50 AUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY + DIGITAL JULY 2015
get an introduction into photography. Armed with her camera,
and with her baby daughter in the pram, she would head out
to practice her skills. “Photographing f lowers was perfect for
learning how to focus, understanding depth-of-field, composition
and lighting,” she says.
The advice she gleaned from one of the first books on
photography she read, by Steve Parish, was signifcant. It advocated
focusing on one area or genre of the craft before moving on to
the next. After focusing brief ly on weddings and portraiture,
six years ago Brown made a decision to concentrate solely on
photographing newborns. “I had a young family and my husband
was working out of town and he was only home every second
weekend,” Brown recalls. “Making the decision to specialise in
newborns meant that I could work during the week while my
children were in school, and I had my weekends free.” Her love ofEXPERT ADVICE Shooting newborns
“Armed with her camera, and with
her baby daughter in the pram, she
would head out to practice her skills.”
The kit
Brown shoots on a Canon 5D Mk III, with a 24-70mm f/2.8 Mk
II lens. “The lens is so incredibly versatile, it’s practically on
my camera full-time,” she says. “It’s not only great for close
ups, but wide angles as well when I'm shooting large props
from above.” She uses a SHOOT BABY! posing bag and
Wacom Intuous Pro medium pen tablet, which she operates
during post-production retouching. Colour management,
and making sure that her images accurately reflect what she
captures, are also paramount. To that end she relies on an
EIZO ColorEdge CG247 24in self-calibrating monitor. Any time
she requires supplementary lighting, she uses a Jinbei EF
200-watt Sun Light LED and Jinbei 50cm soft ball diffuser.