Throwing Halloween parties are a bit of a tradition of mine. Since moving out of home I have thrown five parties, and each year I am impressed with the level people go to in dressing up. I’ve never really celebrated Halloween before moving out of home (not that many people in Australia do) but for me it is always fun to get crafty with my housemates, decorating the house and then getting a little boozey. A tradition I started a few years ago also was also setting up a mini-studio at home. This year I wanted to play with a ring-flash look, and after buying a few coloured paper rolls earlier in the year I thought it was time to crack out the red.

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This year my Splendour in the Grass festival saw me mainly backstage assisting Dan Boud in the FasterLouder studio. As I knew I wouldn’t have much time to actually shoot much myself I decided to head to the festival grounds a day early so that I could have a full day shooting my own photos. I decided to undertake two projects at Splendour this year, the first being a timelapse of my whole festival experience (video to come soon) plus portraits of the punters at the festival. I spent the afternoon of the Thursday walking through the festival and campsite taking photos of interesting people I saw.

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Last week I caught up with Maggie Collins for a quick headshot/ portrait session. Maggie Collins is a weekend host on Triple J and she needed some shots to accompany her online staff profile on the Triple J website.

The shoot was SUCH a blast with Maggie keen to do pretty much anything. After 20 minutes and a costume change we wrapped with a buttload of great shots. Maggie chose these as her favourites.

Much love goes out to Carla Cosgrove for doing Maggie’s hair and make-up. Also to my helpful assistant’s Michael Battensby and Tessa Fox.

A week ago I worked with talented local musician Bec Plath on her EP Cover and press shots. I am still making the final touches on her cover but for now her press shots have been released to the world. Check them out.

Bec was an ABSOLUTE pleasure to work with. A musician who trusted my concept, using locations that had been on my ‘wishlist’ to shoot at for a while, and a truly easy and beautiful subject to shoot.

I am really excited by the EP Cover too. I will put it up here when it is all released.

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In March and April I was commissioned for the second year in a row to photograph new marketing and promotion photos for the Southbank Institute of TAFE. Over a few days I was commissioned to photograph across a few different faculties. At the moment some of these images are being used in advertising for the TAFE. Look out for them around the traps.

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In April I was invited along to Band Camp Fast Track, a four day music workshop for emerging musicians put on by the Moreton Bay Region Council.

I was asked to run 45 minute press sessions with the bands and musicians in attendance and show them the ropes of having their photos taken.  With each band I attempted a few different looks with the aim to deliver 2 – 3 photos each.

With an hour before hand to location scout this shoot had the challenge of being shot at QUT Carseldine campus, a location that proved to be not very inspiring.

Armed with 400W strobes and a bit of creativity we were able to pull 5 different looks from the grounds.

Julz de Maria

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So a few months ago I spent half a day collaborating with electronic pop-folk act My Cerulean Heart along with local fashion designer, body artists and make up and hair stylists. It was a fun shoot that saw me test out a few ideas, a handmade paper backdrop, fire and chicken wire hearts and shooting through a toy camera. Though the toy camera achieved rather off results (soft and dirty with a lot of dust) I kind of liked how it turned out. I think it suited the look that the guys were going for.

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Last month I worked with a friend on his final year QUT project. He had to style a shoot with a concept that got me excited, a movie inspired men’s fashion shoot. The three I got to photograph was the Fight Club, Anchorman and Pulp Fiction inspired shots. These will be appearing in the QUT fashion magazine Frock Paper Scissors which will be out in a month’s time.

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So most, neigh all, of you would know me as Elleni Toumpas, your local Brisbane music photographer. But what you don’t know is there are other facets to my photography love then working with musicians and attending shows. I also shoot weddings, something I resisted for a while. But once I realised that I can shoot weddings how I want to shoot weddings, come up with shots that I actually like, and work with couples that I actually enjoy working with, I have arrived at the point where I actually enjoy it. I have been battling for months over coming up with a business name for my side wedding project and at this present time still finding it hard to settle on one (but we are getting close people!) Anyway this morning I spent some time building a print folio for a potential client (until I settle on a name and therefore URL, I don’t have an online presence for these photos).

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Just after Splendour I photographed up and coming band Calais in a promo session. We tackled a couple of safe shots plus one idea I wanted to try using fluoros that the band now want to use for branding. All the boys are still in high-school and are currently regularly gigging. Check them out.

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