Bundeena were it all starts and ends for the Royal National Park in Sydney. I have been here a number of times to shoot swim wear and not to mention my cosins wedding. That was actually the first time I visited Bundeena beach.....the second time was to do a ediorial for a UK magazine and the third time was for my swim book "Surface to Soul" 

This was a interesting shoot as I didn't want to shoot it as just another culture editorial for LaMode, but to bring something different to the table this time. Since I have shot here a few times before I wanted to try and see things in a way that it was fresh to me and thinks looked and felt differently this time around. So I decided to try and stay away from  shooting people .......to a certin degree, and shoot in a less documentry feel and shoot in more of a art frame of mind. But I think that came out more in the second part of "Going South" which you will get to see in a couple of weeks . 

Anyway photography is a point of view and my point of view when I was shooting "Going South" was to shoot it all in black and white,well almost all of it . I ended up shooting part two of "Going South" in colour and black and white which sort of made sense as the sun was going down and it created a mood in the shots I was shooting to be more dramatic and moody. But you will have to wait two weeks to see that ediorial as I have a amazing story called "Silver Sonic" lined up to show you. Till then I am "Going South"

We live in a idealistic world don't we. Super photoshopped images everywhere we look. From magazines, to on the side of a bus and not to forget bill boards. Everything is done with precision right done to picking the right location, casting, lighting and not to forget how much photoshop is done on the talent. Be it a model or REAL person.

So this brings me to this editorial "Keep it Real" ......the two amazing girls that you see here are bloggers from Sydney and they aren't with a agency or get paid to shoot. They blog with clothes from some of the leading designers around Australia.......Not to sure why they do it. I think for the enjoyment and because they like fashion just like myself.

And you ask me why am I shooting fashion bloggers......the answer to that is. That I always like to shoot people who are slightly dis-connected to the industry in a way that I don't have to worry about contacting agency's or a make-up artist or a stylist to pull clothes all I have to do is show up at a location and shoot. And I also get to play with some new techniques that I may have floating around in my head that I would like to try out. As you can see I shoot with natural light and keep it simple, something I like to do anyway. 

The two bloggers are Georgina and Gaberiella, both blonde and both have a massive love for the fashion industry which is why I like working with them. But most importantly I like helping people when I can and on this occasion what we came up with were pretty striking images not to mention eye catching. Check out the shots below and don't forget to click on the titles to check out there blog's.

In this day and age it is so easy to connect and stay in touch with someone. Not just on a personal level but on a professional level as well with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all at your disposal, meeting and working with all sorts of people is so easy. 

Thats how I met the amazing Valentina who I have just happen to work with 5 times over the last 10 months (including this shoot) on fashion jobs and editorials of the like. She has just come back from 3 months in Seoul and is off again to Beijing in about a week for 2 months then to Milan for a stint. So don't be surprised if you see her face in a magazine or on a bill board in the not to distant future........as this girl is heading for big things. 

So when I had this opportunity to work with her again for LaMode I jumped at the chance, as I knew we could make some amazing pictures together. It was just a matter of coming up with a strong concept and some clothes to match. Thats were the very very talented designer Nicola Finetti came into play. I was very lucky to be able to borrow from his new Spring/Summer clothes for the shoot and as you can see from the editorial below they fitted into the concept like a key into a lock.

The concept for this editorial was too shoot something very bold but yet still striking and sexy. Thats were Tracy my make-up artist came into play. With the brief of exactly that bold and sexy, the make-up was right on the mark. 

It's funny how you start with a idea and then it steams from there and sometimes you end up with something slightly different. Well my first thoughts were to shoot most of the editorial around my friend's/stylist pool, then when we arrived on the scene there was only really enough space to shoot two shots of the planned 5 shots, thats when I decide to move around the apartment block and shoot in some different area's that I weren't going to use. So the moral of this story is that working on location it's about creating a story rather than shooting a story if you were in the studio, so to speak.

A big thanks to my friend Erin Carroll for letting me use her apartment and pool. And not to mention styling the story for me as well.

Good luck with Beijing Valentina......you will kill it.

Photographer/Geoffrey Chuah@www.gcphotography.net
All clothes by Nicola Finetti
Stylist/Erin Carroll
Make-up and Hair/Tracy Terashima
Model/Valentina@Ava Management

I love the fact that some parts of Sydney still stay the same and never change. Thats what my thoughts were when I was walking around Marrickville shooting my culture story for LaMode.

Most of the shops that I walked past and took photo's of, were old and didn't seem to be very well kept. But what they did have was lots of character to them which made it close to impossible not to take pictures of them. 

Even though there was still a few modern buildings around, Marrickville is still unique it's own way. The people that live in the area are so use to living a certain way that they don't want to change to how modern society should expect them to be e.g how they present there shop fronts, how they dress and go about there day to day business is something that I don't think will change anytime soon. Although there is a new apartment building that is on it's way up and should be finished in about 10 months according to the builder I spoke to, I don't think Marrickville will not change anytime soon


After spending the afternoon walking around the area, Marrickville reminded me of North Williamsburge in Brooklyn, New York....... run down but still with lots of character to it. I always try and capture a certain side of my subject/s when I shoot culture editorials, and I think I have done that here. With a splash of colour to the black and white images that I have shot here, it has shown a different side to my photo journalism skills on LaMode. My love for photography isn't just for fashion, swim and people but anything that I find interesting OR anything that people don't find interesting and I can make a interesting editorial or picture from it.


So to finish off....... if you ever want to take a trip back in time, and you happen to be in Sydney. Jump on a train and go to Marrickville......you won't regret taking "A Trip Back In Time"