintuplets lived here too from the 1960s. As the Rosenhof German Heritage Cafe, it’s now open to the public for the first time.”
And if that’s not enough to pique your interest, how about a hot air balloon over Tenterfield? Named ‘Rosalinde’, the balloon is operated privately by the Rosenhof Team, representing Tenterfield and the property far to distant horizons.
“A ride aloft Rosalinde has thrilled a lot of locals, guests and friends. Having birds-eye-view of Tenterfield and experiencing the land from above is a truly special experience. It’s a great ambassador for Tenterfield and the project.”
The Rosenhof German Heritage Cafe is initially opening four days a week for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and savoury food all day. It is available for special events and dinners by appointment.
For more information, please contact Christian Uhrig at christian@rosenhof.com.au or 0439640512.”
Enjoying a Day of Beers at the GABS Festival Brisbane: Brisbane Food & Drink Photography
Being a huge craft beer lover with my partner Corey, we couldn’t resist attending the GABS (Great Australian Beer Spectacular) Festival on Saturday held at South Bank’s Exhibition Centre.
We have been lucky enough in the past to have Corey’s uncle Cary, an amateur brewing champion, educate us on the brew process, join him for brew days and learn more about the brewery process. So being able to attend this event was a lot of fun with the knowledge of the different styles of beers and tastes. We tasted about 50 different beers from the an amazing selection from across Australia and New Zealand and were blown away by some of the unique creations for the festival.
We even got to stop by some of our favourite brewery stalls along the way!
Being a Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne food and drink photographer, we love being able to attend some events as a customer haha
See some of the fun of the day below.
Em
Brisbane Food & Drink Photography | Brisbane Event Photography | Brisbane Corporate Photography
Refreshing the photographic creative juices
REFRESHING THE PHOTOGRAPHIC CREATIVE JUICES
Gosh its been a busy start to the year. Our busiest January ever followed on from our busiest December, and don’t even ask me what happened to February, I blinked and suddenly found myself striding into March.
I love it when we are busy and the shoots are stacking up and we are running from one job to the next. It’s exciting, it’s varied and it’s everything I love about the job.
But every now and then you have to stop and take stock, and in those quiet moments I love to pick up my camera and go shoot… I know that sounds backwards…. surely that’s when you take a rest from the camera, but for me one of the best ways to rest is to go shoot….. but shoot for myself and not for anyone else. Where you only ned to care that you like the images and don’t need to think about anyone else in your creative process.
There is a big difference between working photography and personal photography and no matter how busy you get you sometimes have to make time just to go out and have fun with your cameras.
On a job you don’t often have the luxury of time, but an important part of good photography is just taking your time… sitting and watching the world go by. Getting into rhythm around you and then moving through it looking for your images. Sometimes you just have to take your time. If you don’t you run the risk of reaching that point when your brain goes into work mode every-time you reach for your cameras. Too often that means you stop actually opening your eyes and mind to all the images around you and you just focus on the ones that clients need, and that is the start of the downfall of your own creativity.
One of the things I love to do to keep myself sharp is a “one-on-one” challenge…. In my work I have a myriad of camera bodies, lenses, lighting gear and so on that help me meet any challenge a client can throw at me and deliver the images they want…. but in a one-on-one challenge I strip it all back to one camera body with one prime lens…. one focal length, no zooms, no flash, nothing. It strips you right back to basics and makes you start to think about your shots a lot more.
So this morning was my first day in weeks where I had nothing to do for anybody else. It was wet and a bit miserable but what they hey. Leaving my car I jumped on a bus and travelled into Brisbane CBD. I love taking the bus or train when I do this kind of thing. That dead time in the journey gives me a chance to just gaze out the window and wipe my mind of everything and just let my eyes wander and properly look at the world as I go by. Something you just can’t do when you drive.
So I spent the day with my little Canon EOS M5 mirrorless camera with the wonderfully sharp and punchy 22mm f2 pancake lens (35mm full frame equivalent). When I first started in photography the 35mm was my go to lens and I would hardly ever take it off my old Canon AE1. These days I hardly ever use one so for me it was a nice step back in time as well as a good part of the challenge. Then with no plan I just wandered round the town going wherever my feet took me with no plan. Below are some of my favourites and it was only once I loaded up the images on my computer that I realised that today’s theme seemed to be mostly reflections… maybe because the rainy day put me in such a reflective mood today, who knows LOL.
No matter what you do for a living, no matter how much you love what you do…. every now and then just remember to take the time to recharge the creative batteries, find some breathing space and isn so doing keep that passion for what you do alive.
Andy
A WEEKEND CELEBRATING THE BEST IN AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL RADIO
The Faces of Radio - Recap of the Australian Commercial Radio Awards Conference Radio Alive and the Commercial Radio Awards for 2018.
The Faces of Radio - Recap of the Commercial Radio Australia’s conference, Radio Alive and the Commercial Radio Awards for 2018.
