Learning to shoot

Last week, I was invited to join one of New Zealand’s top fashion photographers, Stephen Tilley, at his studio in Grey Lynn for a one-on-one photography tutorial. Stephen was trying out the new Lumix SZ1 compact camera from Panasonic and wanted to show me the ropes. 

We were joined by model Rosie Herdman from Red11 models and I had the pleasure of snapping some portraits, as Stephen gave me some helpful hints to tweak my amateur talents.

Next, we were zipping around Auckland and dodging traffic in a Mini Countryman and made a stop at Western Springs Park to capture some scenery. Luckily, considering the rain over the past few months, the sky remained blue as Stephen showed me how to use the camera’s Panorama setting and we tried to capture some interesting light and shadow combinations.

We also had a play with extreme close ups, as we tried to snap at feathers and leaves blowing in the wind. A quick stop atop a six-story building to shoot some bird’s eye city scapes and then it was back to the studio to look at our handywork. I was quite pleased with my pics and thrilled that I got to experience an interesting insight into the day in the life of a busy professional photographer.