We were really excited to be featured on the Shoot Baby! USA website along with some of our favourite newborn images.  We’ve had their Suede Ottoman for about a year now and really love it – especially in comparison to the couch cushions that we used before we found out about it ;)

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to read it, the interview can be found below:

Name: Tristan Cameron

Business Name: Butterbomb

Location: Perth, Western Australia

Website: www.butterbomb.com.au

Blog: www.butterbomb.com.au/blog/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Butterbomb

When you started PBing: 2008

When you stopped PBing and became Pro: 2010

Camera/s: Canon 1Ds Mark III (primary) and Canon 1D Mark IV (secondary)

Lenses: Too many to list!!  I mainly use the Canon 24-70mm F/2.8, Canon 35mm f/1.4, Canon 50mm f/1.2, Canon 85mm f/1.2, and Canon 135mm f/2

Your favourite lens: A split between the Cannon 85mm f/1.2 and the Canon 135mm f/2

Flash or strobe equipment: Elinchrom BXRi 500W (x2) + a 135cm Octabox and some smaller softboxes and reflectors.

Home Studio, Studio or On-Location: I offer three types of shoots at the moment, Studio Newborn (either in my studio or at the client’s house with studio strobes), Lifestyle Newborn which is done at the client’s house with natural light, and Family/Children shoots, which are all on location with natural light (mainly outdoors).

Favourite time of the day to shoot outdoors: An hour before sunset (I’m sure I would love the hour after sunrise too, but thankfully I am usually asleep at that time!)

Favourite outdoor surroundings to shoot in: I love natural surroundings – Australian bush is best, otherwise anything that can filter light and provide nice bokeh in the background.

Favourite subject and/or age to photograph: My favourite subject would definitely be children between 2 and 4 – they are so natural and imaginative.  It’s like I get to see the world through their eyes and it makes me see how amazing their perspective is on what we adults consider the simple things.

Shoot weddings?: Only friends/family and only if they manage to convince me! I try to recommend an experienced wedding photographer, but if they insist then I will shoot their wedding with an experienced wedding photographer as second shooter.

Flash, natural light or both: Natural light for everything except studio newborn work.

Editing software you use: I use Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop for everything – Lightroom is great for organisation, digital file preparation, cropping, and exposure/white balance, but Photoshop is where I do the majority of my editing.

Do you like/use Actions or Presets: I use a very simple Lightroom preset (only one!) that simply prepares a file for Photoshop.  I love IttyBitty actions and use some of theirs for colour, but do all my own Black and Whites manually.

Computer (Mac or PC): I use a severely overpowered PC but have absolutely nothing against Macs (I do use an iPad and iPhone in my business).

Workshops you’ve been to: I have been to a JinkyArt workshop with the amazing Barb Uil and am hoping to get to at least one per year.  I think that you need to continually improve in order to give a quality product.  Being able to talk with the people who inspire you is a great way forward.

Favourite workshop: The JinkyArt workshop was beyond brilliant!

What you’ve learned the most about in the last year (photog. related): I have learnt a lot about the use of natural lighting in the last year – I still have so much I would like to learn – it’s a shame there are only 24 hours in a day!!

What you aim to improve over the coming year: I want to improve everything!  But mainly I want to improve my shoots involving large family groups (8+) – I currently struggle to inject as much creativity into these shoots.  I also want to concentrate on improving my lifestyle newborn shoots – I really love this style of shoot as I get to involve the whole family.

Where/how you’ve learnt the most about photography: I have learnt the most about photography through my own research since I was in school and through a local Perth photographic community on Flickr.  In recent times I have improved my artistic side through constant shooting of my own children – they have been sooooo patient with me!

Work timetable (work around the kids, kids in daycare x number of days, no kids, work around Uni, etc): I run Butterbomb with my wife, and we work around our two beautiful daughters Alyssa (4 years) and Alexis (2 years).  This year Alyssa is in Kindergarten two and a half days a week which gives us a bit of extra time.  Usually one of us will be working while the other is with the children.

Your strengths: My biggest strength is definitely how well I get on with people, in particularly children.  I don’t seem to have grown up at all, and am very happy spending hours pretending to be a kid.  I try to make my sessions really fun for the kids, and I think that really helps the end result.

I am also very good technically, so camera issues are never a problem.

Your weaknesses: I am colour-blind (mildly – still enough to affect things sometimes!).  Thankfully my wife is not, and she has started doing the colour correcting of all my photos.  I also talk WAY too much, so sometimes sessions take a little bit longer than anticipated.

Most valuable piece of information you can share to those starting out: Take lots of photos, take the time to work out what you like and what you don’t, develop a style that fits you, and only show people what you want to do (ie. Don’t Blog what you don’t want people to ask you for!)  Contact the people who inspire you and ask them questions – there are a lot of awesome people in this industry who are more than willing to share their knowledge with people starting out.  And join a group of like-minded people who are passionate about photography.  You will be able to learn AND teach, and both will help in the long run.