October is an interesting month. For my son it’s all about creating weird fancy dress costumes and getting ready for a ridiculous amount of lollies on Halloween, for some of my friends it’s about bratwurst, schnitzels and too much German beer at Oktoberfest (I’m not mentioning names but you know who you are J). Here at Life Portraits and LP Commercial Photography it’s about prepping for one of our largest event gigs of the year, two days of fast paced, shutter clicking celebrations at the Commercial Radio Conference Radio Alive and the star-studded Australian Commercial Radio Awards.
Photographically what do the ACRAS mean for us? A four person team, nearly 1000 press images processed, captioned, uploaded and delivered to the media as the events are taking place, roughly another 3,000 images processed and delivered electronically to the client for distribution to attendees, sponsors etc within 24 hours of the event closing.
Event photography isn’t for everyone. Many underestimate what the job entails. It’s not just a case of snapping a few socials then getting a couple of speakers on a stage. Your images have to capture a mood and feeling of the event. You are constantly looking for moments to capture, unscripted as well as scripted, and shooting multiple styles of images for the many audiences a larger event attracts:
There are the fun and interesting shots for attendees to share with their friends and colleagues on social media. Good shots of the speakers and participants that can be gifted to them to use in their profiles and portfolios and online marketing. Images that the client and event organisers can use to market the event to future attendees. Sponsor shots to show that their decision to back the event or have a trade stand there was money well spent and to help the organisers to market to sponsors in future years. And then there are the press shots. Images which have to satisfy both the various local, national and international print and online news hounds while at the same time projecting the image of the event demanded by the client’s public relations specialists.
On larger events there are also the technical difficulties of shooting in multiple and often complicated lighting conditions from natural light to complicate stage lighting, from near darkness to full studio conditions and often jumping between them all at a seconds notice.
And lastly, there is the issue of how long you have to turn the images round. If there is media interest then images have to be online minutes after being taken. If press photographers are at the event it is our responsibility to make sure that our pictures hit the newsdesks before other freelance media photographers to give a better chance of the client’s images being used.
Not all events demand all of these things. Many conferences and awards ceremonies are much more about internal distribution of images inside companies or offerings to specialist media with longer lead times of up to a month.
But the Commercial Radio Australia weekend demands it all and while it is a tough weekend, we love it!!!
For me, a former daily press photographer, events like the Radio Alive conference and the ACRAS bring back that adrenaline rush of media work. There is nowhere to hide, your images have to be right first time and there is no re-staging a shot. You either capture the moment or you don’t and all too often not capturing that moment is simply not an option. That pressure drives you to succeed, and that is a brilliant rush.
Commercial Radio Australia is also a dream client to work with. They are loyal to their suppliers which has seen us working on the awards for a number of years now. They were my client a good few years before Emily and I joined forces and created the LP brand. Yes they demand a high level of quality and responsiveness but their team works harder than any of their suppliers to deliver one of Australia’s biggest star-studded awards ceremonies. It is only right that they expect and demand the best from us. That drive in their team also means we know at all times what is expected from us which actually makes delivery easier.
The job itself is actually too big for Emily and I to handle alone. But this is where our policy of working cooperatively with other photographers comes in and allows us to tackle jobs of all sizes. We have a group of people we can call on to work under our brand to help us on large or interstate projects and we in turn return the favour and work under their brand whenever they need.
In this instance we are lucky enough to have two great friends and great photographers join our team, Dan Gray and Simon Harrington, both of whom are highly experienced photographers with years of running their own businesses and delivering for clients.
This in turn has a fantastic impact for the client as it means every person on our team is highly experienced…. At this year’s ACRAS we had nearly 70 years of combined skills and knowledge in photography and event coverage in play. We don’t fill our numbers by bringing in in-experienced trainees and students we simply put in place the best team we can for each and every event.
So how did we organise this year’s coverage?
Thursday: Dan, Emily and I flew into Melbourne and spent the evening checking gear, ensuring batteries were charged and cameras were time synced and lightroom galleries and captioning were prepared.
Friday 7am: Arrive at the Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre and we are off, day one, Radio Alive 2018.
Conference day was fast paced but fairly straight forward. Dan and I were on cameras, Emily was stationed in the press room on the laptop processing, captioning and uploading images for the media. Dan and I would regularly swap out of the different conference rooms so at least one of us was always shooting and the other was feeding cards of images back to Emily.
Emily had the absolutely crucial job of being the lynchpin of our operation during the conference and while we tease her about being a bossy boots the reality is her amazingly organised and direct way of working is always a god send in these situations.
She was the only one seeing all our images so as well as processing our images to make them consistent, selecting the best ones to meet the media and client needs, captioning them and uploading them, she would feed us instructions throughout the day. “We need more candids during networking times”, “we have enough audience shots now concentrate on the speakers”, “highlights are blowing out a little under that stage lighting knock your exposure back a fraction”, “we’ve had a specific request for a shot of….”, and so it went and all the time she would be processing and captioning and uploading hundreds of images during the day.
