Kanoona Court in the Spring Open Garden Day Nov 2010

While there was a little cloud in the sky the rain held off. I had a wedding on Saturday but managed to get down to Kanoon Court Bed and Breakfast briefly on Sunday and also had the priviledge of returning on Monday to take some more promotional shots for Jenny and Phil the owners of this beautiful property. The Open Garden was enhanced with lots of local artists working in the garden and Jenny Collins playing Violin to provide an amazing atmosphere for visitors to relax and enjoy!

My Jazzy (Aka Hooch)

Yep, she dribbles A LOT!

Such a cute smile, that comes so easily, when she was first born she was so cranky, cried for the first couple of hours and just had the grumpiest look on her face, now she is crawling, sitting up and just loves smiling. Now she is ultra cute!

I love bumps!

Baby bumps and toddlers! Thanks Nat for allowing me to share such a precious time. Newborn baby pics soon.

Sunny, snowy, Thredbo

What a great wedding in such a beautiful place. I really like quirky images that really show the personality of the couple.

Congratulations Rachel and Scott!

Exciting Projects underway.
Digital Wedding Fusion Albums
The first one is available on Youtube



My first go at embedding a video at Blogspot so if it doesn't work go to

Wei and Sanjay's Wedding

Relaxed winter wedding!

I was able to share a lovely winter wedding in Canberra this weekend where the high priority was family with many visitors from overseas including China, Fiji, New York and around Australia. A pretty mild day for Canberra and a fantastic view at Regatta Point.

A sneak peek can be found at http://michellearmour.jalbum.net/Sanjay-and-Wei

Taking photos of a child's birthday

This article was written for a blog all about Children's parties done ecologically!

Before the party, make sure the rechargeable batteries are ready, the cameras cards are empty and assign an additional one or two people to take lots of photos in case you get too busy.

What shots to take
The kinds of shots to get are guests arriving, group shots, cake shots, party games, kids just being kids, any and all human interactions, present opening, blowing out candles and don’t forget the small details of the day. Also watch the adults for their reactions. Kids love to see the images on the LCD, some will pull faces which can be fun and if you are not really well known to the kids it can be a great ice breaker. They will often try to out do each other.

Take along some bubbles for some fun images, use more depth of field to show the bubbles well or focus on a bubble and have the kids blurred in the background for an arty effect. Many little kids around 3 months to less than a year old respond well to peek-a-boo from behind the camera. Little kids in prams are a captive audience and if you get in close you sometimes can’t even tell they are in a pram!

Point of view
Changing your angle of view can make images more interesting, try to get down on the kids eye level for lots of the shots you take. Lay on the ground and look around, this can be a great angle with kids running near you. Get up high if there is a balcony or something to climb on safely, do anything you can to mix up your point of view; even standing on a chair can be good.

Technical tips
When taking photographs of a cake with candles alight raise your ISO and turn off the flash to capture the ambient light. When taking candids watching for the critical moment can be more effective than sports burst mode. Set your focus to follow the action as kids can move fast, sports mode can work for this.

Basic photography tips that always help
All the basics that can improve your photography still hold true. The best tips are to simplify your background. Get in close and fill the frame. For almost every portrait focus the camera on the eyes. Get to know the settings on your camera to get the most out of it and let the photojournalist in you come out to tell a story of the day with all the emotion and interaction you can get.

Most importantly remember to have fun and smile a lot!

I have been doing lots of shoots and have been too busy to blog, so more coming soon including couples shoots, surfers and babies.

A cut down version of my website

is available for people who have trouble viewing my main site. This might be due to slow internet or the use of java in the website. Let me know if this one is difficult to load and I will attempt to fix it.

http://www.maphoto.110mb.com/

Yay! Photoshop CS5

My CS5 finally arrived, all installed and it works so seemlessly with my PS Lightroom 2, I will save heaps of time processing now. It makes me want to go back and reprocess some of my past shoots! I have recently created a bunch of presets and I am loving the effects but I always seem to want to adjust them a little.
If you haven't had a look at what presets can do have a look at the tutorials on Marcus Bell's website.
href="http://au.photographersresources.com/tutorials">

A few of my favourite photos that don't have people in them!

A Morton Bay Fig Tree at Iandra Castle

Mumbulla Falls

We have some great models in our local area

Test shoots are a way for people who want some great images to see if they can find work as models by developing a portfolio. I thought I would share with you some images from a recent test shoot. We have lots of young women in the area that are able to model. We probably need some more guys!

Pelicans and Mogareeka

I have always been fascinated by Pelicans, such big clumsy birds that can be so very graceful gliding on water or flying through the air. It didn't hurt that one of my Pelican images won me a nice prize in a photographic competition about 12 years ago. That was back in the film days and I used a star filter to make the water really sparkle, must try that again soon!

Fun at the beach!

It was great to catch up with a young family at Pambula River Mouth this morning, it was a bit chilly and overcast but that didn't stop us chasing seagulls and playing on the slide. It was a very relaxed shoot with plenty of time for some fun!

Angel Themed Shoot

After the wild weather eased we headed out for an on location Angel shoot.

Some of my initial favourites (I tend to change my favs) More on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=368396963676#!/pages/Bega-Australia/Michelle-Armour-Photographer/368396963676

Ink This Body Art Studio

I spent some time at Ink This Body Art Studio today and got to learn a lot about tattoo's and the artists who create them. To see a small business in Pambula with three people working on Body Art is fantastic to see. It was such a great opportunity! My Thanks to Mo and Adam.

Some new images from my recent trip to Sydney

This is a link to my fb page which has lots of images from my recent trip to Sydney. My thanks to all my brides, hope you like the images!

My very first entry into my new blog.

I thought for the very first post I would share with you my current two favourite images. These change all the time and they appeal for different reasons. The first is taken under a wharf and it appeals because of the colour of the water, the expression and pose as well as the soft light.


The second one is a romantic image from a wedding on Aspen Island.