Canberra locations for outdoor photography

Find a house on Mugga Lane with a nice front garden. On a nice sunny morning, all of you run up nicest bit of the front garden. Take the photos and you can brag to your relatives what a nice front garden you have.

as any notes, the more diffuse the light, the better the result – clouds are a perfect diffuser. the other nice light is early dawn or [easier] late dusk, with slightly side lighting rather than full frontal lighting more likely to produce a pleasing outcome.

if you have a bright sunny day, finding a uniformly shady spot for the group and maybe even use the flash.

what you also want to do is find a backdrop that doesn’t claim the viewer’s attention more than the subject. when framing the shot, scan the backdrop through the viewfinder, while momently ignoring the subjects, and make sure there are no ‘poles growing out of heads (includes tree trunks)’ or cars, etc protruding in the background nor one side/corner grossly more or less lit than the others…

good luck!

tylersmayhem said :

The road leading down to Government House is stunning, particularly around Autumn!

We had some wedding photos taken there and they look great !!!

Anywhere with trees to make a nice backdrop.

And here’s a tip: for this style of photog. where you’re wanting the faces to be at their best, do it on a cloudy day! I got that hint from the photographer at Charlotte Pass. He reckoned cloudy days let the colours come out, the faces were clear and detailed and had good colour, and people’s eyes were open. He reckoned he always sold more shots taken on cloudy days.

Recently I took some shots of my garden, to get the flowers, and on a sunny day they were washed out and wrong, but on a cloudy day they looked fantastic.

Go clouds.

there is a great fern garden tucked in around the back of the National Gallery (Carillon facing corner)- entry from Sculpture Gardens – though I haven’t been there in a while, so don’t know what access is like…

Other suggestions
-Cotter Reserve
-The gardens just in front of the Commonwealth park entry underpass from Anzac Park West
-Aspen Island (Carillon)
-“The wave” at National Gallery
-parts of Weston Park are still nice

dean said :

My apologies for being too vague Holden, my only real aim is to avoid the indoor, styled portrait with pearls and fog around the outside type of thing. I have two adults and two kids, and I just want to be able to remember this point in time – didn’t think a few trees in the background would hurt either.

No worries dean, there’s heaps of suggestions here for you in any case. Canberra does trees pretty well, but as noted the Sculpture Garden is also quite good if you want a mixture of man made and natural backdrops.

However, as la mente torbida suggests, you may want to choose a location/time of day that gives good lighting to your subjects. Overcast days are good for portraits, too, as there will be no harsh shadows.

It’s pretty hard to go past the Parliamentary Triangle for a good mix of pleasing architecture and gardens. There’s a nifty little garden just off the House of Reps entrance at Parliament House, which is generally very private, even on weekends. Just make sure you either approach the security guards explaining what you’re doing, or expect to be questioned if they see you with your camera out so close to the “action”.

If you go for a walk on the cycle path between Yarralumla Nursery & the Governer General’s house. Many locations and early morning or evening, you get great lighting.

The rock pool garden at the National Botanic Gardens is a nice setting. You might end up with some lizards in your pictures if its a warm day also.

Between the English Garden and the Royal Canberra Golf Course is one of the better areas we have found. Lots of different lighting options and backgrounds including scenes across the lake. Where the bike path goes in through the old pine trees is great for dark forest type shots.

The pinnacle nature reserve.