This constant flow of feedback then allowed Dan and I to fully concentrate on the moments in the conference rooms and networking areas and keep our eyes peeled for those magic moments.
At 6.30pm we were cameras down and ready to enjoy a couple of after event drinks happy that a good job had been done.
Saturday morning Simon flew in from Sydney and after a leisurely morning we started to get ready, kit cleaned and prepped, batteries fully charged, images from the previous day backed up and secure, cards cleared and formatted, seven cameras time synced and a pre-event meeting to discuss responsibilities and shooting tactics and we walk ourselves through the evening that is coming, the big one, the Australian Commercial Radio awards.
We arrive at 3pm, two hours to go before the red carpet opens. Dan and Emily set up studio lights around the winners wall to ensure crisp well lit images of all 90 or so award winners as they come off stage. Simon starts taking room set up pictures and images for sponsors etc. I start getting ready for the VIP red carpet images and be on standby should any of the celebrities arrive early so we can get going on the red carpet as fast as possible.
The event kicks off at 5pm. Emily and I are up first. I shoot the red carpet and organise the press photographers as we capture images of the radio stars and their partners, tight shots, face shots, full length gown shots, the works. Most arrive late and at 6pm there is a massive rush to get everything done while I constantly pass images to Emily for her to process, caption and get online for the media.
6pm the event is already underway. Simon is up and working like a trojan capturing the crowds entering and the first performer on stage while I wrap up on the red carpet. 6.15pm and the red carpet is finished. I abandon Emily to the uploads and processing while I head into the main room to cover the stage and crowd for the rest of the night with Simon.
6.30pm Emily has finished processing and uploading around 100 red carpet pictures and is already with Dan at the studio award wall set-up as the first of the award winners are already coming out with their ACRA microphone statue, proudly smiling at their win.
The night disappears in a blur. As Emily and Dan work solidly through the night in a rhythm of winners, images, processing, uploading. Simon and I cover inside as the performers sing their hearts out, Andrew Hansen & Chris Taylor from The Chaser entertain (and roast) the crowd as hosts and some of Australia’s best comedians and radio stars and experts present and receive their awards. Simon and I continually shoot, and he covers me when I put cameras down every now and then to grab the laptop I’ve stashed at the back of the room to offload cards and process and upload suitable media pictures from all the action on stage, adding to Emily’s press pictures from the VIP Red Carpet and Award Wall.
Despite a full night, 90 awards, three on stage bands and interludes, the amazing team at Commercial Radio Australia finish the event bang on time and by 11pm we are all in the media room wrapping up. I’m putting the last of the inside images online in our press galleries. Emily has amazingly finished getting every award winner picture captioned and online and the press are already picking them up with our images being used by online media that night. Dan is breaking down the equipment and studio and Simon is popping in and out snapping the last of the socials as the final people head to the after-show parties.
We head back to the hotel apartment, order pizzas and swap war stories from the evening in that wonderful post event, fatigue ridden, warm glow in a wonderful moment of camaraderie… then realise we forgot one important thing…. to stock the fridge with beer that morning… Note for next year.
The next day (Sunday) Dan and Simon sleep-in, their ACRA weekend has come to an end and they will return to Sydney at a leisurely pace after relaxing in Melbourne. Emily and I are up and away flying back to Brisbane and by 11am I’m home with 10,000 images to sort through, cull, edit and upload to the client by 9am Monday morning.
I get everything underway and thankfully Emily managed to find time during the conference to process most of those pictures or at least set up editing presets which I can now just copy. That alone saves me a couple of hours. But then disaster strikes, a Brisbane thunderstorm knocks out power and my NBN line keeps failing. I keep working on the laptop until the battery fails. I’ve already phoned round friends to find somewhere I can move my editing suite to if I don’t get power back on but thankfully it’s not required in the end as the power cut only lasts a few hours. By 3am Monday morning the images are sorted, processed and uploading begins. Later that day we send all the images on a hard drive to the client as a second back up to the digital uploads.
In return the client sends us a lovely email and a list of all the national and regional newspapers, magazines and online news outlets that have already downloaded and used our images.
…and with that the ACRAS And Radio Alive are over for another year and we are already starting to look forward to 2019.
ANDY
LP Commercial Photography cover events of all sizes from large awards, conferences and exhibitions to media launches, customer hosting events, office functions and parties. If you would like further information just contact Andy or Emily at info@lpcommercial.photography
Brisbane Commercial Photography - Brisbane Event Photography, Australian Event Photography, Brisbane Corporate Photography, Radio, Commercial Radio Australia, Australian Commercial Radio, Awards ACRAs,
www.lpcommercial.photography