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Hiya. I’m Kris. If you are a photographer looking to challenge your approach and techniques, evolve your critical eye for image evaluation and critique, or grow your experience in using tools to edit and refine your work, it might be great to spend time with you, to help you develop your craft and bring out your own artistic authenticity and identity. I can help you to refine your planning, your shooting, and your editing, and help you draw that line to connect your vision with the final product.
What is in my brain
Commercially I specialise in photography for the Performing Arts – Performer headshots, dance, theatrical branding, live theatre production. I photograph on location and in-studio, often with studio lighting. I’m also driven to create personal projects around fine art illustrative work, usually storytelling images involving lots of photoshop composite work, as well as architecture and experimental photographic techniques.
I’m an experienced competition judge, having judged in Australia at State and National levels, in New Zealand for the NZIPP, in London for the SWPP, in Las Vegas for WPPI, as well as the Rise Awards and the Sony Alpha Awards. I’ve won 1st Place in categories at WPPI, SWPP, Asia-Pacific Photography Awards, Cosmos Awards, and Silver Lining awards, as well as Professional Photographer of the Year titles at a national level for various categories at Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.
Typical mentoring topics
We will spend some time communicating before each session so we both have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how we should approach the session. Typical mentoring topics include:
Awards evaluation and tuning – Entering awards and competitions is scary, and confronting, and exciting… and is often a really great growth experience. I can help you with approaches for narrowing down your submissions, as well as evaluating your images for technical and narrative strength. I’m also happy to talk about awards process, and how to get in to the right mindset so you can use the awards process to learn and grow.
Pre-production and planning – Some projects take time and logistic effort to put together. I can help with tools for ideation and visualisation, and suggestions for how to manage your shoot like a project. (Did I mention I’m a qualified engineer? Logistics and project management is part of my DNA.)
Lighting and studio work – How to use off-camera lighting – speedlites, strobes and continuouous lighting, modifiers like umbrellas and softboxes, grids, gels, and so on.
Storytelling and narrative – It is a challenging thing to put a complex narrative in to a still image. I can help with teaching you tools for effective communication, and how you as an artist can control the story as it unfolds for the viewer.
Post-production – How can you get the best out of your images? This could be processing of single capture images, or refinements to composite work.
Creative coaching that maintains your authenticity
Your creative path will be different to mine. I could just tell you to do things my way, or give you a checklist of things to do for success… but I respect that we all have a different vision and a different way of working. I will teach you techniques, show you approaches that I use that you can adapt, and give you an insight in to the reasons behind the decisions I make when I’m planning/shooting/editing an image. I reckon you might be making different images and saying different things, and you don’t want to just recreate my stuff. (If you do, that’s kinda creepy. Just sayin.) I want you to come away from our session with your artistic vision intact and clearer, and extra tools in your toolbox that you can apply when you think it makes sense.
Buuuut how do I know you’re the right coach for me?
That is an excellent question. Perhaps your mentor might be someone else, and that’s ok. Perhaps we might not gel, or our work might be incredibly different. Or maybe you don’t like people that tell lame jokes. (Don’t worry, mentoring sessions are dad-joke-free-zones.) If your thing is an area of photography where I’m not an expert, like astro photography, boudoir photography, or historical processes, I can use my network to connect you with an expert. If you’re after business coaching or marketing coaching, I can definitely point you at coaches that would be far more effective than me.
My job as your mentor is to do everything I can to help you learn and grow. Once we know that we are a great fit, let’s get cracking. I’ll make sure we squeeze as much value out of our sessions as we possibly can.
Before we have a mentoring session, let’s have a quick 15 minute chat on the phone, so we can learn more about each other, I can suss out your needs, and together we can work out if it’s a good fit.
Sounds good! Let’s book it.
Coaching sessions are $240 for one hour, or $160 for one half-hour. (Story Art Masterclass students, I’ll adjust for your special rate once we talk!) 15-minute introductory calls are free. If you’d like to book a session, drop me a note below and let’s set up a time to chat!
